Charlie Brooker

[M-CORP]

Just spent the afternoon watching old clips of Newswipe, thinking how well it's all aged and how ruthless - and right - Brooker could be when taking down the media, and thinking how it's a shame he left that behind, no-one really heeded his warnings, and now he's been hung out to dry after Black Mirror got too big and no-one liked Death to 2020 (not that it rekindled the old Wipe magic).

Not that I wish to go down the old cliché of 'oh they were so much better when I did what I wanted them to do, and now they don't do it anymore, boo hoo'... but it's interesting to compare, and look back on how satisfyingly vicious and scathing Brooker could be before he, by his own admission, ventured too far into the very media landscape he made a name for parodying.

Still, his latest thing, Cat Burglar, looks interesting? I'll have to give Antiviral Wipe another spin and see if it's better than I remember - and it was decent.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Yea he's made enough great stuff that there's no shame in him making more standard fare now - not many can maintain a scathing outside position in the media for long, took a well deserved subsuming into a world of ok content in exchange for comfort after a terrific run I think.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Screenwipe is still fantastic. Given how scathing it could be to certain programmes/people, and the very funny writing, it always felt a lot more interesting than just going "cuh, look at this dunce eh?"

Besides that, to an unwashed layman like me it was absolutely fascinating the way it told you how telly was made. Whether it was just a potted guide to something or a miserable look at how dreams and ethics can be crushed, that programme's stuck with me ever since.

Can say whatever about his later output, and it doesn't all grab me but fair fucks to him working on whatever passion projects he wants now. Can't expect him to have just stuck with the Wipe format forever. Besides it definitely feels like it's run its course even with huge gaps between one offs.

[Pink Gregory]

How TV Ruined Your Life is one of the only accessible series genuinely about media criticism put out by the BBC and I can't imagine that kind of thing being produced now.  He'll always get a point from me for that. 

Never had any time at all for his TV writing though.  Always far too on the nose for me, but then I don't really react well to drama in general.

[Brundle-Fly]

Yes, How TV Ruined Your Life is still some of the best writing I've ever enjoyed on the box. Some of it was really quite moving iirc.

[jamiefairlie]

His tribute to Oliver Postgate was incredibly touching

[Pink Gregory]

His tribute to Oliver Postgate was incredibly touching

No one else would have done that so late in the production of the show as well.  He was always careful to point out that under his snarky exterior that he had genuine enthusiasm and affection for television.

[badaids]

This is weird. I picked up the screen burn book this morning after not reading it for 15 plus years and it gave me more lols in the 20 pages I read through on the bog than any thing he's done since he wrote his mea culpa in the guardian and buggered off to be mega successful.

I remember a work mate and I gleefully grabbing the guardian every Friday just to read the screen burn column in the guide and read it out loud. Great days.

Not only was it funny and pushed me to find things I'd never found myself, For me at the time there was a real rush to reading a voice that formulated the way I felt and saw things but was unable to produce myself. Really taught me that it's possible to write by trusting your own voice rather than trying to be literary. Gave me hope and some wind to my own creative exploits.  I'm sure there are loads of people that felt the same way.

When he wrote the ´so long' article I remember being quite angry (and jealous). It felt like a friend going off to university and better things or something and you knew it would change them (for the better) and that you'd be left behind and things would never be the same again.

[retsuza]

Genuinely one of the things I most looked forward to at the end of the year was the year-in-review Wipes. Even though something like that could pretty much be done indefinitely I'm kind of glad he moved onto Black Mirror which used to be very good.

Didn't like Death to 2020 at all, not exactly sure why but maybe that kind of satire has just become so oversaturated - boris and trump are stupid, and have you all heard about this coronavirus going around? Maybe it's the different era/climate we live in now, maybe its me.

I took a look at the topics covered under the 2012 Wipe, feels almost as if it were 10 years ago so it does.

