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The Scheme
by wigglylittleworm
The Scheme is a four part fly on the wall documentary made by BBC Scotland and given a late night viewing slot on BBC2 which follows six different families from the Onthank housing estate in the town of Kilmarnock over the course of a year. Those who think that Shameless is far fetched will watch this show with their eyes popping out of ... their heads in amazement as they realise exactly how mild mannered the show is compared to real life, Jeremy Kyle could make a whole series of shows with just the 6 families featured as guests.
The main characters in the show are:
Marvin Baird, a recovering heroin addict who looks closer to 60 than 30, they should put junkies faces on posters as a warning to kids that this is what heroin will do to you. When we first meet Marv he is "happy as larry" at being reunited with 18 year old Dayna who has just been released from jail and has an electronic tag on her leg. Things seem to be going well for the lovestruck young couple and Dayna announces her pregnancy and Marv is again happy as larry he is going to be a dad. Things start to go downhill for them when Marv is busted by the drugs squad, has a break in where £700 of electrical goods are stolen and kicks Dayna in the stomach after a drunken bender and ends up being arrested again.
Marv may be devoted to his dog but he doesn't know how to treat a woman and I really felt sorry for Dayna. The girl has been brought up in care and has left prison to a life of domestic violence and can often be seen bruised and crying. Someone needs to rescue the poor girl and give her a bit of love and stability and guidance, you can tell she is a decent person and I dread to think what her future will be like. Dayna often slurs her speech and I think it is obvious to any onlooker that she is out of her face a lot of the time.
Bullet The Dog. This is Marv's wee dog who likes pooping on the floor and running away from his owner. The bull terrier has found massive fame thanks to the programme and even has his own face book group with more than 10000 members. Bullet was hit by a car during one of his jaunts around the scheme and was rescued by dog wardens and after losing a leg has been rehomed in London, the one character in the show who has had a happy ending.
Kay is a single mum of 15 year old Candice and the gorgeous five year old Kendal. At first Kay seemed like a really warm and caring woman who lost her job after eating a meatball (you couldn't make it up!) when she was in a grief ridden state after the death of her dad who she cared for in her own home and who, after having a rough upbringing, takes in waifs and strays like the teenage Jenna and single mum Lisa. It soon emerges that she is a complete idiot who deserves a bad mothering award, the first sign of this was when she got a phone call from the school because Candice had slept in for her exam as she was upstairs in bed with boyfriend Chris and makes excuses for her. The house is a party house with all those teenagers running wild and after a complaint from a neighbour about the noise she attacks the poor woman and is arrested. Wee Kendal is brilliant, a real wee star who tells us about her dead granddads ashes and how her mum got arrested, bet she will be as obnoxious as her sister in ten years time though. Kay is rarely seen without a fag in her hand and a silly smirk on her face.
Gordon and Annie are former hell raisers who have long given up the drink and now struggle to keep their kids out of trouble Youngest son Chris who is often seen with a bottle of buckfast in his hand is being threatened by the local dealers over a debt he owes and is boyfriend of Candice. Their older son has been sent to jail and they try to keep their teenage daughter busy with dance competitions to keep her on the straight and narrow. Gordon is struggling to find a job after being made redundant a few months ago and finds job interviews stressful because "usually when I'm wearing a suit I'm going to court" They are a bit rough round the edges but I really warmed to the couple and admired their attempts to keep their kids on the right path.
Marvin's cousins "look at my gorgeous body, I'm a pole dancer if any of you want a shot of me it's £10 a go" spoken at a drunken daytime party with the music blaring in the front garden while she gyrates around in a pair of shorts with her definitely non gorgeous belly bouncing around. These are vile disgusting excuses for human beings and I'm glad they live nowhere near me.
The Cree Family who are community minded. The older generation set up a community centre 40 years ago and now are fighting to reopen it to keep kids off the street. The family face many challenges to get enough money together so the council are convinced they can cope with the responsibility. As well as this they have to deal with the older Mrs Cree's diagnosis of cancer and it was heartbreaking to see the old women cry at learning her diagnosis.
The Scheme is one of the most compelling TV series I have ever seen, it's total car crash TV but you just can't take your eyes away from the screen and want to learn more. It's a real emotional rollercoaster to watch too, one minute I am screaming at the screen at someone for being stupid and the next minute cheering the same person on. The high points of the show include watching Gordon's daughter Kimberley compete in dancing competitions and the low points are seeing Dayna in tears because of Marv's behaviour.
Even though the subjects are obviously gritty with drug use, poverty, crime, alcoholism and teenage pregnancy at the centre it's a programme which is also pure comedy gold. Who could fail to laugh at the wannabe lap dancer or Bullet or gorgeous wee Kendal comparing the weight of her granddads ashes to a hamster case or talking about pretending that condoms are balloons.
Unfortunately only two of the filmed programmes were shown on TV in May 2010, the other two cannot be shown until one of the characters has been to court on a serious charge in case the footage interferes with the case. I've put The Scheme on series record and I can't wait until last two programmes are shown. I can't wait to see what happens next, will Kay really disown her pregnant daughter, will the community centre re-open and will Dayna see sense and get away from Marv?
