TGI (Gogglebox) Friday

The critical self-care that is lowbrow & reality TV

(Note- for previous Jess Butcher subscribers - this is my new blog ‘home’)

Happy Friday, Antidoters!  

Friday nights are not so rock and roll these days. Whilst once there may have been an overpriced wine bar, there is now Under-8s football training and a tooth-brushing battle followed by one of my favourite sorry-not-sorry pleasures: a curl up with my husband in front of Gogglebox (and much cheaper wine).   

Don’t worry, I will be showcasing higher-brow Antidoter creators, thinkers and commentators in due course, but this week’s nomination is the Gogglebox TV production team.

Source: Channel 4

First let me make the case for crap TV generally.  There’s so much pressure now to optimise productivity -  read more, exercise more, learn more, hustle more, do MORE.  For anyone that works hard all week, crap TV can be a real pleasure and should not be a guilty one.  The opportunity to switch off and let something mindless wash over you is *absolutely fine*. So whatever your poison, let yourself off the hook (unless it’s ‘Love Island’. Disclaimer- I’ve never watched it so feel free to bitterly defend it in the comments- but whilst you’re at it, can you explain why everyone on it looks like a Kardashian filter? Side note: apparently plastic surgeons aren’t given pictures of celebrities as inspiration anymore, but of the clients themselves with a facetune filter 😱).  

Plus, TV is getting less and less crap, let’s be honest.  There are so many intelligent, complicated and provocative streaming series now.  Well-told stories, when watched by a high percentage of the population, have the power to potentially jolt the national psyche into new ways of thinking.  The huge political and social impact made by the recent UK Post Office dramatisation is a case in point.   It’s also why there is often such a furore about politicians and controversial figures entering the ‘I’m a Celeb’ jungle - a huge risk that they might humanise themselves or display any likeable qualities and undermine the pantomime villain image their detractors work so hard to paint.   

Secondly, the case for Gogglebox specifically:  Apparently there are a lot of TV snobs when the subject of Gogglbox comes up.  Why the hell would anyone sit on their couch watching people they don’t know sitting on theirs, watching shit TV?  Because it’s brilliant.  True chicken soup for the soul. 

Not only have the production team selected some of the most hilarious people to feature but the way they cut from one scene to the next, leaving you hanging on the most brutal, cutting or hilarious comment is pure editing genius.  Often the giggles get me a good 5 or 6 seconds after the cut - no canned laughter for guidance - just dry, brilliant editing made to seem like a private joke with the audience.  And it’s kind. The laugh is never at the expense of the featured viewer - always ‘with’ them (or at least with their equally-amused/ shocked couch companion).   

The spontaneous observations, commentary and tears feel genuine (despite the huge cameras in their front room), and it comes thick and fast alongside the context on what they’re watching, which also serves as a great ‘watch next’ list.  

But perhaps most importantly: in an age when fewer and fewer people mix outside of their life-stage, professional or social class circles, you get a glimpse into the front rooms, perspectives and opinions of people from all demographics and corners of modern Britain: caravan parks and council estates to middle-class suburbia.  And whilst politics is rarely discussed, there’s little doubt that the participants probably span Labour-supporters, Tory, Brexit, Remain and the full range of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ opinions.  What is undeniable is that these are likeable, interesting, high EQ people and in a world where everyone seems so quick to judge each other for wrong-speak/ think, there’s a real lesson in showcasing that. Stereotyping be damned.    

And don’t even get me started on ‘Traitors’.  I’m a series late to it (in what seems like a metaphor for my life) and have obsessively binged the first.  Wow.  I can only describe it as a modern day ‘Lord of the Flies’, almost Shakesperean in its brutal exploration of human psychology.  My husband and I frequently pause it for a debate on the double-bluffing strategies or to conjecture on what will happen next or what we would have done in each curve-ball scenario.  (Plus I now have such a serious lady-crush on Claudia Winkelman that I Amazonned the most impractical fingerless gloves during one episode).  

I actually wonder if there should be ‘Crap TV Clubs’ akin to book clubs in this modern age or maybe that’s the final nail in our dumbed-down culture coffin?  (I’m in if you are).  But yes, please also read books. Lots of them.  

To think about:  

What characters, dramas or stories have impacted your worldview and made you think differently about something or someone you thought you understood?  Please share recommendations below.  

To read/ watch: 

If that was too low-brow for you - here are some more Antidoters that have stoked my curiosity this week: 

• To watch:  Manoush Zomorodi’s Ted talk How Boredom can lead to your most brilliant ideas 

• To read:  Konstantin Kisin - ‘Why did no one say anything?’ 

• To listen to: Modern Wisdom Podcast: Chris Williamson - Louise Perry ‘Are women actually happy with modern dating’ (youtube, spotify, apple) 

What’s stoked your curiosity?

And if you enjoyed this, please share!