2 posts tagged “tv”
This week I have officially been ill. I don't like being ill. I know that sounds ridiculous, nobody likes being ill or enjoys drinking seemingly endless cups of Lemsip, but I am a really bad ill person. I usually use all twenty four hours of my day, well, not literally but I'm a busy bee and being ill puts everything on hold. I inevitably end up lying around thinking of 101 things I should be doing and making lists of things to catch up on.
This week I have used that ill time to catch up on a lot of (trash) TV. I like a lot of TV shows and my sky + box is packed with shows (more often than not on series link) which I am yet to watch. On top of that, there are countless programmes that I can view on iplayer/4od/itvplayer. The major problem I have discovered with this is that I am now addicted to more shows than I was before!
On my regular schedule are Gossip Girl, The Hills, The Inbetweeners, Hollyoaks, Mock the Week and Jonathan Ross. Yep see – trash tv! However, online I am also guilty of watching Eastenders, Live at the Apollo, Flight of the Conchords and David Letterman. Whilst being ill, I have updated my knowledge of Katie Price and Peter Andre's break up. Yep, that's right, I have been watching Katie and Peter Stateside!
It truly is an awful show. It's like a car crash except pinker, fluffier and with far more expletives. I had seen the show a couple of times before the break up was announced and couldn't believe how they spoke to each other, but I guess the rest is history! They are constantly insulting each other, saying hurtful things and lashing out. Maybe I have a romanticised view of how relationships should be, but theirs seems pretty extreme.
Anyway, this week I watched an episode when they had an argument about rhetorical questions. Obviously Katie doesn't know what a 'rhetorical question' is, Peter Andre accuses her of being a "thicko" and it's hard to disagree. However, this is undoubtedly a case of the blind leading the blind. In a bid to convince Katie that Peter isn't making up this word or it's meaning up he reaches for his laptop and the online dictionary, but this is where it all goes wrong for the hunky Cypriot.
I can't remember the exact details (and youtube only offers a blurred video, I cannot bear to watch the whole episode again), but I think he initially spells it 'retorical' which isn't the worst attempt at spelling I've ever seen. He then tries 'ritorical' to little success. Google eventually takes pity on him and offers a lifeline 'Did you mean rhetorical?'
Katie is forced to concede that Andre isn't making it up anymore but still fails to grasp the meaning of the word.
Jordan: "Is 'Peter massage my feet' a rito-ri-dal question?"
Peter: R-E-T-O-R-I-C-A-L and no, thats a command.
Jordan: The sky is blue, is that one?
It goes on and on in the same nature and she never gets it. She eventually gives up. And this woman has a range of books? I give up...
You might already be aware of 11 year old Sasha Bennington from Burnley which sadly means that her Mother Jayne Bennington has already won half the battle. Maybe if you don't recognise the name you'll have heard about Sasha who at 11 years old already bleaches her hair, has nail extensions and dresses up in tacky grown up dresses. In America, I believe this is a worryingly common trend but here in the UK it is relatively unheard of (or at least I hope so?) Sasha has been shaped by her Mother to appear in beauty pageants.
A documentary shown on BBC follows the Bennington family in their quest to make Sasha famous. We live in a nation where for some reason it's acceptable to be famous for absolutely no reason. Jordan is obviously the Queen of this and I cannot stand it when people defend her and say, "she's a business woman". Nope. Shes a woman but she has a very, very clever PR and marketing team behind her. They are probably business women. Jordan is just a face and essentially this is what Sasha is quickly becoming.
Sasha doesn't want to be famous for anything credible. Hell, she doesn't even want to be famous for having a pop career! She goes to school to show off the latest lip gloss (her Mother thinks this is acceptable) and she spends her time practicing her cheerleading. At this point I remind you that she is 11.
When watching the documentary last night I was so appalled that I commented that I thought this child should be taken in to care. I actually think that what Jayne is doing to her child is child cruelty. Sasha didn't even seem like she wanted to model, cheerlead or bleach her hair. She seemed like she wanted to play with toys, mess around with hair mascara and dance around her bedroom to Girls Aloud. Weird, huh?
I have since discovered that this family have also been on Wife Swap. I suspect that Jayne is so desperate to be famous that she is prepared to risk the mental wellbeing of her daughter to achieve it. Children should be children. They should watch Disney movies and dream of being a Disney Princess. They should dance around and not even know what it means to look fat.
At one point in the documentary, Sasha wants to read Lorraine Kelly's column in The Sun. Her parents actually discourage her from reading as though that is the most ridiculous idea she ever had. The worst thing? Sasha actually seems like quite a sweet little girl but her parents are dead set on turning her in to a bitch. Can social services intervene now?
