Politics slow summer TV slump

IT seems the summer schedule has come early with very few shows of interest on the television. I feel as if everything has been around for ages and that really there is nothing new at all to watch.
Everywhere I turn there is Gleemania and it seems for us non-Gleeks – the apparently dwindling number who don’t watch Glee – this means that television no longer holds our interest in a kind of escapist way.
No, I am not a particular fan.
I like the start of the programme and the first season was okay but, as I have written on more than one occasion, these new teen dramas lack the punch and swagger of the dramas we grew up with.
They may have the fast-pace and wide-ranging vocabulary of Dawson’s Creek but they do not, nor will they ever, have the poignant dreariness of My So Called Life. So, alas, I will not be tuning in no matter how boring and ridiculous the other programmes may seem.
So it is with a tear in my eye that I turn away from frivolous programming and towards the grown-up world of current affairs. Hasn’t it been fantastic to watch the British try and tackle the issue of coalition?
I have found it particularly interesting, not from a Gleek point of view but rather a plain old geek one.
I love the way in which we elect politicians. I am not saying that the Oireachtas doesn’t need reform but I am saying that the actual way in which we elect our representatives is wonderful.
Proportional Representation is a wonderful system and I love, and this is no exaggeration as I have done quite significant research into it, LOVE the single transferable vote.
The British have virtually no experience forming, talking about, or even hypothesising about coalition. The very formation of it hangs on whether or not the parties can agree to changing electoral reform and introduce some sort of PR. For us anoraks it is like all our Christmases have come together. These people are not talking policy, they are talking quotas. On every programme from Newsnight to the Morning Show it’s coalition this and electoral reform that.
The coverage has been bog standard. Haggard journalists outside the Houses of Parliament, exhausted from the “will they-won’t they” adrenaline rush every time someone emerges from the building.
I would encourage everyone to tune in, if only to learn a little about how our friends across the water conduct their political business.
The other big political issue this week has, of course, been the Aftershock series a number of programmes set over the week dealing with the crisis here, how we are coping now and how we will cope.
The first aired on Sunday night on ghost towns while in Monday’s issue Matt Cooper from Today FM, Justine McCarthy, Richard Curran and Dan O’Brien put forward their opinions on what we need to do as a nation now to move forward and avoid a fate similar to Greece.
Frontline aired a special using the programme as a stimulus for a debate. Whether you agreed with Micheal Martin, Leo Varadkar from Fine Gael or economist, Colm McCarthy, one thing is for sure – you were listening to what they were saying and you were debating the merits of what they had to say in your head, with your family or just with the television itself.
They were joined by employers in the studio from all backgrounds and, for the first time I have seen on television, the programme did not descend into a personality contest. Each panellist, audience member and pundit put forward their ideas and they were listened to and responded to. Of course, they did not always agree but it was a debate as it should be – civilised and informed. 
Nothing is likely to come from these programmes but it was certainly worth watching, if only to get, as Hercule Poirot would say, ze little grey cells working. The Aftershock series continues this Thursday with a Prime Time and Nationwide special.
Much to my dismay RTÉ have once again employed the… ahem… talents of Baz from How Low Can You Go.
This time in a shock move (and yes, I am being very sarcastic) he is presenting a programme that sees him trying to be action man. No, not content with driving us mad on How Low Can You Go and Baz’s Culture Clash, Ashmawy is back and this time he is doing lots of different jobs.
The series will see him visit a maximum-security jail in Oklahoma, fishing in a trawler in Wexford and cage fighting in Northern Ireland among other things.
Hmm… somehow I don’t think any of these activities are going to be exposed or documented in a way that will make Louis Theroux look like a paid monkey. In fact, I can assume that there will be lots of screaming, making faces into the camera and generally very uninsightful commentary on what he is doing. Or I could be wrong. Sure, check it out for yourself Baz’s Extreme Worlds, Monday on RTÉ Two.