Not sure I totally agree with this analysis of the slight debate between Jon Stewart and Christopher Hitchens over on The Daily Show about the war in Iraq. Big fan that I am of Christopher Hitchens, I must point out that Hitchens didn’t really get a chance to defend himself. He was, after all, being asked to debate the war in the Iraq in the short time he had been allotted to promote a book on Thomas Jefferson.
Stewart did, however, show that he is at least the smartest interviewer on American TV outside of PBS, however. And Hitchens did at least provide nuance that doesn’t appear to show itself in his arguments over in Fighting Talk.
Articles by Rob Buckley
Oh my God, I agree with John Birt
Never thought the day would come, but I agree with John Birt. What’s wrong with the world? Apart from E4 and Jimmy Carr, that is.
Lost: Missing the point
It seems a lot of people are missing the point of Lost. The latest is Lucy Irvine, author of Castaway, who says it’s unrealistic. To be fair, only two episodes have aired in the UK so it’s easy to jump the gun on this one.
The whole point of Lost is that it’s unrealistic.
More screeners: Bones, The Night Stalker, Everyone Hates Chris, Reunion, The Loop, Still Life
As promised, here’s some more reviews of the shows that are set to appear on US screens this Fall (I’m practically fluent in American, aren’t I?):
Touching Evil (US)
ITV3 has just started (as of 45 minutes ago) showing the US version of Touching Evil. If you can, watch it because it’s a remarkable thing: a remake of a UK show that’s better than original. The UK version, starring Robson Green, was awful, a collection of clichés and predictability that made you wonder what could have possessed the likes of Paul Abbot and Russell T Davies when they wrote it. It so badly wanted to be a US show, but could only imitate and badly at that.
The US version, which was exec-produced by Bruce Willis of all people, took those clichés and ran with them. The throwaway “characterisation” of having the hero, David Creegan, shot in the head – something that never seemed to affect him in any way in the UK version – was a vital point in the US version.