How Reading Made Us Modern looks at how our love for reading suddenly flourished after stringent guidelines on what we should read (e.g. the Bible, the Bible, the Bible) were finally relaxed. Another program I caught was Why Reading Matters, featuring some interesting tests on how reading effects our brains and helps develop our ability to empathize. About two-thirds of the way through the episode the computer game argument comes up whereby one avid reader expresses her worry that young people play too many games and that there is no empathy to be found in this noisy entertainment. I suppose I half agree, but I like to (hope) think there are still many readers out there who can enjoy both!

Between breakfast-time catch ups of Traffic Cops I happened upon Paparazzi: Next Generation. This program is a sobering look at the “paps”, e.g. moral-less twats who go about shooting celebrities for the brain-dead celeb culture which continually threatens to kill this once rich and prosperous land (no, I’m not keen).

…There’s that morbid curiosity though, in seeing these vulture-like beings chase Kate Moss (who in her hurry, yelps when she gets her leg trapped in her car door). Likewise, when they madly chase Amy Winehouses’s stretch to MacDonald’s and one pap remarks that he can see track marks on her arm, just prior to another getting his foot run over by her driver (I did to my alarm, laugh rather loudly at this!). At one point, when a father and son team up to take snaps of Gordon Brown entering a conference for business women, the son remarks, ‘…shows everything for you in this country dunnit, the prime minister can’t even turn his face to say hello’. A few minutes later and his dad’s dictating the photo’s caption to him from the front of the car – a caption which gives the public what Gordon Brown probably wasn’t thinking at all. Does it matter?

Damages

The first episode of the second season aired Sunday night in the UK. It has gone from being superb to something even better. Now we know the characters we’re thrown into the deep end with several plot threads running concurrently. Despite this, I feel like I can keep track far better than I could with the first season (perhaps my brain has expanded/collapsed).

Interesting new additions to the cast show just how good it is. William Hurt appears as Daniel Purcell, a man who has discovered his company has caused deaths and as an old acquaintance of Patty’s (Glenn Close), asks her for help. Timothy Oliphant is Wes Krulik, a vengeful member of the support group Ellen Parsons has started going to. Also, Ted Danson returns as the spineless Arthur Frobisher. It’d be silly to take any of these characters at face value if season one of Damages and its twisty-turny plot are anything to go by.

As with the first season we are treated to flash-forwards, this time with Ellen (Rose Byrne) finally taking revenge for her fiancé’s death on a character just out of our vision.

In short, I’d be inclined to say damages is the best thing on TV right now. Watch it!

Other TV to watch out for:

Being Human continues to entertain; Mad Men is pretty good and check out the quirky “New Town”. You should be able to find most of these on iPlayer if you live in the UK.