Yes, we know about the X Factor and programmes like Celebrity Salon 3, but here are five new TV3 suitable for an Irishman’s viewing.
Autumn is when the nights draw in and the TV stations crank up their output a notch.
Last week RTÉ revealed what they’ve got planned for us; this week it’s the turn of TV.
There are a lot of shows featuring Twink and the Xposé girls, plus a reality nightmare called Tallaffornia in which (and I’m quoting the press release here) “Four hot West Dublin boys and four fabulous West Dublin girls spend four weeks living, eating, sleeping working and partying together”.
We’d rather slowly poke our eyes out with cocktail sticks…
But there’s a fair bit of stuff to keep us from seeking our entertainment fix elsewhere, and here are five shows worth looking out for.
Paddies in Paradise
It won’t surprise you to hear that every second Irish graduate is emigrating to Australia. TV3 have followed some of them over there to see how they’re doing for a four-part series.
As we sit here contemplating economic catastrophe and endlessly rainy days here in the mother country, we just can’t see what the appeal is.
Deception with Keith Barry
Reading people, implanting thoughts, predicting behaviour and hacking into the subconscious. Keith Barry’s got a new show with all this stuff in called Deception with Keith Barry.
Keith is clearly a wizard and should be burnt at the stake, but in the meantime we’ll keep watching the Waterford man’s TV and theatre shows.
Sex Lives: More Sex Please, We’re Irish
TV3 will be showing three programmes relating sex in Ireland. One looks at Irish sex tourists, one looks at prostitution in Ireland and Sex Lives: More Sex Please, We’re Irish focuses on what we really get up to in the bedroom.
The focus is on alternative sexual practices such as S&M and swinging.
You learn something every day: for instance we had no idea that the regular goings-on that we get up to during our morning coffee break with the crowd from the office next door were considered alternative these days.
Come Dine with Me Ireland
Something of a guilty pleasure here in the JOE office. TV3 have imported the best bits of the British Channel 4 dining show (i.e. the ascerbic narration of Dave Lamb) and added Irish participants.
Some said that Irish people wouldn’t be as open and bonkers in front of the camera. The first Irish editions proved that they were wrong.
A new series is on its way, plus a celebrity series, and we’ll be watching.
Jack Taylor
Proving that TV3 can do gritty, Iain Glen returns as the Galway private detective and unlikely hero, Jack Taylor, in two feature-length dramas.
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