feeling listless

TV The Guardian's review of Channel 4's new breakfast show RI:SE captures most of the feelings I had watching the last half an hour this morning:

Maybe these more serious news items will sit easier alongside RI:SE's main showbiz and sport agenda once the show gets into its stride. If not, the producers may have to go back to the Big Breakfast model and limit serious news to the bulletins. Having the news woven into the general format appeared flawed, especially on a day when little was happening.

One serious problem is a lack of chemistry between the presenters. Actually it's just one presenter, Mark Durden-Smith, who seemed to think he was Johnny Vaugan, and just kept interrupting the other presents or ruining links by failing to say anything witty. I kept trying to work out who he reminded me of ... and then they showed some footage of Jeremy Bowen at the end. I'm will to give this one some time to develop. With a few replacement presenters this might work. As Ian Jones says at Off The Telly:

"...the presenters' efforts to fulfil this ambitious brief made their conversations all the more mannered and exaggerated - "You've got a crumb on your face" marking a new low in presenter continuity. Throughout the entire show no attention or respect was paid to the viewers; the team were far too busy talking to each other, joylessly. No amount of theorising and explanation can overlook the fact that this kind of behaviour on television is and always will be simply downright rude."