Italian TV

Any visitor or new resident of Italy talks about the abysmal state of the TV here. I realized this on a very early trip to Italy, before I bought my house, when Mum and I spent a week watching “Passaparola” over dinner at our agriturismo.
I might watch more of the TV than most, as I am resisting SKY so that I can continue to improve my Italian.
This means indulging in the delights of the Italian box.
Apparently things were a lot worse before Berlusconi and his Mediaset revolution.
This seems a little hard to believe.
The main staple of prime time telly is the game show.
This consists of one host.
Typically male, bespectacled and orange from fake tan.
One contestant.
Typically female, curvy and orange from fake tan. We see a lot of her teeth and other assets through the many close-ups.
Or it is someone older. Of whom we see a lot less.
Then there are the “assistants”.
These can be male (very orange from fake tan – practically full-on Jaffa) and with glow in the dark white teeth, very buff.
But more often they are female.
And so orange that the clementines in my fruit bowl get jealous.
And wearing bikinis.
Or something equally skimpy.
These assistants have absolutely no plot motivation at all in the scheme of things. They are like the gratuitous chest shot in a duff B-Movie from the States.
At a specified break in programming, a naff pop song comes on such as “Keep it Funky:.
Cue the girls.
On they come
Wiggle Wiggle
(Many close ups)
Off they go
Kill the music
On with the show.
So, thank you, Berlusconi. You may not be helping my Italian much, but you give me a great excuse to hit the books.