Surviving in the Mainstrrrm

A prologue / preview / preamble / preliminary post pre-empting a progressive persuasion, picking apart the preconceptions of popular culture, performance and post-Howard arts funding.

Part Zero: Survivor Season Twenty: Heroes vs Villains

I’m no friend to ‘reality’ TV but this has become one of my favourite shows of recent times. It’s pure-grilled American cheese, true; and after ten years and nineteen seasons you have to hand it to the folks behind this for keeping it real. Rarely have you seen characters of this complexity outside HBO; and for that, each self-contained series provides its own fascinating insight into the human condition.

The Wire: Not The Greatest TV Show Ever

After five seasons, there are countless articles, blogs and interviews where the writer cites the almost universal consensus that it is “the greatest TV show ever made”. It’s usually put in quotation marks, although no-one ever references who actually said it first.