Under discussion are the Costa Concordia, The Artist, The Voice UK, panic buying in the UK, Fifty Shades of Grey, Kony 2012, advertisements, the Grand National, Baggage and other Channel 4 shows, Jimmy Carr's tax avoidance, the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, "Gangnam Style", Superstar, the London Olympics and Paralympics, the British press and Leveson Inquiry, Innocence of Muslims, The Dark Knight Rises, Plebgate, the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal, the 2012 presidential elections in the US and Russia, Kate Middleton's pregnancy.

[up_the_hampipe]

Remember when he was friends with Aisleyne from Big Brother 7 and they went to Glastonbury together?

[Pink Gregory]

Didn't like Death to 2020 at all, not exactly sure why but maybe that kind of satire has just become so oversaturated - boris and trump are stupid, and have you all heard about this coronavirus going around? Maybe it's the different era/climate we live in now, maybe its me.

In many ways I think the laziest satire and criticism was given credence when Johnson/Trump was a thing because it meant you could look around systemic problems and just gawp at two bastards mugging for the cameras.

The individualism of liberal satire I suppose.  Not saying that they were doing anything different before.

[Jumblegraws]

Besides that, to an unwashed layman like me it was absolutely fascinating the way it told you how telly was made. Whether it was just a potted guide to something or a miserable look at how dreams and ethics can be crushed, that programme's stuck with me ever since.

Yeah, this was a point I always made when people would criticise him for doing nothing more than sneering at crap telly. Even if that in itself were an innately lesser comedic calling, it was really only one part of what the Wipe series were all about. I don't think you could do much better for an accessible look at how TV is made and at its best I found they were teaching me stuff I didn't know I didn't know about telly production. I wonder if the change in the TV landscape since Screenwipe was last on - and the fact that he's crawled further into the belly of that beast since - ever makes him consider revisiting the format? Not getting my hopes up, mind.

[Sonny_Jim]

Fair play to the lad, I was just saying to a friend today about just how much work of his I'd absorbed other years without twigging it was him.  Used to read his stuff in Oink, then I remember reading TVGoHome on the 6th form computers, then later I'm laughing my ass off at the various wipes he did.  The peak was when he did Bandersnatch with Jeff Minter, it was almost like he was custom creating this stuff for me, personally.

Watched a bit of that cartoon he did on Netflix.  It's not mind blowing but it certainly has a lot of attention to detail and it can be quite funny.

[BritishHobo]

I think despite the bile, I liked that there was a sort of empathy there for the people that TV would chew up and spit out. The reality TV episode of Screenwipe, where he makes Apprentice-pastiche 'The Bastard' still remains cathartic and relevant today in the age of Love Island contestants being branded evil on social media because of the heavily-edited representation of actions they've taken under the manipulative duress of ITV producers. His Jade Goody segment after her death influenced me a lot I think to be much less judgmental of people who are strung out by TV producers.

[Captain Z]

Definitely, and similarly I remember the early episode of Screenwipe that had a segment on the brutal reality of the job of a runner.

[Hillbert]

I think I'd give my left leg for an interactive Netflix special for "A Touch of Cloth"

[pigamus]

Yes, How TV Ruined Your Life is still some of the best writing I've ever enjoyed on the box. Some of it was really quite moving iirc.

The bits that were basically Screenwipe were good, but the sketches and other business were just annoying. I just want Charlie shouting at the telly. I don't want Kevin Eldon in some tiresome parody, I don't want a quiz, I don't even want Stanhope or Cunk that much. It was like after about two series of Screenwipe they had to start fucking about with the format, which I hate. Just give me the thing I like!

[neveragain]

I don't want Kevin Eldon

Sheer madness.
But seriously, those sketches were great. The 'Two Pints'-esque sitcom was masterful and Eldon was terrific as both the fictional character and its depressed actor.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

I think despite the bile, I liked that there was a sort of empathy there for the people that TV would chew up and spit out.

I think this is what made Brooker so funny in general. He wasn't just raging about things being crap or disappointing, but that the crapness of the media landscape came from a basic disregard or callousness towards the dignity of regular people. Whether it was something fairly major like Jade Goody to the condescension inherent in advertising or videogame coverage.

