Late night television

I’m a big fan of television. Not all of it mind you, but I think TV at it’s best can be not only entertaining, but highly educational as well. I could give you a whole list of things television has taught me over the years, but I won’t bore anyone with the details.

For many years I never really watched TV. When I was a child the amount of TV we were allowed to watch was regulated, as were the kind of shows we were allowed to watch. During my high school years I lived in a dorm and other than the news, there wasn’t a lot of TV watching going on. And then I spent a year in California. It was literally a relevation. At the time in Oslo, I think we had 6 or 7 channels at home. In California I had about 60. I discovered Melrose Place, 90210, Party of five, Friends, Seinfeld, 60 minutes and I’m sure there were others. I’m not going to try to convince anyone that all of the above shows are educational, but they’re all certainly entertaining.

Since then there have been others, and better: Sex and the city, The Sopranos, The West wing, Borettslaget, Åpen post, Tout le monde en parle, The Daily show and now The Colbert Report (though these last two aren’t on TV here so I only get to watch snippets online), Nip/Tuck, Lost, the Office, Queer as folk (the British version) and last, but not least, my personal favourite: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’m sure I’ve forgotten plenty, and some of the ones I’ve mentioned don’t even exist anymore, but that’s life. Also, the American shows I mostly watch on DVD, as they tend to be dubbed on TV here in France, and I just can’t stand that.

Tonight I spent a couple of hours watching a French show called ’93, Faubourg St Honoré’ which is by the same guy who does ‘Tout le monde en parle’. It’s the third time I’ve seen it, and not only is it brilliant, but the concept is so ultra-French it’s hard to imagine it being made anywhere else. Basically the host, Thierry Ardisson (who I have a little crush on) invites a handful of people to a dinner party at his apartment, which by the way is gorgeous. The guests are allowed to come late if they feel like it, bring other friends along if they want so he never really knows who will be there until they show up. This evening the guests included one convservative political writer, two journalists, a novelist, a rapper, a North African folk singer, an actress and I can’t remember who the last woman was as she really didn’t speak much (and one woman who called to say she couldn’t make it because she couldn’t bear the thought of having to defend Chirac all by herself all evening).

They start with drinks in the kitchen, and then move on to the dinner table, where they discuss various issues over a three course meal with wine of course. They talked about politics, literature, slavery, music and all of it interspersed with personal anecdotes. It’s smart, it assumes that the audience has a certain previous knowledge on most issues and it’s funny. All this and food too J. It’s interesting to see how the mood changes over the course of the meal because while nobody gets very inebriated, a few glasses of wine definitely loosen people up a little.
I can’t wait to see who will be on the show next time!

(March 25, 2006)