the telly

TV in England is ok, despite lots of people I've heard slamming it. However, I have a high tolerance for repetition.

We have "freeview," or the absolute minimum set of channels. It's not exactly free. Everyone that has a TV pays a TV tax. The way I understand it, the money goes to the stations for better programming—like PBS. There's probably about 20 or so channels. They aren't necessarily all active at one time. Some are morning, some evening, etc. Some just replay shows that played in the last hour (in case you missed it). Some are just shopping channels.

A high percentage of the shows are US reruns. You can see Friends and Scrubs almost any time of night. In fact, one announcer introducing the "new" series The Class, written by the creators of Friends, said it "didn't need to be watched because, if it's anything like Friends, we will be playing it ad nauseum." Just before that they announced that this was the 80th time they had played that particular episode of Friends. I might be wrong about the 80, it might have been 800. Either way, you get the idea. At least they have a sense of humor about it.

You can watch Heroes, The Riches, What About Brian, The Class, ER, What About Earl, The Black Donnellys, the Simpsons, That 70s Show, etc. but they seem to go in spurts and don't play consistently. They play lots of US movies too. The best part is that the movies are uncut so I've seen scenes I've never seen before.

The very best part is that there aren't nearly as many commercials—thanks in part to the TV tax I'm sure. When you're watching a US show, you can tell where they built a climax for a commercial and then you jump right into the next scene. It does make it harder for bathroom breaks on the rare occasion you haven't already seen the show.

The thing that probably sticks out the most is the lack of censoring and the frank talk. We've watched shows about body image where young British girls decide whether or not to get plastic surgery (in the US). They actually show the girls' breasts and skin. Not in a raunchy way, but to make a point. We've watched shows about properly fitting women into bras. Believe you me, I saw more kinds of breasts there than I've ever seen in a locker room, but I learned more about fit than I knew. We've seen shows about men trying to talk to other men about penis size, becoming comfortable with it, and the unrealistic "average" size our society dictates. The show ended with an art show where men took pictures of their penis to show how different they all are and change perceptions of "average." And yes, you saw plenty of penis'. We've watched a new British series based on the blog of a real London call girl. It's actually quite interesting, but would never be seen on US TV.

All and all I'm impressed. Some of these shows are honest, open and makes it feel like taboo things that are very much a part of us can be normal and that it can be good to talk about them. To learn and not to get turned on—so much for the "uptight" British.

Of course, not everything we've watched has involved sex and nakedness. As Pat says, we've become "Petrol Heads" (aka Gear Heads). Our new favorite British show is Top Gear. It has three hosts, who seem to fit the mold of Larry, Curly, and Moe, that talk about cars. How fast they go, how much they cost, handling, breakdowns, etc., but somehow they've made it entertaining even for me. They often do "challenges" involving cars. I think one of my favorite episodes was the one where they each had to create an amphibious vehicle that was able to drive a certain distance and then drop into the water around Dover and cross the Channel to France. My favorite part was the Moe character, who after several failed attempts in his own car/boat, had joined Larry in the winning car/boat. The winning car/boat started taking on water as they grew closer to France and things looked bad. As he bailed water, Moe said very plainly and glumly, "I'm a bit tired of sinking." I found it to be the funniest thing ever because it's such a profound statement about life AND a good example of dry British humor.