Taking Sides: Midsomer Murders vs 24

except instead of being carpet slippers its like wearing chris brasher mountain boots to go to the goddam laundromat.

the problem with 24 is that it lacks a certain guile that can only be arrived at by adopting a more, shall we say, "indie" perspective.

I watched the first Spooks and was so appalled by acting and script that I was actively discouraging other people from watching it. Then saw that the Guardian Guide was saying how great it was, WEEK AFTER WEEK, so watched one that it had singled out for a lengthy review and it was still utter SHITE. I spotted them saying Will & Grace is "funny". = I have lost all faith in guardian Guide reviews.

Yes, Spooks - not exactly up to the standard of "that cat trapped on the island with the balloons" is it?

As for Six Feet Under - potentially interesting, but in practice the usual familial dysfunctional cliches with different clothes on.

so even though midsomer is itv, still indie because fundamentally it doesn't give a fuck - it's the difference between belle & sebastian and the cooper temple clause.

have you ever read the morse books? jesus wept, they're worse than the tv. tend to read in the vein of:

morse instinctively knew that an intransitive verb had been improperly used in the dative rather than the ablative case, given the absence of a subject.

oh yes.

he did.

and there was grief he felt too, as not three miles beyond, halfway up cumnor hill, professor napoleon k jobdocket - an all souls fellow, needless to say - had met a most untimely end following a not entirely necessary debate with the sharp end of a pair of specially sharpened pinking shears.

and he was now pink behind the ears.

oh yes.

Baltimore not as violent as Midsomer says Mayor.

or not. check the correction. someone should ban the guardian from writing about the wire and twitter before they embarrass themselves any more.

the thing is, the graun has embarrassed itself by wanting to believe that a politician came out with something genuinely witty! there's something really sweet about that.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediamonkeyblog/2009/aug/28/wire-television

I am so disappointed, I really thought that just maybe Midsomer had crossed over to Atlantic. I was really enjoying the idea of the Mayor of Baltimore sitting in her office watching Nettles tackle yet another gruesome multi-murder and calling to her aides "At least we don't live in Causton".

Watching an early version of Midsomer Murders at the moment and CI Barnaby's sidekick just used the phrase "bum bandits", I almost spat out my tea.

...episode not version...

In Caroline Graham's books (on which the TV series was based), Troy was a married homophobe who cheats on his wife.

This was actually the pilot episode replete with gory, violent murders, a suicide, an incestuous brother/ sister relationship and hints of an incestuous mother/ son relationship, in case one incestuous relationship wasn't enough. Plus "bum bandits".

So, a documentary.