TMINE

It’s that time of the year – summer holidays/vacations (delete as appropriate). Pretty much for the rest of this month, one of two things can be guaranteed. Either:

1. You’ll be on holiday or
2. I’ll be on holiday

Certainly:

1. There’s not going to be a huge amount of new shows to be watched or reviewed
2. Most people in TV and film land are going to be on holiday, too, so there won’t be much news

As a result, we’re going to be on reduced output on TMINE during August with the following results:

• The first and last Daily News will be today, and won’t be back until September 2nd.
• There may be a few reviews and the like this week.
• There definitely won’t be anything new on the blog between the 6th and the 22nd, and the 26th to 31st.
• Tomorrow’s Sitting Tennant will be the last captionable Tennant of August.
• I might be around between the 23rd and 25th, but I wouldn’t swear to it.
• If anyone comes along and leaves a spam comment, kill them.

However, feel free to talk among yourselves. I’ll try to leave an open thread on Thursday for general discussion.

I will leave you with the following Question of the Month, too:

What books would you recommend for my or anyone else’s holiday reading?

You can, of course, nominate your own books. 😉

Enjoy your holidays!

[via]

Happy Birthday, The Medium is Not Enough. Yes, five years ago (blimey, a whole half decade – fame and fortune must be just round the corner by now, surely), this blog emerged into the light of the Internet with its first two posts: previews of Prison Break, the not-unpopular Supernatural and the still-unseen Global Frequency; and tedious cruft about The Omega Factor (which I ended up writing a review of after all when I got stuck for a Lost Gem).

I’d like to say a great big thank you again to Aaron, Almost Witty, Andrea, Anna, Bob, Cackle Jr, Chris, Craig, Dan, Electric Dragon, George, Iko, Jane, Jaradel, Joe, Jonathan, kaballa, Kev, Lesley, Lisa, Marie, Matt, Nik, Phoenix, Poly, Rev/Views, Rosby, Scott, other Scott, Sister Chastity, Stu_N, Stu, Stuart, TemplarJ, Toby and Vin for continuing to hang around and contribute with always entertaining comments, particularly in the magical dreamland that is Sitting Tennant. Without you, this blog would be nothing and I’d have given up 4.5 years ago.

I’d also like to thank Brian Clegg, DOPEaddict, dreamer-easy, ecg, Erin C, Jemima, Jonathan Burt, Julie Paradox, Karen, Mark Carroll, Mark Clapham, Rachel, redscharlach, Robin Parker, Sabine, Skreee, SK, Steerforth and Virginia Moffatt for joining in with the fun this year. You’re all very lovely people and I’m glad to have (virtually) met you all.

Please stick around: there’ll be pie, peas and skittles afterwards.

As always, if you have any suggestions for what else you might like to see on the blog, please let me know below.

Have a nice week (and, indeed, year),

MediumRob

Time was when women were discriminated against on TV and nobody batted an eyelid. There were fewer women, those that appeared only did so in a few traditional settings, and they were rarely the protagonists.

Feminism and the sexual revolution came along and by the 70s, it could be argued that things had got worse, with women now being patronised and treated as sex objects. But the 80s and political correctness slowly began to change all that, with more strong female characters and less exploitation being the call de jour.

But with modern shows like My Ugly Best Friend, Fast Lane, Knight Rider, America’s Next Top Model and even Chuck (to name but a few) all reducing women down to sex object status, while claiming to be pro-women, has the forward progress made during the 80s and 90s been reversed of late and have we returned to the 70s? Has even Doctor Who begun to treat its female lead as a sex object, there to scream and look good and not much else?

So this week’s question is (fingers crossed using the word won’t make me sound like Rik Mayall in The Young Ones):

Has TV become more sexist? If so, why and is it worse because we should know better by now?

For the advanced student: has TV become more sexist towards men? Is it actually the case that both men and women are being treated equally badly/well by TV?

As always, leave a comment with your answer or a link to your answer on your own blog.