Reviews

In a world where seemingly everyone is a caricature - Åke the insane super nerd; Lill-Erik, the ultimate punch-bag; Klimpen, the epitome of a bully; Torleif, the recorder-playing, cultured snob; and of course the hot girls, Paulina, Nadja, etc - Bert himself is just your average teenager, with his fantasies and life experiences. He plays in a garage rock band, the Heman Hunters, plays soccer, longs for company from the opposite sex and secretly writes his diary.

It is a strangely surreal show that expands beyond being an average young-teen angst series like "Eva och Adam" and becomes an oddity that is worth seeing by anyone. The show's intro is classic, where Bert (played brilliantly, I should add, by Martin Andersson) dances around in front of the mirror in his underpants to Lill-Babs' "Älskade Ängel".

Also appearing are Johan Ulvesson (hilarious) as Bert's boring dad, an optician, and Henrik Schyffert as the sort of subtly hilarious game show host that only he could play. Well worth seeing but not a complete hit for Swedish television.

Awful, awful, awful times a hundred still doesn't begin to describe how crappy "Biggest Loser" is. Picture this: take two fat couples with nothing interesting to say, humiliate them, and let them work to lose weight, all on prime time television. Am I the only one who thinks that this isn't something people with IQs in the 3-digit area WANT TO WATCH? Everything drags on forever, with the lumps of lard whining on about how losing weight is going to mean so much for them and their lives. Does anyone care? Do they think we care? Do they care if we care? Probably not. I think I'll videotape myself doing crunches and sell it to some major television corporation. If this passes for television, then so can my workouts!

Nostalgic value is what saves this series from being completely forgettable. In my opinion only one TV series based on Astrid Lindgren's books was worth seeing, and it was Emil i Lönneberga. This show is only recommended if your kid is restless and you want to kill some time. No memorable characters, no compelling plot lines, and no hilarious jokes or sidekicks, but the series does have a soothing and innocent atmosphere that small kids will enjoy.

The plot concerned three families, mainly their children, in a small community called Bullerbyn (Noise Village) somewhere in Sweden. Cute, like I said, but only in small doses.

What's there to say? A group of people, ranging from uninteresting to repulsive, are locked up in a house, where their daily life is videotaped and broad-casted. Absolutely nothing of interest happens. So, one of the slutty girls flashes a boob or two every now and then. Is that really enough of a reason to keep this hideous abomination of a show on the air? There's no redeeming value! No one gives a shite's arse about these characters! Their little conversations are so dumb it rivals the scripts by Ed Wood! I urge everyone to stay away from this show, it will rot your bloody mind. A little stupid humour is fine every now and then, but there is a limit to how low you're willing to go to kill some time in front of the TV.

My favourite character from this show is Linda, who amazingly has the nerve to complain that media is portraying her as a blond, ditzy bimbo... which she is.

Strangely funny at times, but pretty annoying at others, "Beavis and Butthead" has become an American icon and as recognizable as King Kong or Darth Vader. Their constant, and I mean literally constant, teenage laughs, their lowbrow humour, and odd personality traits make them endearing characters. Beavis is, by far, my favourite. His laugh isn't nearly as annoying as Butthead's. He also suffers from multiple personalities. Sometimes he'll put his shirt over his head, walk around with his arms lift and repeatedly state that he's the great Cornholio. Cornholio always needs TP for his bunghole. Strangely enough he also claims that in his country they don't have any bungholes.

Anyway, what can be said? The jokes are sometimes hysterical and it is somewhat of a celebration of stupidity. If you're into Dumb and Dumber-style humour then this is for you.

David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson's magnum opus from the late eighties is shameless exploitation, but the hot bodies are enough to make it worth watching, if miss-able. There's really nothing more to say other than the fact that this show seriously boosted Pam's career, and made it possible for her to prove her acting skills in the action epic "Barb Wire" seven years later. OK, so maybe that movie wasn't that good, but at least Pam got naked a lot in it, so it has to be worth something, right?

Anyway, this show is to be taken at face value. Ignore all poor attempts at characterization and plot and just enjoy the hot beach people bouncing around.

Just a few seconds ago, while checking his profile, I read that AFV's current host Tom Bergeron used to work as a mime. It figures. He's possibly the stiffest, dullest host ever to crawl across the screen. His jokes aren't deadpan, they're just dead, period. As if the puns weren't bad enough, his telling of them will have the audience snoring rather than laughing.

That being said... some of the clips are absolutely hilarious! Watching a baby hit his father in the nuts with a baseball bat may be too lowbrow for you, but simple humour is often funny humour. Although some videos are obviously staged (which makes you wonder just how bored these people are), the ones that depict real accidents are hilarious. So if you can stand Bergeron's droning attempts at ruining funny videos, check this out.

Having grown up with the Swedish dubbed version of Aladdin, I had no problem with the fact that Robin Williams didn't voice the Genie in the series. What I had a problem with was that the insane jokes weren't nearly up to the quality of the original movie. The plot line was nothing you cared about in this show, it was all about how many gags the sidekicks (Abu, Yago and The Genie) could crack during each episode. Aladdin and Jasmine almost became secondary characters because they were so 2 dimensional and flat. So, while some jokes were hilarious, there really was nothing outstanding about this show. Of course, it could've been worse (read: The "Doug" TV series).

Unpretentious, exciting and fun, "The Adventures of Tintin" was great viewing despite the blandness of the title role. Being the only dull character in the team, Tintin and his smart dog Milou were a great contrast to the insane people that surrounded them: the foul-mouthed sea captain with a great vocabulary, Captain Haddock, the somewhat confused but brilliant Professor Calculus, and the always-ready French detectives Dupond and Dupondt.

Throughout his adventures Tintin visited the moon, fought giant spiders, stopped wars, investigated meteorites and huge mushrooms, and unraveled mystery after mystery. And it never got boring, not once! Absolutely amazing show that can be watched again, and whose plot won't insult the intelligence of adults, either!

A major part of my TV viewing childhood, "Aaaaah! Real Monsters" is a hilarious show with bizarre gags, wince-inducing body modifications (I distinctly remember Ickis and Krumb morphing into the same body after a failed attempt at eating each other) and totally bad-ass monsters. Our unlikely heroes are purple little Ickis, a rabbit-like monster afraid of his own shadow, Krumm, a little flesh blob who holds his eyes in his hands and badly needs deodorant, and Oblina, a spaghetti-like candy stick thing who tries to hold the team together.

Full of gags and extremely creative monster designs, "Real Monsters" will be dearly missed. Amazing show even if it's just for kids.