AL Kennedy starts her latest column in The Guardian off with the heart-sinking words "OK, so you're tired, in a hotel room and watching [...] a repeat".
There probably is a great article about how American TV, and it's cop shows in particular, present an image of how Americans want to be seen. Kennedy's isn't it. For a start it says "the modern shows sell "ripped from the headlines" realism, technical research, contemporary resonance" but makes no mention of The Shield which seems to fit that description as well as any other show but, as it shows the corrupt side, doesn't fit in with Kennedy's initial idea. Of course, she was just stuck in a hotel room with Kiefer Sutherland's 24 for company, a sketchy memory of some other TV she might have seen and, well, possibly a deadline looming so her research was not meant to be exhaustive. Or, you know, get in the way of a point -- assuming there was one originally.
I dunno... After another cursory glance at the article, and with a slight awareness of current events, I think Kennedy is blaming actors in cop-shows for Guantanamo Bay. Or, perhaps, that "ripped from the headlines" cop shows have responsibility to apologise for American policy. Sometimes escapist tosh is just escapist tosh no matter if it uses handheld cameras to give it a documentary feel or not.
Next time, I'm hoping she "accidentally" gets some pay-per-view porn. I'm guessing Ron Jeremy will be blamed for Third World Debt.
No comments:
Post a Comment