As I finished off the last of the Christmas eggnog and collected about two tons of cracker wrappings from the dining room floor I realized it was time to sum up the waning year as far as the British telly fan, here in North America, is concerned. Much to my disappointment the final marks for the year are mixed at best. If not for a small but choice selection of DVD releases the entire year would have been close to a write off.
BBC America has gone from being my number one telly destination to the middle of the pack. Apparently the programmers looked at British programming success on local PBS stations over the years and determined American audiences just love reruns.Granted I grew up with PBS outlets that aired the same handful of series over and over again but those were the days when we telly fans were desperate for any transatlantic entertainment and when a stations half hour a night of Fawtly Towers or Are You Being Served? was all you had until the next hour long dose of Masterpiece Theater or Mystery came along. Things got better thanks to cable networks such as Bravo, A&E and Comedy Central but generally fans were still grateful for each and every crumb that was thrown their way - even if it was The Kenny Everett Video Hour, Ruby Wax or Brush Strokes. With BBC America, though, I expected more than the same series that had already been played to death on PBS and cable and I expected more and fresher episodes of the series they did air. A quick peek at any random schedule will confirm that the same old shows keep popping up and even long running favorites like Are You Being Served? are represented by the same handful of episodes played over and over again. At least my old PBS station showed the entire run in order - plus the feature film and numerous visits from cast members and the sequel series.
Despite the fact that I'm watching less BBC America many of my favorite programs still live there. However, you can only watch the same episode of Ground Force, Monty Python or Jonathan Creek so many times. During the last few months there have been precious few breaks from re-runs but when they've come they've been generally good.
My faves and disappointments of 2001
Coupling :
While the newer episodes lack some of the spark of the first season
this is still one of the funniest shows on telly anywhere and
it puts 99% of the network's offerings to shame.
Brilliant!:
Like Saturday Night Live the Brilliant! lads (Paul Whitehouse
