Gogglebox Australia

For about a month Australian audiences were subjected to advertising telling us that the concept behind Gogglebox might sound stupid but the show is actually good. My wife and I decided, heck, lets give the show a try. Big mistake. Exactly how bad was it? Well, imagine the very worst reality show you ever watched and try to figure out how to make it even worse, and you have Gogglebox. What is worse than a reality show about dumb, irritating people? How about being trapped in a room with a bunch of boring people watching a reality show about dumb, irritating people. Now make it even worse. Make a reality show about boring people watching disjointed edits of a really bad reality show about dumb, irritating people so you can simulate being stuck in a room with those people whilst suffering short-term memory loss and dementia-style confusion.

Here is the basic concept of the program: Take clips from another TV show, deprive those clips of any context or continuity so they are just a disjointed mess, cut to miscellaneous people apparently picked out of a hat (or at least not on the basis of their wit), and show us their reactions. Cut to cooking show. The rich bitch makes a face. Cut to audience at home who note she made a face. Cut to host of cooking show talking about a miscellaneous dish. Cut to audience members talking about how they think he has a nice voice. Cut to guy with obvious southern US accent. Cut to dumb boring random person wondering if he's from Canada. Cut to other random person mentioning that the guy on the TV is a Texan. Flashback to 6 months of advertising for My Kitchen Rules about a Texan whose charm is making turkey noises. Cut to next random scene and inane comment from other boring person.

Do you think this review is long and rambling? Well, you have not experienced the sheer hell that is Gogglebox. Really, this, along with water-boarding, should be made illegal. It is torture. It is cruel and unusual punishment. It has zero benefit to intelligence. It strips us of our humanity. Yes, the show is that bad. I'd rather watch paint dry because frankly being bored to death is better than being subjected to this evil monstrosity of a show.

I can only conclude that the critical accolades they referred to in the commercials for this program (which, I reiterate, were built around the fact that it was a stupid concept) must have been for the British version of the show which I can only conclude has access to better clips and more interesting viewers. Or maybe they promised not to make the critics watch the show again. That would be more effective than threatening to shoot their dogs, rape their wives, and release embarrassing photos.

Apologies to the people who appeared on Gogglebox. You're probably nice people. I'm probably not interesting to watch whilst I'm watching TV. I'm not Mike Nelson either. But you are being used as instruments of torture.

Gg thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhh h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h hhh h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h hh h h h h h h h

I just seen on gogglebox a young child been thrown on to the bed and his underwear been ripped of by two men I turned it of and literally almost smashed my TV I was so cranky. I can't believe you would even let that be shown on your network you all should be ashamed of yourselves and I hope to god none of you are ever in that position because I tell you right now that just bought a lot of memories back into my head that I havmt thought of for a long time.

Thanks so very much channel ten I hope you all realise what I'm going to be going through for the next few weeks months who knows it took years last time.

Your all pathetic.

The advent of so called reality shows has tragically destroyed the number of quality programs/series but Gogglebox is the worst of the worst!

In the AUSTRALIAN version you have a group of people sitting uncomfortably and weirdly on couches desperately trying to be funny and FAILING dismally!

The entertainment value is below zero and the only people who enjoy watching people WATCH TV are those who are alone and friendless and probably imagine being in the room with them and pretending they have visitors.

I understand everyone has different tastes in shows and can even forgive people enjoying watching people watch tv IF the people on the show were funny and entertaining, BUT everyone on Gogglebox behaves fake and is obviously trying to be funny but are too boring to succeed.

These shows are cheap to produce, can be cancelled at any time and any money generated is a win for the producers because the costs are minimal. The producers count on morons liking these shows and aim the content towards them!

If we have any hope of regaining quality shows like dramas and comedies people MUST stop placating the producers of so called 'reality shows' and STOP WATCHING!

My wife and I were not going to bother with this pointless drivel from the awful promos alone ("Oh that poor cow!" is still tumbling around in my head making me want to tear my hair out) - as the incredibly inane idea of watching people watch television is a bit too pointless for words. It turned out to be far more unbearable than we had imagined and we certainly will not put ourselves through it again.

Apparently there are actually people who like to waste precious time out of their own lives by watching other people that they don't even know watch television and make juvenile comments like a class clown in the back row. It takes all kinds I guess, but this is produced in a way where it never even seems to begin by the time it is over and seems to be made for people with an attention span of about five seconds (which, in this day and age, is not that far off). There is no continuity of any kind or rhyme or reason to anything in this tortuous mess.

One male attempts to hum the theme song to a show he is watching.

People imitate the voice of the people they are watching.

One woman gets up and stands around for a few minutes (her head not even framed in the scene with just her torso showing) saying "I have to pee!"

No...I am not making any of this up. Really.

Someone once told me that you can't underestimate the intelligence of the general public and this is most certainly true. (Notice I said "can't underestimate" - in other words, many people would probably watch a show about bread burning or algae growing as long as there was music and odd pointless incongruous comments in the background.) When it comes to pure sensory deprivation, dunce-hood, and depersonalization, this is probably the "best" show for it. Good luck with your time on planet Earth. Something like this just about kills it and is actually depressing when you consider how many people really spend their time in such pursuits.