How TV Ruined Your Life - Season 1
Season 1
Episodes
Fear
From hysterical public information films to grisly crime dramas, terror spills out of almost every channel. As Charlie Brooker explores TV's approach to fear, you won't know whether to laugh or scream. Warning: contains traces of Michael Buerk and a semi-naked lady.
The Lifecycle
From kids shows to Countdown, TV has something to infuriate anyone of any age. Warning: this episode contains creepy dolls and the 1980s Oxo dad.
Aspiration
In this episode Charlie Brooker shows how, from Dallas to Grand Designs, TV continually rubs desirable lifestyles in your face.
Love
Charlie Brooker argues that TV has warped our expectations of romance with a toxic combination of Blind Date and rom-coms. Do 'soulmates' even exist? Warning: this episode contains traces of Dirty Den and suggestive swimwear.
Progress
From the moon landings to Blake's 7 to CSI: Miami, Charlie Brooker argues that television has warped our relationship with technology. Warning: this episode contains a computerised Simon Cowell and a lady in a silver catsuit.
Knowledge
Charlie Brooker traces how TV's notion of knowledge has changed from bespectacled experts to celebrity presenter drivel. Warning: this episode contains an alien meeting with Danny Dyer and celebrity supernatural activity.
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Only Connect
Quiz show in which connections must be made between apparently unconnected things, where patience and lateral thinking are as vital as knowledge.
MobLand
With the most powerful clients in Europe, MobLand will see family fortunes and reputations at risk, odd alliances unfold, and betrayal around every corner; and while the family might be London's most elite fixers today, the nature of their business means there is no guarantee what's in store tomorrow.
MobLand follows two generations of gangsters, the businesses they run, the complex relationships they weave and the man they call upon to fix their problem.
Red Eye
After attending a medical conference in Beijing and coming frighteningly close to dying in a car crash, Dr. Matthew Nolan arrives home and is immediately arrested at London's Heathrow Airport. Exhausted and confused, Nolan is accused of the murder of a woman who was in the car he crashed. Despite his protests that he was driving alone, Nolan is set to return to China to face charges.
DC Hana Li is the no-nonsense London officer charged with accompanying Nolan back to Beijing. Her resentment for this assignment, and of Nolan himself, is immediate. However, in flight, when a first death occurs, DC Li begins to suspect foul play. Further deaths confirm that Nolan is in danger, and after a call from MI5, Hana finds herself embroiled in an escalating conspiracy.
Patience
Patience Evans works in the criminal records department of Yorkshire Police, cataloguing and filing the evidence produced during major cases. A young autistic woman, she craves routine and order, relishing the solitude and structure her job provides but she yearns for more. A brilliant, self-taught criminologist, Patience has an instinctive eye for crime scenes and a passion for problem-solving.
Watson
In Watson a year after the death of his friend and partner Sherlock Holmes at the hands of Moriarty, Dr. John Watson resumes his medical career as the head of a clinic dedicated to treating rare disorders. Watson's old life isn't done with him, though — Moriarty and Watson are set to write their own chapter of a story that has fascinated audiences for more than a century. Watson is a medical show with a strong investigative spine, featuring a modern version of one of history's greatest detectives as he turns his attention from solving crimes to addressing the greatest mystery of all: illness, and the ways it disrupts our lives.