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| As a TV critic-turned-writer, I’ve decided not to take the bad reviews with the good | As a TV critic-turned-writer, I’ve decided not to take the bad reviews with the good |
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| Thu 3 Aug 2017 13.25 BST | |
| Last modified on Tue 19 Dec 2017 20.53 GMT | |
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| I’ve said it already: I’m not going to read the reviews. Reviews don’t matter, I’ve said. Especially nowadays, I’ve said. In fact, more and more, I’ve been questioning the point of having newspaper TV reviews today. Who are they for? What qualifications do these critics have? Don’t they know that there are more urgent concerns in the world than the glowing outpourings from the “idiot lantern”? There are people going hungry and wars happening. | I’ve said it already: I’m not going to read the reviews. Reviews don’t matter, I’ve said. Especially nowadays, I’ve said. In fact, more and more, I’ve been questioning the point of having newspaper TV reviews today. Who are they for? What qualifications do these critics have? Don’t they know that there are more urgent concerns in the world than the glowing outpourings from the “idiot lantern”? There are people going hungry and wars happening. |
| What are reviews for nowadays? So viewers can be assured that what they are watching is Quality or Good, or at least Better Than Something Else That They Don’t Watch? Or is it a quaint reminder of a time TV programmes were a) on once, b) specifically timed, and c) parts of a schedule that someone else – someone very organised, mysterious and likely slightly anaemic – had put together after being schooled in the dark arts of scheduling. | What are reviews for nowadays? So viewers can be assured that what they are watching is Quality or Good, or at least Better Than Something Else That They Don’t Watch? Or is it a quaint reminder of a time TV programmes were a) on once, b) specifically timed, and c) parts of a schedule that someone else – someone very organised, mysterious and likely slightly anaemic – had put together after being schooled in the dark arts of scheduling. |
| That’s when reviews were central to the whole telly thing … when people didn't have Twitter to tell them what to think | That’s when reviews were central to the whole telly thing … when people didn't have Twitter to tell them what to think |
| That’s when reviews were more significant, more central to the whole telly thing, when “on demand” meant waiting nine months to buy the series boxset, an era when Fleet Street lunches lasted a civilised time and people didn’t have Twitter to tell them what to think. In short, I talk of a halcyon era when I was writing those reviews, some 16 years ago, and not, as I am now, subject to them and the fickle affections and feral animosities of TV critics (like that’s an actual job, anyway). | That’s when reviews were more significant, more central to the whole telly thing, when “on demand” meant waiting nine months to buy the series boxset, an era when Fleet Street lunches lasted a civilised time and people didn’t have Twitter to tell them what to think. In short, I talk of a halcyon era when I was writing those reviews, some 16 years ago, and not, as I am now, subject to them and the fickle affections and feral animosities of TV critics (like that’s an actual job, anyway). |
| If like me you think TV reviewing has had its day, and that day was some days ago, then you’ll agree that we – the republican “we”, the people – should take a time out on TV reviews, just to see how we feel without them; at least until Monday, when my first script commission will have been on TV (BBC4, tonight, 10.20pm) and received a jolly nice reception from everyone. I can start on perfecting my “surprised” face for Bafta night. No one need exercise their Sabatier-sharp critical wit anywhere near my precious baby. No, I will cut you! | If like me you think TV reviewing has had its day, and that day was some days ago, then you’ll agree that we – the republican “we”, the people – should take a time out on TV reviews, just to see how we feel without them; at least until Monday, when my first script commission will have been on TV (BBC4, tonight, 10.20pm) and received a jolly nice reception from everyone. I can start on perfecting my “surprised” face for Bafta night. No one need exercise their Sabatier-sharp critical wit anywhere near my precious baby. No, I will cut you! |
| You will have gathered by now that I’m practising some postures and stress-testing some standpoints to adopt in the event of something I have written for TV being pored over by someone as snotty, obnoxious and know-it-all as I was when I landed the job as Guardian TV critic alongside Nancy Banks Smith. Come on! I was 25! | You will have gathered by now that I’m practising some postures and stress-testing some standpoints to adopt in the event of something I have written for TV being pored over by someone as snotty, obnoxious and know-it-all as I was when I landed the job as Guardian TV critic alongside Nancy Banks Smith. Come on! I was 25! |
