Hello World!
I hope everyone is fine and getting excited about the festive season beginning a month today and obviously the birth of that guy who wore alot of white. But I'm guessing you're thinking more about the random title of this blog... and so you should.
But don't worry Tony B hasn't been living it up in LA ordering ladies of the night Angus Deayton style. I just thought as last week's new look Stage was all about the joys of light entertainment, I would mix it up with concentrating on the darker side of entertainment in this joyous, caring, credit crunch fighting industry we all deeply love (said through gritted teeth).
Now I do love a bit of light entertainment, Siegfried and Roy's act never hurt anyone did it. Oh it did? Well moving on, Cannon and Ball are harmless! But I seem to be drawn to the darker side of things when it comes to entertainment, and oh how there is alot of it around! Whether it is good is the question though. What makes a dark piece of theatre, a shocking film or a tv show which challenges you in that way good?
I hope everyone is fine and getting excited about the festive season beginning a month today and obviously the birth of that guy who wore alot of white. But I'm guessing you're thinking more about the random title of this blog... and so you should.
But don't worry Tony B hasn't been living it up in LA ordering ladies of the night Angus Deayton style. I just thought as last week's new look Stage was all about the joys of light entertainment, I would mix it up with concentrating on the darker side of entertainment in this joyous, caring, credit crunch fighting industry we all deeply love (said through gritted teeth).
Now I do love a bit of light entertainment, Siegfried and Roy's act never hurt anyone did it. Oh it did? Well moving on, Cannon and Ball are harmless! But I seem to be drawn to the darker side of things when it comes to entertainment, and oh how there is alot of it around! Whether it is good is the question though. What makes a dark piece of theatre, a shocking film or a tv show which challenges you in that way good?
Obviously there is no clear answer to this question, and if there was I
wouldn't be the founder of it. But I guess this is the bit of the blog
where I try and come up with some form of answer.
Now first of all I think people want to be challenged, because even though light entertainment is good I feel everyone needs that little bit of grit in their lives, so they search for that little bit of darkness in entertainment. I guess that is why, as a nation, we love the initial auditions of X Factor so much because we love to see people fail, as it makes us feel better about our lives.
But moving away from that and back to the question, what factors make dark entertainment good? I personally think it is down the basics, just like creating any other form of entertainment. It needs substance, it can't just be dark for the sake of being dark. Lets take a look back at Edinburgh Festival. Now then I feel producers have caught onto the fact that humans love to be shocked and challenged, and so they sit in their chairs or maybe even lounge in their hammocks, and think 'Hmm what is shocking at the moment, I know maybe we could put Tony Blair in an all dancing all singing musical, where he professes to be the 'love child' of Madonna and Martin Luther King. This will be a hit" - and the thing is, IT WAS! Now even though it was a hit, I don't believe that it makes good dark entertainment. People went to see it because they thought this will be dark and controversial, and to be fair it was funny but lacked in substance and because of this, it will not stand the test of time. So my second factor in making dark entertainment exciting and brilliant is it needs longevity otherwise it is nothing more than a fad.
Finally I think that the third factor it needs to be brilliant is it needs to be original. Not just original writing, but the ideas need to be there and it needs to be original enough for it to stand out from the crowd, but not too crazy that it cuts off a potential audience. I think a perfect example is 'Puppetry of the Penis'! Now I haven't seen this show... honest! But the whole idea of it is dark, it is challenging, it is funny, it is original and I have heard that their 'props' have longevity. It has the three factors I personally feel that need to make dark entertainment, instead of people jumping on the bandwagon and creating these pieces which just have a shocking yet intriguing title and then the whole thing lacks in substance - which kind of describes this blog. It was done intentionally to prove a point, no seriously it was, IT WAS OK!
That will be all. x
Now first of all I think people want to be challenged, because even though light entertainment is good I feel everyone needs that little bit of grit in their lives, so they search for that little bit of darkness in entertainment. I guess that is why, as a nation, we love the initial auditions of X Factor so much because we love to see people fail, as it makes us feel better about our lives.
But moving away from that and back to the question, what factors make dark entertainment good? I personally think it is down the basics, just like creating any other form of entertainment. It needs substance, it can't just be dark for the sake of being dark. Lets take a look back at Edinburgh Festival. Now then I feel producers have caught onto the fact that humans love to be shocked and challenged, and so they sit in their chairs or maybe even lounge in their hammocks, and think 'Hmm what is shocking at the moment, I know maybe we could put Tony Blair in an all dancing all singing musical, where he professes to be the 'love child' of Madonna and Martin Luther King. This will be a hit" - and the thing is, IT WAS! Now even though it was a hit, I don't believe that it makes good dark entertainment. People went to see it because they thought this will be dark and controversial, and to be fair it was funny but lacked in substance and because of this, it will not stand the test of time. So my second factor in making dark entertainment exciting and brilliant is it needs longevity otherwise it is nothing more than a fad.
Finally I think that the third factor it needs to be brilliant is it needs to be original. Not just original writing, but the ideas need to be there and it needs to be original enough for it to stand out from the crowd, but not too crazy that it cuts off a potential audience. I think a perfect example is 'Puppetry of the Penis'! Now I haven't seen this show... honest! But the whole idea of it is dark, it is challenging, it is funny, it is original and I have heard that their 'props' have longevity. It has the three factors I personally feel that need to make dark entertainment, instead of people jumping on the bandwagon and creating these pieces which just have a shocking yet intriguing title and then the whole thing lacks in substance - which kind of describes this blog. It was done intentionally to prove a point, no seriously it was, IT WAS OK!
That will be all. x
Art is subjective. People can slag a programme for poor production values, hammy acting which doesn't come across as true or believable, dialogue which again doesn't feel true. But for a number of people who will hate it, there will be someone somewhere who feels some kind of affection for it.
As a prime example of dark entertainment, I'd look at Dexter. It's positively gruesome. The lead is a man who murders people he deems to be guilty. And yet he's sympathetic as a lead, even likeable! I watched the first season thinking... this is sick... but it's great. And I was shocked to find that I could watch it.
There's a fascination with the dark and disturbing - why crime dramas do so well - but it has to be said, sometimes it can get too much. When the world can seem such a cruel horrible place, often the last thing I want is to watch Trial and Retribution. I even found Survivors hard to watch, and kept flicking away to other channels, because its depiction of a flu virus of that kind felt too close to home. So instead I watch strictly come dancing, or watch sarah jane adventures.
Now, SJA is a great example of dealing with dark themes but in a digestable way, filled with hope and triumph. Quality children's television often deals with dark territory. It goes back to the basest of fairy tales. A young girl locked in a tower. A witch that lures children into her home. A wicked queen who sends out a hunter to kill her stepdaughter.
Roald Dahl, another one, great at showing how just not to trust adults implicitly, as so often in his books they were vile, like James' aunts, or Mathilda's parents.
Darkness is part of life, and we have to process it and deal with it somehow. But just as dark stories, from fairy tales to the biggest crime drama, can whet our appetite and even be enjoyed, there is always more than enough room for frothy light programming which is far from darkness.
Oh, and also, I have nowhere else to put it and can't tell any of my friends - but I got a bloomin' audition!!! Woo! For TV, big network show. Tiny part, but I don't care. I know lots of people will be up for it, they might have in mind who they already want yadda yadda, but it's been so long, I really hope I can at least do myself justice. Fingers crossed eh.
Congratulations Emmy!