From: blp
Category: Art
Date: 28 November 2005
Yes, it was sort of a serving of the usual, but in an odd way it was also a brutal shambles even by Channel 4 pop TV standards, the typically creaky structure being further undermined by a constant, insidious sense of two people not getting on. If O'Leary has any faculty at all for self criticism, he should have felt like a dying man, constantly filling up air space with his rambling digressions, often making no sense and illiciting looks askance aplenty from La Ciccone. At his worst, cool demeanour notwithstanding, his foot in mouth disease reached the level of unpretty issues bubbling up unbidden like ripe farts from his unconscious, the Goldfrapp exchange particularly representative: Madonna: I'm listening to blah blah blah blah and Goldfrapp. Sort of stuff you play on your show? [read: which I do not listen to or I would know.] O'Leary: Oh yes, blah blah and blah blah are excellent and [nervous now] Goldfrapp, yes, yes, good [now unable to help himself, driven by some demon discomfort about women] scary, but very good. Madonna[look askance no. 52] You find Goldfrapp...scary? O'Leary: Well, she, Alison, she's very, um, forthright in her opinions, um, makes you question things, think...which is a good thing, of course [read: I like mimsy, midriff baring, 'simple' types for sex and mothering have a crypto-fascist aversion to all self questioning and intellectual activity]. Madonna [arch]: Well I'm forthright in my opinions. O'Leary: which is good of course. Madonna: So do you find me scary? O'Leary: Well, challenging. Which is...good. Of course. What remains a matter of pure speculation is whether this kind of thing matters a jot to the intended audience or the executives at Channel 4 or whether the basic addition equation bluff beefcake talks to pop royalty is such a winner in itself that it somehow eclipses every blooper up to actual onscreen incontinent shitting. I'd love to believe it did, because that might mean no more Mr. O'Leary. But the truth, as always, is probably sadder, stupider and less just.
[_shared_elements/comment_on_this_review.htm]