Thursday, September 22, 2005

Losing the plot… Football I’ve written a few words about Premiership football in the past, in large part about the knife edge it walks between being a sport/entertainment and a business so it’s interesting, for me anyway, to see how this particular season has highlighted how bad things have become. Even a certain Mr Wenger, who strangely has a christian name almost the same as the club he manages, has commented that fans coughing up £50, £60, £70 or more should at least expect to be entertained, but his counterpart Jose Mourinho doesn’t agree saying it’s all about focus and winning. And you can see his point; the Premiership now embodies free market economics so who cares if the fans get value for money as long as you keep winning and bringing in money. One thing that Jose forgets however is that without fans there is no football, they are in business terms ‘the customer’, and are the most important part of this sport/business. So how dull has this season been? Well in the first month of this Premiership season fewer goals were scored than in the previous ten. Of Man Utd and Liverpool’s 0-0 draw both Ferguson and Benítez admitted it provided nothing for the fans but at least the players showed ‘good spirit and attitude’. As Simon Hattenstone in The Guardian noted here was a bunch of footballers, some paid up to £5m a year, and fans are expected to except their good attitude as a bonus. Oh and Liverpool’s manager is a pleased as punch that his team has yet to concede a goal but how many have they scored? Er…hint it’s between 0 and 2. At least I suppose the players themselves offer some level of entertainment as most put in Oscar winning performances when tackled and Wayne Rooney just can’t help losing his temper with referees. However help is at hand and it was staring footy fans in the face. The Champions League. More goals, lots more as it happens, variety and best of all you haven’t a clue who’s going to win. So abandon the over paid, whinging, IQ just scraping in double digit, Cadillac Escalade driving, look I’ve married a Spice Girl underachievers and rediscover why you liked football in the first place. Lost I was warned the JJ Abram had a tendency to start something without having a clue of where he was going and it looks like they were right. Lost started brilliantly and I for one was hooked but the slow realisation that it’s not going anywhere, and I don’t mean just ‘cos they are stuck on an island, has dawned on me. Too much characterisation, not enough plot and some breaking of the immutable laws of script writing have left me feeling JJ doesn’t know what he’s doing. Yes it’s great that the characters are being fleshed out but hey some weird stuff has happened on the island and it barely gets a mention. In the second episode someone shoots a polar bear, not strange you might think but as they are on a tropical island it should at least raise a eyebrow or two however it’s never mentioned again. Oh...perlease!

5 Comments:

Blogger Mr Ports said...

I don't know if you saw the E4 preview of the next episode last night but someone does mention the Polar Bear. And whilst it doesn't necesarily move on very much, there is a revelation of sorts when Siad meets someone on the Island who is not from the plane...

9/22/2005 01:20:00 pm  
Blogger Tony C said...

Yeah but surely if you'd shot a Polar Bear on a tropical island even after a plane crash, it'd be a major topic of conversation.

Besides I understand there's a whole 2nd series of this which takes us no closer to finding out what is going on. Pah!

9/22/2005 01:54:00 pm  
Blogger Mr Ports said...

I understand your concern Woody, but at the moment I'm actually enjoying the revelations about each character each week. So for example I'm looking forward to find out fat boy Hurley's back story. But this is episode 8/9 of a series of 25 so I wonder how long they can carry on with this. There are only so many principal characters. Although if they, for example, go into the dog's back story it could be interesting ;-)

I guess I started watching this in the same way as The Prisoner so I wish I don't know that it just goes on and on. We need less Lock and more Leo McKern. "I am not a number .." etc.

9/23/2005 09:46:00 pm  
Blogger Tony C said...

I reckon the technique is to wait for the DVD boxed sets and watch 'em one series at a time. Get all over and done with in one go.

Yeah, I read the 8 series material story. He'd have 'lost' everyone by then. Boom, boom!!!

9/24/2005 06:53:00 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The French woman is a nutter, Boon dies, Siad gets the hots for his sister, Soyer has met Jack's Dad in Sydney, and they find a hatch in the ground where a scottish bloke Jack once met is hiding in quarantine.

They dont half drag it out....

9/28/2005 08:57:00 am  

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