It's well known that the film industry has been long running out of ideas. Searching for an original piece of work is as rare as finding something nutritious in a fast food joint. All we seem to get in the cinema are adaptations of books, remakes of classic pieces of films from the past, pointless sequels and making a mockery of Asian flicks with poor Western copies.
Has TV suffered a similar lapse in quality over the years? Broadcasters such as ITV can only really count X-Factor as the content people watch and the BBC still charge us a fortune so we can watch repeats of Dads Army.
Then of course there are reality shows where we see so called famous people skid on ice and getting bitten by jungle creatures. But do those shows really reflect modern life? After Channel 4 stopped flogging Big Brother, they've decided to focus on issues that are closer to home, such as drugs. All in the name of ?science? we?ll get to see some people taking all sorts of substances.
No doubt the do-gooders of society will be flapping so hard about this programme that they?ll have to propel themselves into space. On the surface, it looks like a shock tactic by Channel 4 in order to hook viewers in and then force them to sit through adverts for Hollyoaks. But when you do analyse society as a whole, perhaps the intent of the programme isn't really that bad. Not confined to the UK, but most city centres on a Friday or Saturday are full of pointless violence after big headed show-offs can't handle their lager and lash out at anyone in their path.
We doubt that the set of this TV programme will resemble a zoo where a braying audience will stand around and watch a participant wander around an enclosure after taking a tab of LSD or a syringe full of heroin. Remember, this is all in the name of science and the show is looking at the viewpoint put forward by Professor David Nutt. He was the former UK drugs advisor to the government and was sacked after he suggested that drugs such as LSD and ecstasy were less harmful than alcohol.
More than likely, the government weren't overly happy with one of its top advisors trying to pass legislation so drinkers could order a pint and a literal cocktail of drugs.
Science usually means that everything is done in a prim and proper way. Which is a shame really, as we?d have preferred to have seen willing volunteers of the drugs trial being hunted down and shot with darts containing the drugs. We've been informed that:
?The drugs will be taken in a clinical setting at a research laboratory and so it will not be illegal. Channel 4 says it will look at the different physical and psychological effects they cause.?
Defending the show before the protests started, the press release said the following:
?It's a ?radical? new science series which would add to the ?social policy? debate around the harmful effects of drugs. But will also bring ?mischief? back to the channel.?
In the event of the show not going ahead due to stressed parents worrying that their teenage children will want a teaspoon, tinfoil and lighter as an early birthday present, Channel 4 can come round our bedsit. There's always a crack addict or smack-fiend roughly twenty minutes away at any given time.
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Tom J says
My colleagues and I used to perform similar scientific experiments with neighbourhood cats. The tests were conducted in a clinical setting (we used to break into the local dental surgery) and it was not illegal because cats don’t have drug laws like people do. After administering various substances to the test subjects, we’d observe the often violent results as best we could between bouts of uncontrollable laughter. To add some friendly rivalry to the scientific process we would often make small wagers on which cat would emerge the victor. Unfortunately, the cats would often be too incapacitated to inflict a fatal blow which is why we developed the revolutionary “Bacon Gauntlet” technique. It’s amazing, not to mention scientifically relevant, how even the most inebriated cat can fight after you tape bacon round its middle and toss it at a labrador.
Needless to say, it was a radical approach which was conducted entirely for the advancement of science and not at all for cheap entertainment after we had trouble filling the reality TV gap that was left when we axed Big Brother.