Muzman on 21/2/2008 at 22:13
I discovered this gem via the credits of an episode of QI that I torrented (yeah, I'm very bad. But none of the good stuff is ever on here so what am I supposed to do? And it's the BBC; they have their own friggin tax, in effect, they'll be fine.)
Basically it's a weird sort of educational/comedy/critic show in which angry man Charlie Brooker (a man with a face like bag of dented bell ends, so he says. I don't know what this means) and his long suffering team disect Television past, present and future to hilarious and often enlightening effect. Sometimes it even has as much to do with porn as the title suggests, but not often.
There's plenty of sneering amusement to be had from comedy shows with segments about bad and stupid TV (which I love to bits, don't get me wrong) and this show does quite a bit of that with many bits featuring Brooker sitting at home razzing some crap he's watching. But they go one step further, digging in to behind-the-scenes trends in broadcast technology, editing technique, budgets, advertising, marketing directives, show formats, industry jobs etc, generally doing their best to out the whole charade. Sure most people "know" reality TV and competition shows are selectively edited, manipulative excercises in fakery. But these guys even go to the bother of making their own versions to illustrate the point and find the process rather soul shredding even for dedicated cynics such as themselves, never mind the contestants.
This is a show about my sort of 'cookery' so what interest it holds for thine I know not. There ought to be enough piss taking for the rest of you though. One episode in particular contains probably the best "Go Away" ever committed to video. There's not nearly enough episodes been made of it. I give it high recommendation.
I don't know if it's doing the rounds on torrents or VoD or whatever, but for a quick youtube taste this is the man to see
(
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=xthemusic)
(the three episode 'pilot series' is around there somewhere as well)
D'Juhn Keep on 21/2/2008 at 22:34
Unfortunately it was screened on BBC4 here in the UK thus becoming one of those shows that I've always wanted to watch but never quite gotten around to it. I've always liked Charlie Brooker's output, starting from when I read him in games mag PCZone a good few years back. It's nice that he's doing well!
AxTng1 on 22/2/2008 at 00:14
Yeah, he made PC Zone good. I think he is also the man behind Nathan Barley, which I hated but anyway...
Screenwipe is excellent, and fans of Zero Punctuation may note a similarity in their styles (articulate misanthopy)
bellend = funny UK word for the head of an uncircumcised peen.
jtr7 on 22/2/2008 at 00:28
"Bell-end"?
Dooonng! Dooonng! Dooonng!
I hope the shaft isn't called a "clapper".:o
sp4f on 22/2/2008 at 10:20
Screenwipes is fantastically brutal and gives Charlie Brooker a well deserved pulpit for him to hurl bile at everything wrong with the media and world. He seems to have been getting more enraged with each new series and it makes for compulsive watching. You can find some episodes floating around on torrent and also most of the series are linked on alluc (google it!) in the tv shows section ;).
Still waiting for that new series he's supposed to be working on with chris morris, word is it involves a group of would be suicide bombers as central characters...
