Osbournes, The

WHAT IS IT ABOUT: This reality TV show from the US follows the day to day life of rock singer Ozzy Osbourne and his crazy family. It ran from 2002 to 2005 on both Channel 4 and MTV. IS IT ANY GOOD: When this show first came out, it was like nothing I had ever seen before; it seemed to somehow blend fiction with reality, in that the Osbourne family are larger than life and completely whacky. The show could have been a real flop if Ozzy was the sole focus of the show, but as it happens he forms simply the swearing, doddling backdrop to the real stars of the show- his family. A lot has been said about Sharon Osbourne, but one thing is for sure: she ...  Read the complete review

The Osbournes was a reality TV show with a difference as it took the whole fly on the wall documentary style and did away with the oice overs and just showed a semi famous family going about their rather unusual lives. This was one of the first to do this and probably being first helped to make it the most successful. Before the series it was the dad of the house hold Ozzy Osbourne who was the famous one, a heavy metal rosk star with a wild stage act and a penchant for self destruction in the show he comes across as a shambling old relic with a tendency for every other word to be a swear one. It is however his wife and two of his three children ( ...  Read the complete review

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself." "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall." "Oh, the humanity!!" Some quotations resonate from generation to generation, and like a fine Bordeaux, their flavour does not wan with age but grows bolder. They encapsulate the essence of their context in such a way that posterity harbours a deep, intrinsically rooted empathy for those who witnessed the circumstances that inspire them. In a way, these utterances speak for a generation. They reflect the collective opinion, the collective sentiment, and arguably even the moral fibre of the era. I could expound on many ...  Read the complete review

The Osbournes is a TV show in a genre of its own. (Although I have to say the Anna Nicole show is making a pretty good stab at joining it) The Osbournes started off, in my mind, as a comedy sitcom docudrama kind of show, showing real-life scenes of family life But, it’s really become a huge cult, the like of which I haven’t seen since the Simpsons. I always knew Ozzy Osbourne, ex frontman from Black Sabbath, was an entertaining kind of guy, in private life as well as in performance. But we now see how his whole family can be very entertaining too – whether they realise it or not. Wife and manager Sharon has her head screwed on, apart from ...  Read the complete review

Are The Osbournes really the most outrageous family in the world, or have they been pigeonholed by MTV? Before this phenominally successful series, I knew who Ozzy Osbourne was but had no idea of the problems he had experienced over the years, or the way in which he lived. Then MTV decided to to add to the number of reality programmes on our screens at the moment, and we all got an insight into the unconvential lives of the British rocker and his family, who really give Ozzy a run for his money in the madness stakes. The programme was first shown in America at the end of 2001, and then MTV in the UK, and then Channel 4 showed the same episodes recently. MTV initially ...  Read the complete review