This is a series which has caused a lot of controversy, some call it "poverty porn" and as you can imagine the other residents of the Onthank estate are not happy about how their community has been portrayed. Have Marv and co been exploited by the BBC, did they really understand what they were signing up for when they agreed to let their sordid little lives be broadcast to the nation? Probably not, there's no way that the participants could have foreseen the furore the show has caused or that they would be catapulted to instant fame in a bad way with the tabloids jumping on the characters of the show and putting them on the front page.
The one thing I don't like about the show is that it will give some the wrong impression of life on a council estate. I am a single mother living in a council flat in another part of Scotland and while my village has its own small band of junkies and idiots then they are very much the minority and the majority of people in council houses are decent people just living their lives and hate the disruption that the likes of Marv or Chris or Marv's cousins cause to a community. As long as you can understand that the characters featured on the show are not representative of council tenants overall then it's a show which is brilliant to watch.
For more info on the scheme see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sjs1t or to watch the first two episodes on the BBC iPlayer go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00sj713/The_Scheme_Episode_1/
A you Tube video which will give you a hilarious taste of what The Scheme is all about is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySxcA_2EP9k
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Supernanny
by natzatp
Do you have naughty children that do not behave themselves but you have no idea why? Supernanny will help! Five minutes on the naughty step and they'll be as good as gold!
Although i really enjoy watching Supernanny i find the whole 'quick behavior change' concept a bit over the top, surely if it was that easy to discipline ... your children everyone's kids would be little angels?
Supernanny is sent to the houses of families with misbehaving children in order to help them to change their behaviors. Ironically, the childrens bad behavior is usually blamed on the parents behavior because they are not strict enough, don't support each others decisions or something else of a similar prospective.
The first day in the house of the family Supernanny is helping, she just observes to see what the behavior of the children is like and how the parents deal with it. The children are so naughty that even on day one in front of a complete stranger they are misbehaving. This i find absurd as from experience of my own nieces and nephews i have found that children usually behave in front of complete strangers.
Supernanny usually suggests that the children should be disciplined by being sent to a 'naughty step' so that the children are able to think about what they have done wrong and apologize for it afterward. I have no idea how she actually gets the children to stay on the step without too much hassle!
Conclusion - Entertaining show to watch although slightly bizarre how quickly the childrens behavior is changed. If she can really change behavior that quickly please send her this way to control my nieces and nephews!
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Most Haunted
by linzeelou
Most Haunted is a British paranormal investigation show that first aired in 2002. It can currently be seen on Living TV. Most Haunted has had 14 seasons so far, showing in various countries. Each episode during season one was 90 minutes long but from season 2, episodes were cut to be only 45 minutes.
Most Haunted follows ... married couple, Yvette Fielding and Carl Beaty as they go around the UK, finding and investigation some of the most (rumoured to be) haunted places. Yvette and Carl take with them a team of paranormal investigators including parapsychologist, Ciaran O'Keeffe, a medium which used to be Derek Acorah but has now changed to Chris Conway and sound and visual experts.
Episodes begin with a bit of background about the place the team are visiting and interviews with the team to see how they feel about the visit and what they think might happen. Historians have been used on some series to give a more accurate account of the buildings that are being investigated. The historian also gives details to the audience about some previous sightings at the location. The whole team take a look around the building while it is still light to see where the best places to try and find spirits are. While they are walking around, the team reveal any initial worries they might be feeling or what else they are expecting from the night after having a look around. Any tests being carried out are put in place before nightfall and recorded so that any activity or movement will be visible.
As soon as it is dark, the team take a walk around the building once more in complete darkness, sometimes stopping in particular rooms along the way. These rooms are usually where sightings have previously happened or strange things have been heard. From here, anything can happen really but whether or not the events are real a question all its own.
A few years ago, there was quite a bit in the media about Derek Acorah and whether or not he was a true medium. Tests were put in place without him knowing obviously to see whether or not he was making things up. Unfortunately for Derek, he took the bait and spoke about spirits that had been totally made up. Since then, he was no longer a member of the show and rightfully so. This kind of thing makes me wonder even more whether or not any of it is real. Until Derek Acorah was revealed as a fake, I believed most of what was happening and didn't think they were allowed to lie unless stating that some parts were added for entertainment value (like Wife Swap USA does).
Although Yvette Fielding does look extremely scared most episodes, I think some of this is down to acting. If it was me in this kind of situation, then I would be incredibly scared but Yvette obviously knows that acting this way will bring in ratings as it happens way too often. Some of the places that Most Haunted visit are really large buildings and often extremely old so I think that they are bound to creak and make strange noises at night.
I do wonder that if everything about the show is fake, how some of the tricks and stunts are done. There have been times when strange shadows etc have been caught on camera and it seems as if they couldn't be faked but I guess everything can be nowadays. Another thing that makes me wonder is the orbs that Yvette is always babbling on about. Surely on night vision, these could be dust particles floating around with all of the movements that are going on and not spirits manifesting themselves.
I really used to love this show and found it very entertaining but Derek Acorah really ruined everything about it for me. Since he has left the show, I have only watched a couple of episodes but cant really get into it anymore.
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