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Shadow World (2016)
Waste of time
I started watching this, but gave up after twenty minutes after having lost belief something interesting was still being kept from me.
Going back to the initial promise, it claims to be a) a documentary, and b) to give an insight into international arms trade. But it does neither.
A documentary gives you facts. Laid out in a sequential or chronological order, so one can form its own opinion on the data being presented. Alas, that's not happening here. On arms trade, you get little or no info. Instead, you get a rather idiosyncratic collection of news snippets and interviews with self-declared investigative journalists, mixed with footage of world leaders, retrieved from their context, with a clear intention of blackening them. It makes you wonder if the documentary maker understands how the world works, and the tough choices its leaders need to make.
Clearly the intention was not to make a factual documentary. It's the usual leftish rubbish by that class who believes the people need to be told on what they are allowed to think, because they can definitely not be trusted to think for themselves.
If you do want to get a good insight into arms trade, I'd rather recommend the 'How Rolls- Royce Bribed Its Way Around the World' episode of BBC Panorama. Factual and concise, it will tell you ten times more on the topic, in five times less time.
Top Gear: Episode #23.1 (2016)
Not too bad for a first episode
Guess what, the baboons of the Top Gear fan club didn't like the new Top Gear!
Who would have guessed?
They stayed true to the format, and the episode wasn't too bad.
Apart from Evans who has to learn not to bounce all over the place, and the other guy who was speaking some language vaguely resembling English. Nothing some Valium and a few language lessons couldn't fix.
And reduce the audience please. A hundred is company, but a thousand is a crowd.
They'll grow into it.
Top Gear: Patagonia Special: Part 1 (2014)
For how long can you milk the format?
With this 'special', Top Gear has reached an absolute new low. The show has become a parody of itself.
The series have been in decline for a couple of years now. It used to be a regular 10-13 episode a season show. Now you'd be lucky to have six, with the lack of inspiration starting to show quite dramatically. This special is no exception, but has just taken it to a whole new level.
'Let's drive sports cars through Argentina.' -Yes, let's do that. Wait, let's keep it interesting, we'll drive them through a bog! We'll be sure to get stuck then. Ah, hold on, another great idea... let's take them over rocks. -No, no, I have a better idea: boulders! Yes, let's drive them over boulders... And through a river, whilst we're at it.
Needless to say, where in previous years they could keep up the 'unscripted' illusion, this has now become a travesty. They end up in situations which are completely unbelievable, taking their cars through terrain even a decent 4x4 wouldn't be able to, but are always miraculously able to fix their cars with the flick of a pocketknife. No, it's not MacGyver you're watching, it's Top Gear.
And for what used to be the best bit of the show, the tongue-in-cheek humour. That has taken a turn for the worst. Most of the situation comedy isn't funny anymore, because you can see the gag coming a mile away. Everything they do, you've seen it before, but then better. It didn't stop them however from taking endless stabs at the Argentinians. Far beyond what could be called acceptable. It's vicious and it's xenophobic, and most of all, it isn't remotely funny.
The view is just a long drag to the end, and it bears the question, for how long can you fool your audience? Well, for a long time, judging by the ratings. Maybe it says a lot about that audience.
The real losers in this game are the Baftas, who were once foolish enough to nominate the show in the 'unscripted show' category, and the BBC management, who should never have let a programme of this xenophobic nature on air. They have a lot to answer for.