Because every video-on-demand service needs an unauthorised blog

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Even more Super Botox Me

Kate Flett in the Observer writes a nice piece about journalist Kate Spicer's entertaining investigation into Botox treatments. I always like reviews that make me want to watch programmes that I'd otherwise decided weren't for me. While I'm not, as Flett puts it "your average female viewer of a certain age", (I'm of the age but not the gender) I like the fact that Spicer tried the treatments out on herself. Further, Flett's piece makes me wonder if and when I'll switch over from my purely natural beauty regime (mostly trying not to drink a bottle of wine a day) to taking a more man-made solution to the visible problems (mostly caused by my natural beauty regimen). Anyway, this is what Flett says:

In the latest of C4's feisty-femmedocs, Super Botox Me, the likeable, funny journalist Kate Spicer investigated the seductive world of Botox and beyond. At 39, and with an attractive but undeniably lived-in face, a combination of journalistic curiosity and pure vanity led her to have 40 Botox injections and something called a Fraxel Laser Facial, which left her looking as if she'd been blowtorched by a Dalek.

Spicer was amusing and honest about her ambivalence towards procedures which were painful but also painfully addictive. The results were fabulous, knocking five years off her age, which, for your average female viewer of a certain age, was the problem. Being a wuss about needles, I am still stemming the tsunami of time with excellent haircuts, pots of SK-II skin cream and what I call 'Photox': picture-retouching. But who am I kidding? For my 45th birthday I'd be happy enough to look like Kate Spicer's Before, never mind her Afters.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Super Botox Me




Another programme in the G Spot strand - Super Botox Me - is on the service now. It's another look at cosmetic surgery, but this time above the neck. The clip on the homepage is pretty funny too...

The Devil and Daniel Johnston: trailer and on 4oD



For a long time musician Daniel Johnston's fame was one based on notoriety more than anything else. Whenever his name came up it was almost always in the context of David Bowie and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain being huge fans of his. For me I first encountered him at London's Chisenhale gallery as part of a show by Peter Friedl that dealt with the King Kong theme. Daniel Johnston's soundtrack, recorded at a live performance of his song 'King Kong' and its lyrics, are the things that stays with me. There's an unease that comes with the artistic output of those who suffer obvious issues around their mental health and the audiences they attract. In Johnston's case his depression and schizophrenia aren't the only things: there's his drug abuse and violence to take into account. I've seen him twice now and both were thrilling and painful in equal measure. If anyone sang the Bond theme 'Live and Let Die' on the X Factor as badly as he did at the Royal Festival Hall they'd be booted out the door straight away, but seeing him on stage with his beat up guitar and out of tune voice it's impossible to not stare, marvel and finally revel at what you're seeing and hearing. It's not that he sings so badly it's good at all - it's just that he sings it like nobody except Daniel Johnston.

I'm not sure if I want to go and see him play again as much as I love playing the tapes and CDs - the second time he looked scared and in worse shape than the time before. Like Kurt Cobain I have the Hello How are you? Daniel Johnston t-shirt except that mine is white text out of black. I think of him whenever I wear it. Maybe that's enough.

4oD on The Devil and Daniel Johnston:

Daniel Johnston is an acclaimed singer and artist who suffers from manic depression. Jeff Feuerzeig's Sundance-winning film is a unique portrait of his work.

In the course of a career which stretches back to the 1980s, Daniel Johnston has written well over 100 love songs. What makes them unusual is that they're all about one woman, Laurie, the object of his unrequited affection for over 20 years. Despite the fact that Laurie rejected Daniel and eventually married an undertaker, his ardour has never dulled. Johnston does have other creative muses though, most notably Jesus, Captain America, The Beatles and Casper The Friendly Ghost. The interview subjects, including Johnston's elderly parents and long-suffering manager, are refreshingly honest about life with a manic-depressive. Home movie footage doesn't just serve as a visual backdrop for anecdotes, but shows that despite initial appearances, Johnston is one extremely smart and self-aware cookie.


Read about The Devil and Daniel Johnston on More4 and watch it on 4oD.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Dying alone...

It's something that everyone secretly fears, but doesn't believe that it could happen to them. Except that sometimes it does. The trailers for Watch Me Disappear have definitely got me worried... The programme is part of Channel 4's Generation Next initiative - a season of programmes by new talent throughout August. The Indie's Emma Love talks about the programme and the event here.

Watch Me Disappear is going out on C4 this Friday, but if you miss it, it will of course be available on 4oD for 30 days.

Take a look at other programmes in the Generation Next season, as well as some from people C4 has given a break to over the last 25 years in the Generation Next: Then and Now page.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

New features


A recent addition to the service was the Most Watched Films page. An attempt to give users some idea of what others are renting as inspiration for their own choices.

This has now been extended into the Archive section as well. So, the Free Archive page is now the New in Archive page - flagging up programmes and series that have been added recently - and there is a new Most Watched Archive page. To start with, it's an overview of the top 15 series for the last six month, but when it gets updated it will use data for a shorter time-period. Also, you may notice that perennial favourites such as Shameless and Skins are missing, because they are considered on-going series, which will be returning on-air.

Take a look.

She's Elektra...

I once saw Zoë Wanamaker at the Donmar in a production of Elektra. That was the version of the tragic Greek myth as told by Sophocles. John Heilpern, writing in the New York Observer, wrote:

Zoë Wanamaker's Electra is a miraculous achievement – one of the finest performances I've ever seen.

For myself I do remember it as being the most intense experience I've had at the theatre, heightened by the fact that old Donmar theatre was a tiny space where the seating and the stage area (no raised proscenium here) were pretty much the same thing. It was like being in a front room with someone who has suffered a series of unimaginable family tragedies.

This, however isn't Sophocles's version but Rob Bowman's. Actually 'version' is the wrong word, judging by the description (I haven't seen it as yet) 'whole-different-story-but-with-a-similarly-named-character' would be a more accurate description:

Rob Bowman's fantasy thriller stars Jennifer Garner as Elektra, an assassin tutored by the mysterious martial arts master Stick (Terence Stamp). Her latest assignment is to keep Mark Miller (Goran Visnjic) and his daughter Abby (Kirsten Prout) safe from the ninja warriors of the evil Order of the Hand, to whom she once paid allegiance. Now on the side of good, her task is to protect those who can tip the balance between good and evil, but can she overcome her once-fellow assassins?


It's new on 4oD. Check it out.

Monday, August 18, 2008

V Festival


Not to keep harping on about newspaper reviews, but The Guardian was pretty impressed with this year's V Festival. And lucky you, all the C4 highlights are on 4oD. Take a look. Or a listen. Up to you.

The Perfect Vagina

Indeed... Channel 4's G Spot season continued on air last night with The Perfect Vagina. It attracted a fairly large audience for its slot, but if you missed it, it is available on 4oD now. And just in case you mistake it for another 'naughty' late-night show from C4, here's a review by Tim Walker in The Independent. Or read what the programme's author Lisa Rogers
had to say about it on The Guardian blogs.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Kate Flett in The Observer

Kate Flett in The Observer writes lots of nice things about two shows that you can currently see on the 4oD:
The Genius of Charles Darwin
The Secret Millionaire
The third one that she covers is also a Channel baby but sadly isn't on 4oD. I say sadly because it's The WI Guide to Brothels and it would in all probability do very well.