| You will also have gathered that the “not reading reviews” thing is going really well. Which is to say, I have read a fair selection of other people opining on my script/everything I can lay my Googling hands on – and it has been illuminating. Mostly of the darker recesses of my ego, which is giant and fragile, like a great glass cathedral, and currently shining like Westminster Abbey at Christmas. | You will also have gathered that the “not reading reviews” thing is going really well. Which is to say, I have read a fair selection of other people opining on my script/everything I can lay my Googling hands on – and it has been illuminating. Mostly of the darker recesses of my ego, which is giant and fragile, like a great glass cathedral, and currently shining like Westminster Abbey at Christmas. |
| Indeed, such is the niceness I have received regarding Something Borrowed, my contribution to the Queers series of monologues curated by Mark Gatiss for BBC4, that sometimes I swear I can I hear a heavenly chorus and my name being chanted in melodic Latin. As if Mary Beard had done a duet with Enya. Yes, I am loving the praise, compliments and general ego-boosting that has come my way since the script was first read, the resulting 15-minute film first seen, and the stage version first performed at The Old Vic last month. | Indeed, such is the niceness I have received regarding Something Borrowed, my contribution to the Queers series of monologues curated by Mark Gatiss for BBC4, that sometimes I swear I can I hear a heavenly chorus and my name being chanted in melodic Latin. As if Mary Beard had done a duet with Enya. Yes, I am loving the praise, compliments and general ego-boosting that has come my way since the script was first read, the resulting 15-minute film first seen, and the stage version first performed at The Old Vic last month. |
| The commendations were undoubtedly squared by two ace actors agreeing to be in it: Alan Cumming on screen and Mark Bonnar on stage. To see Cumming – the Tony-award winning star of Cabaret, not to mention Eli Gold off The Good Wife – running through lines I had written during filming was mind-blowing. It might sound trite, but those experiences were privileges that left me feeling humbled. | The commendations were undoubtedly squared by two ace actors agreeing to be in it: Alan Cumming on screen and Mark Bonnar on stage. To see Cumming – the Tony-award winning star of Cabaret, not to mention Eli Gold off The Good Wife – running through lines I had written during filming was mind-blowing. It might sound trite, but those experiences were privileges that left me feeling humbled. |
| Leaving aside the praise for my work (but just for a minute), so much of the Queers experience has rocked my world. Like Mark Gatiss telling me that I remind him of Missy from Doctor Who (probably on account of her being Scottish and quite witty). Or seeing my name in the Radio Times, not as a byline but under a programme listing, prefixed “writer”. | Leaving aside the praise for my work (but just for a minute), so much of the Queers experience has rocked my world. Like Mark Gatiss telling me that I remind him of Missy from Doctor Who (probably on account of her being Scottish and quite witty). Or seeing my name in the Radio Times, not as a byline but under a programme listing, prefixed “writer”. |
| Factor in other people’s praise that we’d briefly put aside earlier, and I could really get used to being feted, applauded, adored. I know people say that they don’t read reviews of their work because if they read and believe the good ones, they ought to pay the same heed to the bad ones. They advise against what is, in effect, a subcontracting-out of your self-esteem, what transpires to be an external fix for an internal problem. Instead, they suggest focusing on what you think of your work, how you see yourself, how you can lift your opinion of yourself so the validation of others isn’t so vital to you. Building your self-worth with borrowed bricks means it’s not your self-worth at all. | Factor in other people’s praise that we’d briefly put aside earlier, and I could really get used to being feted, applauded, adored. I know people say that they don’t read reviews of their work because if they read and believe the good ones, they ought to pay the same heed to the bad ones. They advise against what is, in effect, a subcontracting-out of your self-esteem, what transpires to be an external fix for an internal problem. Instead, they suggest focusing on what you think of your work, how you see yourself, how you can lift your opinion of yourself so the validation of others isn’t so vital to you. Building your self-worth with borrowed bricks means it’s not your self-worth at all. |
| Well … that seems like an awful lot of hassle, doesn’t it? I think I’ll just take the shiny praise and hope for the best. What’s the worst that could happen? | Well … that seems like an awful lot of hassle, doesn’t it? I think I’ll just take the shiny praise and hope for the best. What’s the worst that could happen? |
| • Gareth McLean was TV critic at the Guardian from 2000-2003 | • Gareth McLean was TV critic at the Guardian from 2000-2003 |
| • Queers: Something Borrowed, BBC4, tonight, 10.20pm | • Queers: Something Borrowed, BBC4, tonight, 10.20pm |
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