Ordinary Gweilo
It's not big and it's not clever, it's just a Brit in Hong Kong writiing (mainly) about Hong Kong
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Category: Television
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The Apprentice [not The Associate as I keep calling it] continues to be fascinating but slight bizarre television. The greatest weakness of the show is that condensing everything into a one hour each week is almost impossible, especially when they have a recap of the previous show at the start and feel the need to…
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Never mind that Hong Kong is apparently awash with copies of everything from watches to soy sauce, American TV is soon to be awash with copies of ‘The Apprentice’. As well as the direct copies (one will feature that bearded bloke who runs Virgin, another that bearded bloke who used to own Spurs), there appear…
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Least surprising news of the week is that NBC will restrict their remake of the The Office to just six shows, after the pilot was very badly received by viewers. Viewers of the pilot show gave it the worst sitcom rating in NBC’s history, saying it was “too depressing.” What did they expect? Friends-style hilarity…
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We all tend to complain about Hong Kong TV, but you have to admit that TVB does have a reasonably good record when it comes to popular US shows. Usually we have to wait months (or sometimes years) to see them, but not always – TVB Pearl started showing “The Apprentice” on Saturday nights before…
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Yes TV have decided to abandon their Pay TV venture in Hong Kong. Hardly surprising given the obstacles they faced. They were obliged to pay HK$198 to PCCW for each customer who used their service, decoder boxes cost them US$100, and they had the usual difficulties getting access to buildings. End result – not many…
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Interesting piece in the paper on Sunday by Tim Noonan, who is convinced that Cable TV will drop ESPN and Star Sports this summer, now that they have exclusive rights to the English Premiership. He’s probably right, but I find it very strange – normally cable TV companies want to have as many channels as…
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It almost goes without saying that The Sopranos is one of the best things on TV. You can argue that it isn’t as good as it was, but then what is? The impressive thing is that the show’s creator David Chase seems to have a clear idea of the show’s progression – season one was about Tony Soprano…
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Shaky has alerted me to the news that Norris McWhirter died earlier this week. He was famous chiefly for appearing (a long time ago) on a British TV show called “Record Breakers” with his twin brother Ross. The two of them were the founders and co-editors of “The Guinness Book of Records”, and today you…
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The surprising news from the Golden Globes is that “The Office” has won two major awards. Ricky Gervais (creator, co-writer and star) won the TV comedy actor award, while the programme won best TV comedy series.It’s surprising not because it doesn’t deserve the prize, but because in the States the show is only on cable TV (through BBC Americas) and…
Ordinary Gweilo 