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Home and Away
by bettyboop2002
Home and Away is an Australian soap which has been around since 1988. It's set in the fictional beach resort of Summer Bay, the fantastic beach scenes are filmed at Palm Beach, New South Wales.
Plenty of scenes are filmed on the beach, where a lot of barely clothed young men and women can be seen having a catch up or a surf which ... is pleasing on the eye for both male and female viewers.
Near the beach is the diner which is owned by Leah and Irene (played by Lynne McGranger, she has been in the show since 1991). This is where the residents of the bay go for lunch and chats.
When they are not lunching in the diner they are in Angelo's (named after the ex-cop who opened it but was bullied out by the Braxton brothers who now run it). This is a trendy Italian bar / restaurant and features in the show quite a lot.
The school used to be where a lot of the scenes were set, but we see a bit less of it these days. There is also the hospital which features quite a bit. There is normally one doctor (Sid at the moment) who seems to do everything. The same as the police station only has one or two police officers who work 24/7.
The most important place has got to be the caravan park. This was long ago the home ofTom and Pippa and lots of foster children, it is now the home of old favourite Alf Roberts who has been in the show since 1988, another old favourite Marilyn Chambers (played by Emily Symons who has had 3 stints in the show and was in Emmerdale for a while). Also living in the caravan park are alf's daughter and her husband. The caravan park is still a home for anyone who finds themselves a bit down on their luck and if there's no room in the house Alf can always hand them the keys to a van.
STORYLINES
There's never a dull moment in Summer Bay. Just a couple of recent storylines include:
Romeo splitting up with his wife Indie and getting together with Ruby, when Romeo realises it's Indie he wants to be with Ruby fakes a pregnancy to try and keep him. When Ruby realises that Indie seems to have little interest in having Romeo back she decides to teach Indie a lesson by tampering with the brakes on her car. Indie loans the car to her brother Dex who has an accident and is still recovering from a head injury. As part of his treatment he is given a physiotherapist, Lisa, who falls for his dad, Dr. Sid Walker. Lisa has a few issues and is trying to get away from her physically abusive husband.
One of the Braxton brothers, Casey, was reunited with his father when he was released from prison. His dad, Danny, was trying to get Casey on side only to use him in a robbery. Casey winds up shooting and killing his dad Danny and then to make things worse misses his court date when his long lost brother Kyle kidnaps him and tries to kill him out in the bush. Casey is saved by a mystery girl Tamara who he is convinced was all in his imagination until she arrives in the bay to be a witness in his trial. Casey gets off pretty lightly and only has to go to prison on weekends but now he is torn between this girl Tamara and his girlfriend Sasha.
While all this is going on another of the Braxton brothers, Heath, has a baby with school teacher Bianca. Baby Rocco was premature and sick for a while before he dies not long after being released from hospital. Struggling to deal with their grief the couple blame each other and push each other away. Bianca turns to illegal medication and Heath concentrates on his brothers' problems.
This is just a small bit of what's been going on lately. The show has tackled some serious issues over the years such as rape, domestic violence, Irene's alcoholism, Liams drug problem, Belle & Irene's cancer stories and more recently the death of baby Rocco. They manage to portray such stories in a realistic way which includes some really sad moments without making the show too depressing to watch. It is a family programme and manages to have these storylines without anything too graphic so that younger viewers couldn't watch.
Home and Away is always going to be compared with the other big Australian soap, Neighbours. Home and Away is definitely my favourite and wins by a mile over the last couple of years. They still manage to come up with original stories, and those that aren't that original are done in a way so it doesn't feel like you've seen it all before. The sets and scenery are fabulous, the acting is good and the characters remain fresh and interesting.
Some of the actors have gone on to much bigger things, the show has featured actors such as Dannii Minogue, Naomi Watts and Heath ledger.
There have been nearly 5700 episodes produced and although it's viewing figures seem to have fallen over the years it is still a favourite of mine.
To see this for yourself you can tune in to channel 5 on weekdays at lunchtimes and again in the evenings. I usually record it and the episodes are just over 20 minutes without the ads.
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Man V Food
by thedevilinme
Comfort Food TV!
Anyone who is unemployed, a parent at home or simply bored on their week off may have flicked through the cable channels and stumbled upon Man V Food. If you could describe what classic daytime TV is you would say Man V Food is exactly that. The depressed and the unemployed love their comfort food and TV and ... this show is the flashing neon sign of gluttony of a wasted life. But, like its junk food topic, its truly is a guilty pleasure.
The premise is as likeably as the portly host, an American chap called Adam Reichmann, who travels around the US sampling the nation's best junk food and toughest eats, be it spicy, huge or just darn bonkers plates, coming with a side order of 'type two diabetes', as Charlie Brooker quips in his brilliant Guardian column (see below). Adam will munch the hottest, biggest and stupidest servings you have ever seen to win the challenge of Man V Food! Americans like their servings big and responsible for 25% of the world's greenhouse gases through that greedy over consumption, why most of them are extremely fat. The American beef heard alone produces one tenth of the worlds CO2 with most of it ending up on Adams plate.
