Chuffed at Crufts This year's Best In Show winner, Fabulous Willy, celebrates. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA
Otherwise yappy, happy, scary, deluded and odd, the week in television has been given much weight by new series The Trap, brought to the BBC by Adam Curtis, writer and director of The Power of Nightmares. While political blogs cogitated on the ramifications of the series (Blairwatch, for one), the power and magnitude of the documentary has been dissected on this site by far cleverer people than your host already, so I'll stick with the lowbrow, (Mr Curtis has quite a high brow, and nice eyebrows, and a pleasantly round head, but that's about all I can add to the discussion) and move on.
The BBC, after much shouting about the fact that the first series of Castaway had been a breakthough in reality television and social experiment, returned with another series of Castaway, rejigged in a way that promised to ensure it will be neither breakthrough reality TV, nor social experiment. thecustard.tv, in their weekly roundup and review, The Crumble, provided a useful breakdown of the castaway contestants with very handy (and funny) "who this reminds us of" sections:
"Joe, 33: An occupational therapist who was at pains to say how 'emotional' he was. We're not sure if that's code for being gay, but we're fairly certain he is because otherwise the producers would not have ensured that Gemma's comments about not mixing with gay people were left in. His touchy-feely nature might grate satisfyingly against the alpha male personalities also on the island.
Reminds us of: Gareth Gates having a mid-30s life crisis."
They also point something out about one of the contestants that's very quickly starting to grate on me. It was on Unreality TV that I first noticed it.
"Castaway: Jonathan Shearer Brands Alister Cooling 'Traitor'
Today on Danny's Diary you can see Jonathan Shearer on the warpath.
He knows there is a traitor (or two) in their midst, and can't believe that after the group agreed not to vote for the person who had contributed least, many cracked and many voted for Jason Ross. Jason has now been sent into isolation for a week and his mate is FURIOUS!
The first person to incur his wrath was Alister Cooling the fantasy writer...."
People, people. Nonononono. Alister was introduced in the show as an "unpublished fantasy writer", which might as well translate - as The Crumble said, "no different to the rest of the population" - as "someone who hasn't had a novel published". Sweetheart, I'M an unpublished fantasy writer too. I've never EVER had a fantasy novel published. I'm also an unpublished romantic fiction writer. Never written one, so slightly unsurprising that it's not been published. Coincidentally, I'm also an actor, resting between jobs. It just happens to have been nine years between jobs so far.
And I'm a policewoman - I just don't happen to have a badge at the moment. Also, I'm a train driver. I'm just working for GU until I get a train driving job. Unpublished fantasy writers of the world unite - that'll be most of us then. If castaway Clare mentioned that she would like to be a politician one day, then by the time she comes out, is she going to just BE one, just because people get bored and drop the "aspiring" from her "politician" tag? We must be on our guard, for this is how these reality show contestants end up with actual careers. Stealth, and bad subbing. Oh whatever.
All sensible eyes over the weekend - and certainly those of hilarious fellow trashologists lowculture.co.uk - were on the BBC coverage of Crufts, which was certainly a lot more jolly than any of that Castaway business, less scary than The Trap, and certainly a lot more tuneful than Celebrity Fame Academy. As the fluffed up, floppy, freaky and frankly ridiculous animals were paraded around in little circles, there was much fun to be had, as Lowculture.co.uk's Kellie explained:
"While the dogs may look unnaturally primped, it's the handlers prancing alongside them who emerge looking most preposterous, not least because they have bestowed names upon their hapless pooches that read like those random nonsensical email subject headings designed to get through spam filters."
Brilliant. Now bring back One Man and his Dog.
Arguably not about "TV" (though apparently the media's a movable feast nowadays), it's worth noting that this is the last week of the The Show, by Ze Frank (as reported in Lost Remote, among others). A year-long project, The Show has been for many a perfect example of personality based internet video - engaging, powerful, occasionally moving and frequently hilarious, Ze has inspired a rabid following in the form of the Sportsracers, and it'll be interesting to see what he'll be doing next. Yes, alright, I'm a fan. I want to hug him, in a slightly lascivious way, I admit it. If you've not seen Ze, thanks to his new sponsorship the entire year's worth of shows will remain available, and you can watch my favourite here. Well, my favourite today. It'll change again tomorrow.
One to watch out for? Starting on US version FX, The Riches came to my attention in Aol's TVSquad's list of what to watch...
"The Malloys are your average, loving, dysfunctional family - except they're itinerant con artists who scam people for a living. Even the three kids get in on the act. But when a car accident gives them the chance to live the American Dream, father Wayne (Eddie Izzard) and mother Dahlia (Minnie Driver) decide to take it."
I harboured a deep and enduring love for Eddie Izzard in his early stand up career, but have always felt slightly sad and a bit pained by the more recent acting expoits. And a whole series resting on the shoulders of himself and Pepperami Driver? I want to find a way to watch it, I really do, but I don't know if my knuckles can take an hour's worth of ever increasing tooth pressure. Reviews have so far been mildly favourable but has anyone here seen it? Can anyone allay my Eddie fears?
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