The (Very) Secret Life of Us
September 27th, 2003
Channel 4 have done it again. That is, dumping an imported programme in the wee small hours and not telling anyone it’s back.
This time the victim is Australian ensemble comedy-drama The Secret Life of Us, the first season of which got a prime time slot last year. I really enjoyed the first season, and was looking forward to picking up the story on Channel 4 when they’d finished showing season 2 on sister channel E4.
So you can imagine how delighted I was when I discovered a few minutes ago that that Channel 4 are showing the second season at half past midnight on Wednesday mornings. What’s worse, they’re already up to episode 5 of the second season! As far as I can tell, they haven’t even bothered to actually run any trailers to let us know it’s back.
I can but resort to the ancient lament of the denizens of uk.media.tv.sf.babylon5:
“Channel 4? Bunch of arsecandles!”
November 13th, 2003 at 12:57 pm
I totally agree with you It was just a flook that I happened to see that the programme was back on and when I watched the episode was amazed to see the 1st one of series two (I was lucky!) but then when there were double bills reaching till 2ish. This programme is v good + deserves prime time! + They should have advetised it better!
*MarS*
November 13th, 2003 at 9:45 pm
I’m just glad I spotted it only a few episodes in. If I’d only found it now I’d really have been hacked off. I’m not totally happy with the way they’ve dealt with some of the characters this season (e.g. When are they going to give Simon something to do? Given what an arsehole Richie is being, why do the rest of the gang still have anything to do with him?), but overall it’s still a very entertaining show.
It’s doubly strange that they buried the show like this when Channel 4 are co-producing it. If they’d just bought the UK rights as part of a package deal when you could understand it, but you’d think they’d at least try to make a go of it when they’re partly funding the show.
Oh well, I should be used to this sort of nonsense by now.
November 19th, 2003 at 2:05 am
Oh ship !
I’ve just bumped into it tonight, haven’t seen any ads for it so thought i’d use the web to try and find out where it was in the series …. and now realise the painful truth.
Really enjoyed the first series back in Summer of 2001 and didn’t understand it’s late low profile slot then … and now well …. bemused at c4 !!!
Confused and disappointed.. hope this series will get a 2nd run.
November 19th, 2003 at 11:41 pm
Considering the way they’re sneaking it out in the wee small hours, I very much doubt that it’ll get a second run on C4. Your best bet might be to order the DVDs, if you’ve got a player which can cope with Region 4 disks.
November 3rd, 2004 at 11:29 pm
so when the heck are we gonna get season 3 which was shown on e4 about a year ago? I was the same, watched by accident, wondered why such a fantastic programme was on so late, almost missed series 2 - actually bought the whole hting on video because i had missed one single programme and did not want to miss it - and now paranoid i am still scanning the tv guide every week in detail just in case it is back on, hidden somewhere between 1 and 5 am. What’s up channel 4, why not show such a fantastic programme with such brilliant acting at a reasonable time? you could have had a winner on your hands there, bigger than six feet under and nip/tuck put together!!!
Repeat the lot please!!!! at a reasonable time!!!
November 4th, 2004 at 1:42 am
I’m afraid that when I contemplate the prospects of seeing season 3 on terrestrial TV the phrase “don’t hold your breath” keeps popping up in my mind.
Considering how C4 treated season 2, I’m assuming that they’ll slip season 3 out at 3.45am somewhere over the next year or two. Thank goodness for DigiGuide - at least it’ll flag the programme up for me when it does eventually show up. It’s either that or invest in the show’s VHS/DVD release, and I’m not sure that I want to spend that sort of money unless I’m sure that C4 will never air the show.