As I say Adam is a likable and typically loud New Jersey boy and the stomach to match. He is a genuinely good eater and often wins the restaurant challenges in front of baying locals. For his efforts he gets a T-Shirt and a hit TV series. If he wins then he declares 'Man' wins and if he fails then 'Food' wins, hence Man V Food, currently 48/38 in food challenges to Man. So far he has attempted just one food world record on the show by attempting to eat a 190 pound burger and fries - with the help of a 40 man roller hockey team and their friends, falling just 30lbs of beef short.
There have also been many spin-offs since the original success of Man V Food on the American cable Travel Channel in 2008 with Adam allowing members of the public to do the challenges or just a general celebration of America's fast food obsession. In 2012 he announced his retirement from the show and eating and as no real reason was given its presumed four years off fast food has been rather bad for the big man.
As with most of Americas reality TV the host is not as dumb as the audience he seeks and so the joke on them. Reichmann has a college degree in International Business and a Drama and Performance Masters Degree from Yale, his first jobs being bit part acting in TV shows. As self proclaimed and educated food fanatic he claims to have worked his way up through the food industry to the position of expert, presumably flipping burgers (or paddies, as they call the buns in the trade) between acting jobs.
The show is about extreme gluttony and some sniffy food critics didn't like that much, especially when one third of the planet are literally dyeing to have that much food in front of them. The difference to everyday Americans is Reichmann works out between the series and only puts the weight back on during the 12 week filming. That's generally not the case for the customers of these places. As we know with Americans the biggest fast food company of all employs a clown to promote their business to get kids addicted and so the nation's biggest addiction isn't going away fast. Fast food is huge - literally - in the US and they love it and so why wouldn't they want a TV show or two about it?
The food on the show, especially the huge chunks of cow and pork BBQ, look seriously scrummy and it does give you an appetite to raid the biscuit tin, presumably the point of the show. The hot challenges are the funniest as restaurateurs pile on the jalapeño spice pepper extract to make Adam sweat like the Food Minster when its revealed this week that Shergar and most of the race horses we ever bet on did indeed end up in the food chain. Generally it is a quantity or hot hot hot food challenge each week and Adam sets about it with great vigor, and for some reason you route for him and its highly entertaining. But, after a while, the shows tend to be repeats and pop up on four or five channels and your love affair with Adam and his 'big food' tires, leaving only one lingering memory. Just how big are his poo's after forcing a seven pound heffer down his throat!
Charlie Brooker's article!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/mar/13/charlie-brooker-man-v-food
= = = Critic = = =
Charlie Brooker, "If food is the new porn, this is an all-out orgy between wobbling guts and farmyard animals - a snuff orgy, no less, since the latter end up sawn in half and smothered in BBQ sauce".
Alton Brown - 'Man v. Food ' is "disgusting. That show is about gluttony, and gluttony is wrong. It's wasteful. Think about people that are starving to death and think about that show. I think it's an embarrassment."
In the Star-Ledger - "It ain't deep, and it certainly ain't healthy (I could feel my arteries clog just from watching), but its fun."
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Match of the Day
by Karonher
I can't remember a time when Match of The Day was not on the television as it was first aired when I was just 2. There were a few presenters before Jimmy Hill, but he is the one I remember as a child. It was the highlight of the week being able to stay up late and watch the games. I did have a bit of a problem throughout the 1970s as an ... Evertonian in a house full of Liverpool supporters as we were not as successful, but it was still a way to see the game in the years before I got my season ticket.
They have always had a bias towards the teams that were doing well and while that irked me a lot it does not seem to have changed. I can't see why some teams should be on more than others - if the fans want to see them, then surely they should go to the game. After all it is the smaller or less successful clubs that need promoting in order to give them the chance of a better fan base.
All of the games will be shown but sometimes they are edited really badly. There have been really one sided games that I have watched and found that Match of The Day has made it seem quite equal and even as if the other team were better.
The presenter now is Gary Linekar and normally he has two guests- usually a choice between Alan Hansen, Mark Lawrenson and Alan Shearer. Between them they really can be quite dull and there are few times when they have an original remark to make. They praise the top level players and ignore the lesser known ones. It seems quite lazy as if they cannot bother to research up and coming players and just stick with the well known ones. One of the most memorable failings was Alan Hansen's inability to see the talent in a young Manchester United side claiming that they could not win the title with kids.
There is another annoying trait and that is happening just now. Man City and Southampton were the late televised kick off tonight and this is the match that millions of people will have already seen yet they are focusing on it as the main one.
I quite miss the Goal of the Month competition and there being a prize - that went by the board when the BBC had problems with their competitions being judged unfair and clais they were fixed. It was not the case that I entered but just liked to pick which one I thought was best and liked to think that someone had won something for entering.
The current presenters have been around for years now and hopefully in the near future they will bring in some new people. There are plenty of players who have retired in the last few years who can give a more up to date opinion then the current ones.
Whatever fault I find with it, I still enjoy Match of the Day. I can think of few things nicer then getting home around 10pm on a cold winters night after a good home win for Everton and a few drinks afterwards, and settling down with a coffee and something to eat to watch our victory all over again.
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