I opened it up in the week to find an alert to an amazing seven new shows. Now whilst my radio favourites list has around sixty items, my tv listing is significantly less – so to have seven new shows is quite something!
Slightly gutted, then, to discover they were all repeats – now I appreciate that the I-player remembers shows I had listed from one series to the next, mostly because I watch so little television I tend to miss announcements of new upcoming episodes, but could it maybe list them separately, perhaps as a “Hey, you’ve watched this, but maybe want to see it again” list. Especially since most of them were programmes of which I’d happily watch new episodes yet have no intention of watching repeats.
On the subject of repeats: Miss-middle came running downstairs a few days ago shouting about the fact Rhod Gilbert’s Work Experience was being repeated on the I-player. I had noticed that myself, but she continued with “but it’s only the butler episode, not one with him being sexy or anything”
I disagreed…. there is nothing sexier than a man who knows how to treat a bottle of wine properly! But I kind of got her point… and that is not really a conversation I was about to get into with a fifteen year old!
But the thing is this… thinking about this most recent series, whilst I do not complain at the opportunity to re-watch Rhod getting his kit off to be pierced and tattooed (because I only watched that episode 3 or 4 times last time round!) or fulfilling my generic fireman fantasies (as we all pause for a moment or two), I would much rather have the chance to revisit the first series, especially since I only saw those episodes once. Let’s hope they are shown at some point!
And this is the way with so many things. I harbour a general dislike for those people who complain incessantly for the sake of it about television repeats, because there is much that does bear repeating, but it seems very much the trend right now to hammer an entire series into the ground, repeating constantly until even the die-hard fans are tired of it.
I watched the first series of Him and Her. Now the show itself I found ok; it had some funny moments, some good running jokes, realistic characters etc. I watched each episode as it aired (and that is a big deal, because to be honest, most of my television viewing is done online) but then hub got into the habit of watching a repeat later in the week; at which time I would invariably be around so would end up watching it twice. Not a huge problem, as it was an enjoyable enough programme, but once the series ended, every episode sat on the I-player list for weeks after to the point where I found myself lured into watching a couple again in lieu of the existence of anything else worth seeing.
I now find myself, as a new series looms and the old episodes reappear feeling quite ambivalent towards to show as a whole, wondering if was really as good as I remember or was I caught in a riptide I just could not drag myself out of.
In an ideal world, I think that once the first episode of a new series is aired, it would be good for the back-catalogue of that show to appear for new viewers to have the chance to catch up but that the new episodes should remain on the short-term. I guess the argument against that is the huge amount of server space required; but the channel four player seems to manage it okay, showing many shows from the very first episode. There must be a happy medium, though - something midway between the library-esque 4od and the somewhat restrictive I-player.
Either way, I’m thinking a little too much about stuff that doesn’t really matter. Time to get the day started properly; so I’ll be doing something more constructive once I’ve had a little more coffee!
Oh yeah - in other news - did I mention? I'm going to Swansea in a few days! (that one's for my kids, as I know they love the fact I keep reminding them!)
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