TV HEAVEN, TV HELL (MOVIEDROME: WELCOME TO THE CULT & FIT FOR TV - THE REALITY OF THE BIGGEST LOSER)
"Television - the drug of the nation - breeding ignorance and feeding radiation."
So claimed Michael Franti's hip hop musical ensemble The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy in 1992.
That was then, what about now?
With the advent of You Tube and streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu/Disney+, you suspect that view is even more keenly felt by Franti.
Not all TV is mind numbing and even then, there were shows that thumbed their nose at the dumbing down of the medium.
Take BBC2's cult movie show 'Moviedrome' for example - a programme that did much to introduce British audiences to quirky cinema and celebrated unusual films and all their imperfections.
Fronted initially by the Liverpudlian indie filmmaker Alex Cox and then the Belfast born documentary filmmaker and critic Mark Cousins, it introduced audiences of all ages to forgotten sci-fi and horror movies, spaghetti Westerns, classic film noir, quirky European tales and punchy political polemics.
Less lauded work by accomplished film directors like John Huston, Robert Altman, Nicholas Ray, Peter Bogdanovich, Jean Luc Godard and Francis Coppola were celebrated alongside emerging cult movies like Jean-Jacques Beinix's 'Diva,' Russell Mulcahy's 'Razorback' and Monte Hellman's 'Two Lane Blacktop'.
Future classics like Michael Mann's 'Manhunter,' Oliver Stone's 'Salvador' and Sam Raimi's 'Darkman' got a much bigger profile than they originally received in cinemas by being aired on the show.
As a result, 'Moviedrome' carved a very special place out in the hearts of UK film buffs and the respect it has garnered is the subject of Nic Wassell's affectionate 48 minute documentary tribute on the BFI Player and Apple TV+.
Made up of clips from the show and interviews with Cox, producer Nick Freland Jones and self confessed 'Moviedrome' fans Stewart Lee, the comedian and the journalist, Samira Ahmed, it's not that visually mind blowing.
By way of contrast, 'Moviedrome' was certainly eye catching with its low budget, neon, film noir inspired motel room sets.
In Wassell's documentary Cox makes for an amusing interviewee, revealing how he didn't want 'Moviedrome' to simply fawn over the movies profiled during his tenure on the sbow between 1988 and 1994.
As a host, he wasn't afraid to acknowledge the movies' imperfections but he also found things in all of them that he could enthuse about as a filmmaker.
Stewart Lee recalls how his stepfather would watch the show with him every Saturday night and came to respect Cox not just for his honesty but his filmmaker's eye.
According to Lee, his stepdad always felt he learned something watching the director's introductions to the movies they aired.
While Cousins isn't interviewed, the documentary is just as effusive about his energy and enthusiasm during his stint as the presenter for five series between 1997 and 2000.
While celebrating emerging cult classics like Matthieu Kassovitz's 'La Haine,' Peter Chelsom's 'Funny Bones,' Tim Burton's 'Ed Wood' and Brian de Palma's 'Carlito's Way,' Cousins' era was especially notable for celebrating old classics and forgotten gems like Frank Tashlin's musical comedy 'The Girl Can't Help It,' Edward G Ullmar's film noir 'Ruthless' and Robert Wise's horror tale 'The Body Snatcher'.
'Moviedrome' aired in simpler times, of course, when BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4 dominated the television landscape in the UK and the concept of YouTube and streaming services fed by algorithms weren't even on our radar.
Lee points out in the documentary how 'Moviedrome' really encapsulated the BBC's motto of educating, entertaining and informing.
Would such a concept be commissioned today and find a mass audience in this streaming age?
Probably not but for a brief moment, 'Moviedrome' landed arthouse cinema in our living rooms and what a glorious moment that was.
Wassell's film is thankful the 1980s and 90s generations have that memory.
And that's a memory at least worth raising a glass to.
('Moviedrome - Welcome To The Cult' 2025 was made available for streaming on the BFI Player and Apple TV+ on August 15, 2025)
And now from the sublime to the downright appalling.
'The Biggest Loser' was a weight loss reality gameshow that ran for 17 seasons on NBC between 2004 to 2020.
It spawned a British TV version on ITV with Davina McCall as host.
And it is now the subject of a three part Netflix documentary that really marks it out as a low in the dumbing down of network television.
Cashing in on the appetite for reality shows that thrived on extreme behaviour and conflict, it took obese people and set them a weekly challenge to lose weight.
Over the course of the season, the person who survived evictions and lost the most weight got a huge cash prize.
Overseeing them were two fitness trainers - the irascible Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper who both revelled in really goading the contestants either in the gym or during a series of physical challenges.
A grotesque concept right from the off, it had no qualms about subjecting its contestants to a Temptation challenge where they were forced to enter a room full of cakes, chocolate fountains and pizza to see if they would succumb in return for being able to make a phone call with their loved ones or a prize.
The show was hugely popular and as the ratings ballooned, so did the size of the contestants who were often filmed collapsing on treadmills or vomiting after strenuous exercise.
Director Skye Borgman interviews Harper, former winners Danny Cahill and Ryan Benson, former contestants Tracey Yukich, Joelle Gwynn, Olivia Ward, Hannah Curler and Suzanne Mendonca, host Alison Sweeney, medical adviser Rob Huizenga, show creator David Broome and executive producer JD Roth.
And it's car crash TV as a we watch a really horrific reality show become even more horrifying with one contestant suffering a heart attack during a vigorous challenge, another being set up as a villain, another humiliated in front of her work colleagues after appearing on the show and a scandal over the use of diet pills.
Contestants who shed weight discovered afterwards they hadn't been equipped with the knowledge of how keep it off outside the show and cope with slowing metabolisms and they simply regained it.
Eventually the show was axed after it became mired in controversy after controversy.
Harper, Broome and Roth try to put up tin eared defences for the show.
Meanwhile Michaels doesn't appear, ducking the chance to explain her side of a very sorry tale.
After watching 'Fit For TV - The Reality of The Biggest Loser,' you are left with a sour aftertaste about the trashy depths reality TV shows have plumbed and are still plumbing.
It will also leave you disturbed about a culture in the West that is still fixated on body image.
As the final credits roll, you suspect it's only a matter of years before Netflix will be commissioning a documentary on how the world became too fixated on ozempic.
('Fit For TV - The Reality of The Biggest Loser' was made available for streaming on Netflix on August 15, 2025)
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