L=M

Less is more, an old saying, but one as true today as it was half a century ago. Sometimes less is without a doubt more... and yet some times less is just less and more is just more, the point being when do we decide that we have reached a level where the perfect balance of quality over quantity has been reached.

The thinking behind this has come from a recent disappointment, a bitter pill thrust down my throat just when i was being promised that this pill would bring the ultimate rapture, the rush of all time, how very disappointing to find it nothing but a placebo designed to sucker punch all the expectations i was immersed in. I'm talking, of course, of the last instalment of the TV show Battlestar Galactica. For a few years now i have waited with baited breath for the release of the next season on DVD, yearned to know the secrets that hours upon hours of watching have built towards, only to find that the show had succumbed to that fatal of things... stringing something out for the sake of it.

Now the good lady who suffers my ramblings and I are avid viewers of many TV shows, but unlike the majority we don't circle the times in the guide, we are far to disorganised for such things so we buy on DVD a lot of different TV shows & often spend a weekend watching back to back episodes. In the course of our viewing pleasure I have noticed that many shows which start out as new, interesting or just well written gain popularity, and in there lays the problem. A perfect example of where more is just more for the sake of it is J Abrams epic Swiss family Robinson remake 'Lost', now here is a show that had all the promise, good characters, some dark secrets that would be revealed to the viewer as he traveled the journey with Jack, Kate and Sawyer. Alas now due to the high viewing figures we are seeing an absolute avoidance strategy by Abrams. In a bid to keep the $$$ rolling in he strings us along from one episode to the next with story lines that are of no interest except to see how he is going to come up with something even more outlandish than last week to avoid revealing the secrets he promised and bring the whole farce to an overdue end.

At the other end of the spectrum we have spring on its way in my adopted country, the weather is warming, the salads are replacing the vegetables and as sure as Gordon Ramsey will say F*#k in his next TV show the hemlines are getting shorter. This spells a period of agony for any self respecting individual, a classic case of less is just less. Now do not get me wrong, i appreciate a young lady well turned out as much as the next man, and without shame i admit to, on occasion, admiring the summer outfits donned by the younger generation, hearken back to an era in my life and perhaps at times envious of the young men that now get to legitimately admire such fare.... But there are plenty who will adopt these shorter skirts and plunging neck lines who just plain shouldn't, there are very few who can carry off the cat walk look yet a great many who will try and fail.

My point is this while teenagers think less is always better and TV show makers think More is always better we have lost sight of things, Sometimes in TV less is more, think along the lines of Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones and more recently the outstanding Lost Room. All short seasons with 10 or 12 episodes and all classics, and sometimes in clothing (yes I'm talking to you with the muffin tops) less is not better, it is just less. Try a little more and you may find you look better.