Pages

Monday, March 19, 2012

Big cakes and wilderness survival

I watch a lot for TV when I’m living out of hotels which can lead to some interesting viewing habits.  In Bangladesh my choice of English language TV channels is 2 for movies, 2 with food and lifestyle programmes, 3 with documentaries, 1 with American comedies, and the 3 news channels.

I’ve watched 4 of the Harry Potter movies and the 3 parts of the Lords of the Ring trilogy. 

Most of the time I watch documentaries.  The pattern is that one program is shown at the same time each evening until the series is finished and then another starts.  March is tiger month on one channel and February seemed to be all about crocodiles.

My nightly viewing can be summarised as big cakes and wilderness survival.Early evening I have had 3 different series which focus on the making of massive decorated cakes – a dog or bottle of wine or menagere made from cake, fondant and chocolate.  All quite amazing but I am often stunned at the money people pay for a cake that would feed all of their guests for a week.

Then later in the evening are programmes where the host is dumped in a wilderness situation and then shows how to survive and get rescued.  Lots of making fire, eating snakes and bugs, following rivers and climbing up or down precarious rockfaces. 

Having never grown out of asking ‘why’ I’ve been wondering why these two subjects are so popular at the moment?  Are they both about escapism, escaping the economic woes of the world? 

What topics are dominating the documentaries where you are?

5 comments:

Alison said...

I often watch the 'REAL TIME' channel of an evening, and yes, cakes are a big thing there as is selling houses! Dh works in Germany and in his hotel rooms only seems to get CNN in English- he will be very jealous to know that you get such a selection in Bangladesh!
Alison xx

Sian said...

What a perfect title! Big cakes are pretty hot news round here too. And "Auction Hunters" about the resale of the contents of storage units. I'm addicted to it

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

All the reality shows on here seem to be about jobs. They haven't yet reached "Real Ditch Diggers of Nebraska" yet but they are getting pretty close. At this point the criteria seems to be "Oh you have job? Want to be on tv doing it? Can you fake some interpersonal drama and mock up some unrealistic danger for it? Perfect! You've just got yourself a reality show!"

Maria Ontiveros said...

Oh Helena,
That just made me giggle! I know both those shows. I'm afraid I'm a bit addicted to the fashion reality shows and any/all police procedurals (even bad ones).
Rinda

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

Interesting observations, Helena. Doug and I LOVE the survival shows, and there are so many different versions on TV in the US right now. We love reality TV and I suppose it's because you get to see what real people do in real situations. Maybe we're just nosey? Haha.

And the big cakes? Oh my goodness, can you even believe the excess on those things? I actually like to watch them now and then, but I'm struck by how much money people spend on those things when there are people starving all over the planet. (Or in the wilderness eating bugs...) ;o)