The BAFTAs

Obviously, this post was written much closer to the award ceremony but published on Yellow Bunting on Saturday.

The BAFTA television awards have just passed and while there were a few givens (Olivia Coleman won both awards she was nominated for and currently holds the title of Number One Person you want to sit and have a cup of tea with) the rest of the bunch was varied to say the least.

But how much of what was shown accurately reflects what we as viewers are tuning into week in week out? The BAFTAs are decided by critics rather than voted for by the public like ITV’s National television awards and therefore has that air of gravitas. This is high culture right here, the stuff we should be watching. But is it?

There was one single audience award comprised of Homeland, Game of Thrones, Call the Midwife, Strictly Come Dancing, The Great British Bake Off and the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony. Surprisingly for some Game of Thrones took the prize (and delivered a very stilted acceptance speech) but some of those nominated were not recognised in any other category or they were in limited categories that don’t received as much attention or are not perceived of as important.

The one thing apart from that that all those shows have in common is they are labelled as ‘populist’, usually by those who use the word in a derogatory way. They draw in huge audience numbers (Sky Atalantic saw a 1700% increase in viewers for the Monday night slot when GoT series three debuted) and generate a load of interest from viewers but are not always critically acclaimed or if they are praised then there is an exception to them receiving wider acclaim and more nominations.

For example no one doubts the high quality and production values of GoT but it is often analysed within the parameters of genre since it is a fantasy show. Call the Midwife is Sunday Night Fluff, (Good Lord I hate the word “Fluff”) Bake Off is quaint Britishness, indicative of the twee WI wannabees sub-culture, Strictly is a guilty pleasure and Homeland is foreign so despite a British lead actor we can’t take credit for it and use it as a way to bemoan the lack of “slickness” on British TV.

In a way that can only be described as Hispster-esque, the word populist has negative connotation because of the idea that if something has mass appeal then it is automatically less deserving of our praise and conversely something is only praiseworthy is it has been seen by less than thirty people. 

Nudity and characterisation on Game of Thrones

It has been an article overload this week hasn't it?

This piece from Bitch Flicks by Lady T is a good read even if you don't watch GoT. The same logic can be applied to other shows with similar levels of nudity who maybe don't approach the characterisation of their female characters in the same way. It's doubly good as the author has also read the books so there's a double perspective their.

Game of Thrones is not like Lord of the Rings or other popular fantasy series that forget that women exist. Women are prominent in the society of Westeros, whether behind the scenes or fighting on the fields...Considering the presence of so many complex women in Game of Thrones, it seems like critics might save their nudity-related complaints for other programs that populate their shows with mere ciphers (if they cast any women at all). So why are we still talking about nudity on THIS show?

A case could be made to draw parallels between the way audiences respond to the depiction of violence  and the way they respond to gratuitous nudity and sexual scenes. Both raises the issue (in very different ways however, context is key in sexual scenes) of whether showing something condoning it, e.g. the furore that surrounded the release of Zero Dark Thirty.

Where they differ however is that sexuality isn't bad in any respect, the concerns are over how much should an audience see. As Lady T writes, many shows with GoT's levels of nudity are "praised for grim dark realism" but GoT is the one that gets called out on it. Whatever your opinions on how nudity (and let's face it the issue is always with female nudity specifically) no one can deny that GoT is filled with a huge variety of female characters who embody a range of different character types

Game of Thrones Parody on You Tube

Starring Lydia Bennet(Mary Kate Wiles) and "Did somebody say" Ron Weasley:

Funny without being snarky, this is both a tribute and a mickey take of GoT. Watch all three in one go! My favourite bit? The last scene of episode three. 

Game of Thrones most illegally downloaded show of 2012

According to BBC Entertainment's article the amount of people downloading a single episode of the series was higher than it's US audience. The top ten list is as follows:


Most pirated TV shows of 2012
1. Game of Thrones
2. Dexter
3. The Big Bang Theory
4. How I Met Your Mother
5. Breaking Bad
6. The Walking Dead
7. Homeland
8. House
9. Fringe
10. Revolution

Source: Torrentfreak