To use the word trash would be too compulsively easy, but the second season of Flash! on SABC3 - the channel's reboot of its local weekly entertainment magazine show that had a first season in 2009 - seems to be not sure what it really wants to be.
Or maybe the show doesn't have the resources, skills, know-how and people to deliver the quality or the intention of what SABC3 said the new Flash! would be. The dismal and disappointing result is a Flash! that seems to run on the weak flash bulb of a disposable camera, instead of the power packing wattage of the external turbo battery that paparazzi use to capture their A list subjects in a glaringly-strong strobe flash.
The second season of Flash! with the highly ineffective and ill-suited presenter Tbo Touch comes across as a hollow echo chamber of rehashed ''heard it, seen it'' entertainment news. Add to that an in-studio celebrity interview segment that creates the impression that Flash! couldn't find enough news with which to fill the half hour show that was already slimmed down from the first season's hour.
Sadly Flash! has now clearly shown that the remainder of the mostly tepid second season's start is basically the stale mould of what the show will be: more over-exposure for the same rehashed stars (Uyanda Mbuli ... Really? Why?), more stereotypical celebrity coverage done with below standard production values, and no innovation, surprise, excitement or a new paradigm of what Flash! could actually have been for South Africa.
Why Red Pepper Productions chose Tbo Touch as Flash! presenter echoes the lack of discernment the production seemingly has regarding the content and entertainment news, and the approach to this genre and field. Does Flash! actually really grasp and understand the fundamentals of how this all works? It seems not.
Flash! seems largely oblivious to the machinations of the local celebrity complex - not only how to navigate it succesfully, but how to make editorial and management decisions that's cutting-edge, distinct and how to create something that's different to all the rest.
If you've seen this year's movie Morning Glory you'll understand Flash!. In the movie about a struggling 4th rated American morning show it's not that they're not really trying hard to do a good show; it's that they don't know how. Sadly Flash! is the same as what you've seen on television before and done better. It's ... lame. And Tbo Touch is hands-obsessed - more animated and arm-jutting intense than an over-zealous infomercial host.
Within 3 episodes Flash! has already made changes. Gone is the iPad as if to say ''We're connected. But not that connected''. The flimsy, transparent and round perspex table (copied much from E! News?) that wobbled as much in the first episode as the content, got lifted markedly higher by the 3rd episode.
The wider angle, bluer hue backdrop has been adapted for more close-up filming and a more boxed-in look reminiscent of 80s MTV done-on-the-cheap music news shows. Also gone are the pink overlights. Following after the sleek, high gloss production values of Entertainment Tonight, Flash! looks amateur, unfocused, and without depth compared to the daily and slickly-produced V Entertainment on Vuzu (DStv 123).
In the past three episodes of Flash! on-screen titles and the little wording there is, are misspelled, from basic show names such as ''Erfsonders'' to a litany of famous names like ''Leeanne Mannas''. The production seems not at all concerned to check what it types. And who's ''Mica Stefano"? From the first episode and continuing in every episode thereafter, it's given the show an immediate credibility problem. It's downright embarrassing for an entity who wants to play and report on the local entertainment scene but can't get the basics right.
Something else Flash! don't get is the power of the Flash! microphone. It's given willy-nilly to trash that don't deserve it. Flash! flouts the basic, unwritten rule of celebrity coverage: You control the access and the coverage and you ''extend'' it to those who deserve it.
To push a Flash! microphone into various paws holding it, cheapens the recipe. It creates the impression that the show is without discernment and will put any B grade and lower fame whore on television if they will please just give Flash! a soundbyte - even if, as viewers saw - they don't even know for what show it is.
The irritating and petite-fake Flash! roving field reporter Roxy Burger, is mostly better at making nasal noises like a content walrus that finally reached the shore, rather than preparing beforehand and asking insightful questions to try and get celebrities to reveal information that the viewer don't already know.
The second season of Flash! gets a passing grade on two things. Firstly, the show references other TV shows and stars not on SABC3 and not on the SABC. That is wonderful and commendable. The show instantly communicates non-verbally to the viewer that the show is aware that the viewer knows more and has a wider choice of entertainment options, but that the show is willing to try and follow and serve the viewer by bringing news from all entertainment spheres.
However Flash! should drop ripping off E! segment ideas like ''Shortest Hollywood marriages'' which makes it seem as if the show isn't able to get enough local and new entertainment news. Appoint or get some real journalists to get original scoop, actually get out of the newsroom and Flash! studios and go find real news (yes. it takes hard work).
The best bit so far (sadly seemingly a once-off): the ''Flash Fashion'' critique with the camp-du-jour Mac De Gorgeous. It was novel, it was entertaining, it was perfect for Flash! and not something done elsewhere. This could actually make for a great permanent weekly insert.
Flash! is pre-empted from the SABC3 schedule and will only be back again on 4 November (with less inane B lister coverage. Lets hope).
