The Guardian 11 May, 2005
TV programs worth watching
Sun May 15 — Sat May 21
Frankenstein: Birth Of A Monster (ABC 9.25pm Sunday) is the story of Mary
Shelley and the creation of her masterpiece Frankenstein or the Modern
Prometheus.
Professor Robert Winston draws numerous parallels between the novel and Mary's tragic life.
The daughter of the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary ran away with the revolutionary poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley when she was 16. He was already married with two children.
Winston evinces a distinct antipathy towards Shelley, whose political convictions he sneeringly
dismisses. He also has a tendency to sniff with ill-disguised disapproval at the bohemian
lifestyle favoured by the Romantics, especially the triangular ménage of Percy, Mary and Mary's
15-year-old stepsister Jane Clairmont.
The numerous untimely deaths in Mary's life (only one of her children survived infancy, for
example, and Percy was himself drowned at 29) would seem designed to break anyone's spirit,
but far from being uncommon, were actually typical of life (and life expectancy) in the first half of
the 19th century.
Mary Shelley went on to write numerous other books, including an apocalyptic science fiction
work in 1826 depicting the end of the world due to plague (The Last Man). However,
unlike Professor Winston, she ardently championed the work of her late husband.
The serious intent and depth of Frankenstein becomes very apparent in the course of this
imaginative account of its genesis and its author's sad trials.
When I received the tape of the four-part series The Shearers (ABC 8.00pm
Tuesdays), I thought, "Oh good, a documentary series about workers." But I was only partly
right.
The essence of documentary is that it portrays the reality of its subject. The Shearers,
however, is not so much about the reality of shearing as about the artificiality of a four-week
competitive shearing school.
We follow 12 students competing in the school, as most are eliminated until only two
remain.
Like all misnamed "reality TV", this Tasmanian effort is really soap opera rather than
documentary. Two of the students, Lisa Hansch and Collin Lawrence have "personal hurdles" to
overcome.
"Collin, a woodcutter and former meat worker, has an anger management problem and Lisa has
to learn to use technique to compensate for her lack of physical strength." In the first episode
"Collin gets angry when he loses control of a sheep and is threatened with
expulsion.
"Lisa becomes ill and is unable to shear for a day. She is worried that this may jeopardise her
chance of being selected for the next stage."
You get the idea.
Screening in the Cutting Edge timeslot (SBS 8.30pm Tuesday), the PBS
Frontline program Made In China, according to its own publicity, "explores the
relationship between US job losses and the American consumer's insatiable desire for
bargains". Leaving aside job losses for the moment, I would think the American consumer — far
from having an "insatiable desire for bargains" — was simply trying to stretch an already meagre
pay packet as far as possible.
But what else can you expect from a White House cheer squad like PBS Frontline?
Most of the program is actually concerned with the way the world's biggest company, retail giant
Wal-Mart does business. The Walton family's company has such market clout it can, and does
all the time, force down the prices it pays for products, until American producers can no longer
afford to supply it.
Former exploited colonial and neo-colonial countries like China are only too willing to build up
their own economies by supplying US companies' "insatiable demand" for lower-priced goods.
In 2003, the US had a US$120 billion trade deficit with China.
Professor Gary Gereffi from Duke University says that 80 percent of Wal-Mart's 6000 suppliers
now use production facilities in China. By Wal-Mart's own estimate it imports $US15 billion of
Chinese goods a year.
The program predictably points to China as the culprit, rather than to capitalism and Walmart in
particular for its policy of forcing down prices it will pay for goods, leaving its suppliers with no
option than seeking lower waged countries.
A new series of Doctor Who begins this week (ABC 7.30pm Saturdays) and I
am pleased to say that it is very good indeed. It's a welcome change to see a sci-fi series that is
not an excuse for militarist posturing, unlike say Stargate or the most recent Star
Trek series.
I used to enjoy the original long-running Dr Who series, especially the ones with Tom Baker as
the Doctor. In the new series, the Doctor is played by Christopher Eccleston in what appears to
be an attempt to emulate the jocular Tom Baker style.
Indeed, the new series combines the adventures typical of the earlier series with a sense of the
comic that derives more from The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy and Red
Dwarf.
The new series of Dr Who does however have virtues of its own: the young woman who
becomes the Doctor's accidental helper (played by Billie Piper) is much more pro-active and
decisive than before. The special effects are of course much improved and it's pitched at a
slightly older audience.
There are some odd alterations, too: each story is told in a single 45-minute episode, the Doctor
is now the last of his race, his planet has been destroyed, and the control console of the
TARDIS (his time-travelling space ship) is now a curious mixture of sci-fi electronics and Heath
Robinsonesque mechanics (involving the strangely frantic use of what appears to a bicycle
pump).
Eccleston is only on board for one season, and will metamorphose into yet another Doctor after
13 episodes. Made for BBC Wales, and using a variety of writers and directors, the series
promises to be an enjoyable addition to Saturday nights.
Followers of the round-ball code should be aware that the Final of the 2005 FA
Cup takes place this week (SBS 10.30pm Saturday). Manchester United go up
against their old rivals Arsenal.
Just note that, although the telecast starts at 10.30pm, kick-off is not until midnight. I dread to
think what they will fill those 90 minutes with.