MINDLESS

Hurrah! The ratings for 'The GC' plummet...

I'm delighted to see that the audience figures have dropped away for TV3's The GC. The first  show was TV'3's  highest   rating show for Wednesday night -  but the second show lost some 80,000 viewers who clearly  did not enjoy having their intelligence insulted.

If the figures continue to slump then the chances that'll there be a second season of The GC become increasingly  remote. Instead  it'll be frogmarched to 'Bad TV Land' where shows like  April's Angels and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?  reside.

This show borrows from MTV's  Jersey Shore and Geordie Show. However because of its early 8pm timeslot The GC is  pale imitation  of those truly horrible  shows. I suppose we should be grateful for the fact that depictions of oral sex and people vomiting in bathrooms will not be seen on The GC.

The slick fat-paced editing of the show only  serves to emphasise just  how dull The GC  is. It's all style and no substance and no amount of clever editing will conceal that.  The characters have very little to say that isn't about themselves and nothing much  happens and it happens very slowly.   Like the characters in Waiting for Godot they all seem to be waiting for something to happen but in the meantime we are treated to  truly fascinating observations like the girls on the Gold Coast are more 'easy' than New Zealand girls.

This truly is a show for those who enjoy the 'humour' of the breakfast jocks on The Rock.

Nor is it  a 'fly on the wall' reality show. Some of it has obviously been scripted. You can see the joins.  The GC is actually a soap opera without the actors. In The GC's case, it appears that the kids never got paid for their 'work'.  That kind of makes you wonder who pocketed most of the money.

The big plot development in the first two episodes was one of the characters supposedly trashing one of the apartments.  However it all  happens away from the camera  and all the evidence I could see of a trashing was a broken glass and a untidy kitchen. I've seen more agitation on The Vicar of Dibley.

As Morgan Godfery writes on Maui Street: '... the reality is far from what is presented on The GC. Most Maori are working 9 to 5 jobs and supporting their whanau, not driving around in cars all day, sunbathing and saying stupid shit.'

I won't be watching The GC again but I'm not part of its target audience anyway so I won't be missed.   That the show is awful is self -evident but what I really object to is that this drivel  was given $420,000 by NZ On Air. Why is NZ On  Air now in the business of funding commercial shows like this?