"10 O'Clock Live" - Response to Review

Read this piece first before reading the text below.

It’s funny how different people have different views of the same thing. This is the first time though, I found someone thinking this was becoming ‘the Charlie Brooker’ show. Most criticisms have been that there’s not nearly enough Charlie Brooker. I don’t agree with either.

Charlie’s contributions have not been more or less than that it is now. Charlie’s contributions haven’t been more or less than the contributions from the others, except for Laverne’s. I think it’s also not fair to say that Charlie’s contributions have been more (or less) in quality compared to the others. When Charlie’s on about technical stuff like the Ipad or Twitter, he’s spot on. He’s not so much spot on when it comes to pure political analysis; that seems to be more David Mitchell’s area and sometimes Jimmy Carr says something sensible. (I’m just completely going to ignore Laverne for now).

David Mitchell, even though not a natural interviewer, has been quality wise quite strong. He’s learning too (Why do I seem to be the only one who sees that?). He stepped out of his comfort zone to do something new; Charlie hasn’t. He doesn’t even seem to be attempting to. Even Carr has stepped out of his comfort zone with doing these sketches (which I still absolutely hate, though I feel it is getting a bit better).

I don’t think this is turning into ‘the Charlie Brooker’ show. I also suspect that after Charlie did his thing, he mentally logs off. Around the table Laverne has to drag him into the discussions which usually only seem to go on between Mitchell and Carr. Even when they’re doing the headlines for the next days Laverne has to poke him in the ribs to lift up his cardboard fake of a front page. A few times she even lunged, grabbed and held the cardboard up herself (which made me laugh, to be honest).

Charlie Brooker is not naturally interested in politics and it shows, very clearly (lazily leaning cheek/chin in hand while not participating in discussions). That’s why ‘10 O’Clock Live’ will never turn into ‘the Charlie Brooker’ show as long it wants to be a ‘current affairs’ show.

Also people have to really use the correct name; it's '10 O'Clock LIVE', not the '10 O'Clock show'. Or are they trying to tell the producers of the show something?