2012’s most talked about TV
TELEVISION
From E25 with a made-up language that made no sense whatsoever. But, despite its inanity, The GC rated well for TV3 with its hate-to-loveit-appeal drawing in far too many viewers than it had any right to.
The same can be said of The Ridges – whether or not Sally and Jaime were going to get their own prime-time TV show was much speculated. Despite most of the country crossing their fingers in the hopes TV execs would see sense and can the show before it started, a six-episode series hit screens in early September. The show revealed a whole lot of nothing and social media users went out of their way to make their feelings known, a lot of it less than complimentary.
A much better bet for TV3 was the homegrown version of The Block. Its not-so-subtle product placement wasn’t enough to deter an audience – the show consistently drew in more than 400,000 viewers, peaking at more than one million for the tense two-hour finale. Competitive alpha-type contestants Ben and Libby Crawford came out on top, with their house selling for $157,000 more than reserve, scoring them an extra $80,000 in prize money. TV3 has confirmed there will be a second season of The Block NZ in 2013; no word yet on The GC or The Ridges. Keep those fingers crossed . . . plot. Yes, of course it can descend into the ridiculous at times but, providing you go into each episode suspending your disbelief, it’s still one of the bestacted, best-directed, bestproduced series we’ve seen on TV in a while. Some have grown weary of Claire Danes ‘‘sad trout’’ face and Damian Lewis’s tinymouthed sweaty hysteria; I still can’t get enough of it. The confirmation of a third season is welcome news to me but the rumours it might stretch to seven seasons leave me slightly uncomfortable. You can have too much of a good thing, something TV bosses often seem to forget.