TELEVISION concrete.television@uea.ac.uk
www.concrete-online.co.uk
20.09.2013
Educating Yorkshire
17
Zoe Jones The reaction to Channel 4’s Educating Yorkshire was somewhat disappointing. The programme presents the day to day events within the walls of Thornhill Community Academy in Dewsbury, run by no-nonsense Head teacher Jonny Mitchell. The first episode was completely captivating, and had the nation falling in love with students that we ourselves would have loathed at school. We will Ryan, a latte drinking 12 year old who dreams of becoming Prime Minister, to fulfil his current school goal to achieve ‘school council’ status. We are devastated that Bailey, a girl so genuinely impressed with her Scouse-brow that it centred in the advertising campaign, didn’t make Prefect. Although, her Scouse-brow was quite the achievement, like a child had gotten loose with some Crayola on her face. What was infuriating was the online feedback. Tweets such as ‘Don’t worry, not everyone from Yorkshire is thick!’ flooded twitter feeds, provoking an angry response
TwoFour from some. Something to note is that not one of the children featured was at all ‘thick’. One viewer’s comment was so naïve and bigoted it exuded social insensitivity; choosing to comment on “teachers not addressed as ‘Sir’,” “children using phones,” and “female teachers inclined to obesity”. What this particular person neglected to notice is that the body-
type of a female teacher does not, and never has, affect their teaching abilities whatsoever. Why it was felt necessary to single out the female gender also begs questioning. Additionally, in an increasingly technology-run society, where practically every child in school will own a mobile phone, it would be an inefficient and laborious task to
Bates Motel Adam White
Catfish Adam Dawson
A&E TV One of the few bones of contention in Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal 1960 masterpiece Psycho is its last-minute psychological profile of Norman Bates himself; an authoritative doctor diagnosing Bates’ madness and explaining his general weirdness with some out-of-nowhere exposition. It’s a moment that feels at odds with the rest of the film, much of its infamous tension sparked by suggestion rather than action. The prequel series Bates Motel adds even more context to a narrative that doesn’t exactly require it, with Freddie Highmore playing a teenage Norman, Vera Farmiga his infamous mother and new proprietor of a rundown Oregon motel. Murder, body bags and vaguely incestuous undertones naturally ensue, the show anchored by the mystery of how Norman Bates went from a gawky, misunderstood teenager shuffled around the country by
confiscate the phone from every child at the beginning of the school day. What has failed to be made clear, is that this school has been the subject of scrutiny as a result of the fly-onthe-wall documentary. While it was a previously failing school, Thornhill Community Academy has made one of the most significant improvements in the country, recently achieving 63% grade A-C and rated as ‘good’ by OFSTED. Of course, for entertainment purposes, the programme is going to focus on the kid that snowballs pensioners; it’s just good television. Focusing on disobedient and ill-disciplined children and playing up to social stereotypes might have been the only flaw in what was otherwise an accurate and poignant portrayal of modern community high schools. A high school is a living system, made up of living individuals that are, despite what the nation might think, only human. Thornhill is just like any other high school.
his frantic mother to the dysfunctional murderer of the Psycho movie. As a series, Bates Motel is as driven by its foregone conclusion as it is confined by it, its ability to intrigue audiences likely dependent on how much time they’re willing to give to a story with an ending they already know. With its present day setting and high school subplots amongst Bates Motel’s weaker elements, Farmiga is tasked with carrying much of the show’s intrigue. Thankfully she’s an interesting, evocative performer, seemingly aware of the show’s kitschy undertones and able to make Norma Bates a tragic but amusingly loopy protagonist. Whilst much of the show’s press has been devoted to Norman Bates and his gloomy destiny, it’s his mother who should be Bates Motel’s secret weapon in the long run, and the show’s one key area that almost justifies its very existence.
Everyone on the face of the planet has seen the documentary Catfish. But just in case you’ve been living in a cave like a hermit, this is what it’s about. Nev Schulman starts talking to a girl online. They eventually get into a relationship though they’ve never met. Nev and two friends investigate only to find out the woman he’d been talking to isn’t who she said she was. As he is now clearly an expert at dragging pictures into a Google image search, MTV has given him a show where he brings together couples who have never met. Some of the time these are genuinely sweet moments – the pair might just not have enough money to fly across America to see each other, or maybe something has
MTV Press
always got in the way of them trying to meet. It’s nice to watch two people meet up for the first time and enjoy each other’s company offline (because we all know it’s different). Despite the sweetness of certain moments, others are pretty hard to watch. How would you feel if someone had told you were they were a beautiful young woman, only to find out they’re actually an old hag? You’re simply watching someone’s dreams get crushed. That always makes for the best reality TV, right? Maybe not. Bearing in mind that this is a reality series on MTV, it’s surprisingly enjoyable. It’s not going to change the way you view the world but it will reinforce that if someone’s too good to be true, they probably aren’t.