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How I Will Save The X Factor

MoneyGrab

This was the week that Simon Cowell announced to the nation that the X Factor was all about who could sing Ghostbusters the most off-key.

Which would have been fine if he’d said that from the beginning.

“X Factor Is Dead”, shout the newspapers! “Fields of Piss” says Sting! The public marches on the X Factor studio, maiming and pillaging and setting presenters alight! Sickening and wrong, but certainly a step up from “dull”.

So here’s the thing, Si. *I care*. I believe in your tawdry, soiled, human-battery-hen franchise machine and what it can still do for the world. I think the magic can return emerge at long last. I think you can make dreams come true.

And so, in the style of Joss Whedon, I’d like to stump up an offer of

$10,000!

which converts neatly to

£6,029.50!

for the whole X Factor franchise.

I’m not just saying this. I’ve even got the 50p right here in my hand this very second.

So here are my suggestions for livening the whole thing up until it’s worth watching.

  • For every ten acts they judge, the panel has to perform a number themselves, and if the public hate them, they’re voted off the show. (Lookin’ forward to yours, Si. Ohhh yes).
  • Whose Strictly Come X Factor Is It Calling My Bluff Quite Interestingly Anyway? Talent, wit and improvisation. What’s not to love?
  • Everyone sings after sucking helium. I’m barely in control of my sphincter just thinking about this.

And your suggestions are…?

Image: Steve Wampler

Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse”: Why Bother?

dollhouse

Mr Brooker, I sympathise.

But you’re wrong.

(Kinda).

The first 5 episodes are a worrying experience. Your expectations are high – because this is Joss Whedon of “Firefly”, which showed that Mr. Whedon could make TV history in just 14 episodes (New Scientist’s “World’s Best Space Scifi Ever”; inspiration for the name of Google’s next-gen application, Wave; and snowballing quietly onwards).

But after 5 episodes, “Dollhouse” is…erm.

It’s interesting, it’s quirky, it’s morally unsettling, the performances are good, but…

Stick with it.

At episode 6, it gels. It comes together with a bone-jarring *click*, throwing your brain across the room, and you start to see what the story is, and as importantly, what it isn’t.

It’s not Quantum Leap. It’s not Sports Illustrated With Guns. It’s a lovely, nasty little fable about what happens when we think we can separate mind and body using technology. It’s bleak, challenging, adult and far more complicated that it initially pretends to be (which is one of its early faults). And it’s anything but formulaic, as the unaired, DVD-only episode “Epitaph One” illustrates – depicting the end of the line, the culmination of the whole arc, a massive flash-forward to a modern world in pieces. This story overwhelmingly has a direction, and it’s not a happy one.

But early on, this show is tatty. It fluffs the all-important First Impressions part of winning itself an audience. I don’t know if this is because of newbie writers on the team, or Fox’s influence (yes, it’s on Fox – an added frission of fear for the fans), or just Mr Whedon struggling to feel the material. But then it starts coming together, and you realise you’re leaning forward in your chair, anticipating watching it again. It becomes something worthy of the great man’s back-catalogue. It becomes unique.

We have at least one more season.

Consider me a fan.

“‘Dollhouse’ DVD released today: Is it worth your time and money?” – Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly.
“Dollhouse: sci-fi series finally hits its stride” - Lucy Mangan, The Guardian.
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