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TV Doesn't Always Have To Be Shit..!
Feb. 5th, 2009 11:21 pmIn the week since the weekend of great fun and drunkenness, ending with the vodka fuelled Superbowl party which went on till 6AM the following morning, it's been a midweek of documentaries and it's been a rather mixed bag as it happens.
There was 'The World's Most Enhanced Woman and Me' on Wednesday night -
http://www.channel4.com/video/the-worlds-and-me/catchup.html
which apart from demonstrating to the world how much of a gem Louis Theroux is to documentary makers, was an average programme that could have been so, so much better.
The two main girls featured in the programme were shown to have major doubts about continuing to lug around gigantic busoms for too much longer. Yet they were both driven onwards by the men in their lives. The Korean lady known as Minca, was into her fifties and her husband (a squat man with an angry outward persona) wanted her to go on for another decade, she wanted 2 or 3 years at most.
Sadly, we weren't allowed to go too deep as presenter Mark Dolan made his opinions glaringly evident resulting in the husband getting annoyed and doing little but sneer at the camera. Thus we lost a hell of a lot of insight which Theroux coaxes out of his subjects by staying neutral; even with the most outlandish, offensive or disgusting people. He really needs to run masterclasses in his art.
The saddest case though was the Brazilian going for the world record breast size (she had 4 plastic surgery operations ALONG WITH the breasts in one go!) Her family were not at her bedside supporting her, only her personal photographer and Dolan. She thought that her boobs were the most attractive asset, Dolan could have asked what she thought her second most attractive property is, she'd really struggle to answer.
The whole episode made my mind wander back to the documentary on Lolo Ferrari after her tragically early death. The self loathing, the pushy agent, the buzz that publicity gave the protaganist. The Brazilian lady is a car crash already happening.
An entirely different look at the sex industry came in the form of Cutting Edge:Killer in a Small Town on Thursday -
http://www.channel4.com/video/brandless-catchup.jsp?vodBrand=killer-in-a-small-town
for any people unaware of the story behind it, it was a look at the investigation of a serial killer who despatched a sixth (5 out of 30) of the prostitutes in the English town of Ipswich in Suffolk in December 2006.
It was full of heartwrenching testimony from all the victims' family and friends. The documentary showed how easily we as a society can be uncaring and try and ignore the problem (the look on the sister who gave her now dead drug addict sister a fake number and address the final time she saw her in the street) was evidence of a lifelong sentence of guilt she has given herself.
It also screams out for the legalisation of brothels, so that prostitution can become 'clean' and undoubtedly safer. There could be drug treatment, STI tests and security on the premises to protect them so men cannot any longer pick up sex workers in any city centre and murder them with ease.
There was also Backstairs Billy on Monday night -
http://www.channel4.com/video/brandless-catchup.jsp?vodBrand=backstairs-billy-the-queen-mums-butler
Monarchy is something that really doesn't interest me but this had it moments. It was the story of a lad who asked the Queen for a job at Buckingham Palace and got just that!
After such a lowly start, he rose to become the Queen Mother's most trusted ally and was then cruelly dumped after her death. Sad but I think the Ipswich prostitute investigation put into perspective exactly who has had a really tough life...
There was 'The World's Most Enhanced Woman and Me' on Wednesday night -
http://www.channel4.com/video/the-worlds-and-me/catchup.html
which apart from demonstrating to the world how much of a gem Louis Theroux is to documentary makers, was an average programme that could have been so, so much better.
The two main girls featured in the programme were shown to have major doubts about continuing to lug around gigantic busoms for too much longer. Yet they were both driven onwards by the men in their lives. The Korean lady known as Minca, was into her fifties and her husband (a squat man with an angry outward persona) wanted her to go on for another decade, she wanted 2 or 3 years at most.
Sadly, we weren't allowed to go too deep as presenter Mark Dolan made his opinions glaringly evident resulting in the husband getting annoyed and doing little but sneer at the camera. Thus we lost a hell of a lot of insight which Theroux coaxes out of his subjects by staying neutral; even with the most outlandish, offensive or disgusting people. He really needs to run masterclasses in his art.
The saddest case though was the Brazilian going for the world record breast size (she had 4 plastic surgery operations ALONG WITH the breasts in one go!) Her family were not at her bedside supporting her, only her personal photographer and Dolan. She thought that her boobs were the most attractive asset, Dolan could have asked what she thought her second most attractive property is, she'd really struggle to answer.
The whole episode made my mind wander back to the documentary on Lolo Ferrari after her tragically early death. The self loathing, the pushy agent, the buzz that publicity gave the protaganist. The Brazilian lady is a car crash already happening.
An entirely different look at the sex industry came in the form of Cutting Edge:Killer in a Small Town on Thursday -
http://www.channel4.com/video/brandless-catchup.jsp?vodBrand=killer-in-a-small-town
for any people unaware of the story behind it, it was a look at the investigation of a serial killer who despatched a sixth (5 out of 30) of the prostitutes in the English town of Ipswich in Suffolk in December 2006.
It was full of heartwrenching testimony from all the victims' family and friends. The documentary showed how easily we as a society can be uncaring and try and ignore the problem (the look on the sister who gave her now dead drug addict sister a fake number and address the final time she saw her in the street) was evidence of a lifelong sentence of guilt she has given herself.
It also screams out for the legalisation of brothels, so that prostitution can become 'clean' and undoubtedly safer. There could be drug treatment, STI tests and security on the premises to protect them so men cannot any longer pick up sex workers in any city centre and murder them with ease.
There was also Backstairs Billy on Monday night -
http://www.channel4.com/video/brandless-catchup.jsp?vodBrand=backstairs-billy-the-queen-mums-butler
Monarchy is something that really doesn't interest me but this had it moments. It was the story of a lad who asked the Queen for a job at Buckingham Palace and got just that!
After such a lowly start, he rose to become the Queen Mother's most trusted ally and was then cruelly dumped after her death. Sad but I think the Ipswich prostitute investigation put into perspective exactly who has had a really tough life...