As much as I loved TvGoHome and Screenwipe, I'm glad he stopped rather than merge into 2010s "angry reviewer" and edgelord shite where the ranting wasn't driven by any sense of injustice, but just arghhh this media property is crap and that makes me so angry rarghhh. He might have dodged a bullet by never getting Gameswipe together as a series - imagine how a program of men shouting about crap videogames would look in hindsight.

Still a bit baffled by the decision to shift from a program about television to a straight current affairs thing, though. A guy who's great at showing how the sausage is made on tv and bringing up BBC ephemera isn't likely to be the best person to tell you what's going on parliament or US foreign policy.

[PlanktonSideburns]

I think despite the bile, I liked that there was a sort of empathy there for the people that TV would chew up and spit out. The reality TV episode of Screenwipe, where he makes Apprentice-pastiche 'The Bastard' still remains cathartic and relevant today in the age of Love Island contestants being branded evil on social media because of the heavily-edited representation of actions they've taken under the manipulative duress of ITV producers. His Jade Goody segment after her death influenced me a lot I think to be much less judgmental of people who are strung out by TV producers.

Yea that's a big bit of what makes him ace isn't it - there's always love and empathy in him

[Midas]

Has Black Mirror finished now then?

[neveragain]

There's been no word about it for ages. I'd welcome another series, and pray it would reach pre-Bandersnatch quality. I happen to love Bandersnatch but it's a handy breakwater between the golden days and the doldrums. (Well, doldrums is exaggerating but those last three were lacking something.)

[Alberon]

I think he's got bored of doing that sort of thing and wants to try new stuff.

But I would love to see a return of Jack Cloth though.

[Pseudopath]

Has Black Mirror finished now then?

If I recall correctly, Brooker (and his co-writer/producer Annabel Jones) no longer own the rights to the show. So, unless their new production company (Broke and Bones) stumps up the cash to buy the rights, it's unlikely we'll see any more Brooker-helmed episodes.

[popcorn]

Just read a scan of an issue of GamesMaster I had when I was a kid and it had one of Brooker's CEX ads in it. Felt really weird.

[g0m]

Just read a scan of an issue of GamesMaster I had when I was a kid and it had one of Brooker's CEX ads in it. Felt really weird.

the it's Toby! ones? those feel like such a weird cultural artefact now

[Mobbd]

Didn't like Death to 2020 at all, not exactly sure why but maybe that kind of satire has just become so oversaturated - boris and trump are stupid, and have you all heard about this coronavirus going around? Maybe it's the different era/climate we live in now, maybe its me.

A prevailing flavour to most of Brooker's stuff before that was "we're clearly sliding into a dystopia." It's there in his "decline of TV" stuff (his column but also How TV Ruined Your Life, Screenwipe, and Dead Set) and it's practically a "dystopia observatory" by the time we get to Newswipe.

If he does anything now, it shouldn't try to recapture the old magic with things like 2020 (because that approach is clearly doomed) but some sort of "look, don't say I didn't warn you." I suppose that's Black Mirror in a way but the speculative tone doesn't quite acknowledge how far into the black mirror we already actually are.

Anyway, back to my poo.

[Mobbd]

There's been no word about it for ages. I'd welcome another series, and pray it would reach pre-Bandersnatch quality. I happen to love Bandersnatch but it's a handy breakwater between the golden days and the doldrums. (Well, doldrums is exaggerating but those last three were lacking something.)

Is that the general consensus on Black Mirror? I watched them all but only once (liking them all but not enough to rewatch any of them). My feeling was that it got better and better. The early ones like the pifucking and the one with Tealeaf from Psychoville were very good but felt a bit proto to me while ones like Hated in the Nation and the social credits episode and the one with Andrew Moriarty from Sherlock in the car felt very much like the show had landed. Only going on my memory here.

[stonkers]

the it's Toby! ones? those feel like such a weird cultural artefact now

It was only quite recently I discovered that 1) CEX is the old Tottenham Court Road Exchange and 2) Charlie Brooker co-founded it.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

It was only quite recently I discovered that 1) CEX is the old Tottenham Court Road Exchange and 2) Charlie Brooker co-founded it.

bloody hell!