Un Zievereir RE: Screenwipe, Weekly wipe, Newswipe, Annual Wipe, etc. Continuing on from his previously written output including the excellent "TV go home", Charlie Brooker relentlessly spews forth this highly informative critique of popular television and news shows from his couch. His virile attacks on TV's often pitiful broadcasts are well written and so appear as much off the cuff as they do scripted.He is cutting and imaginative. At times Brooker is spiteful and closed minded, overly and overtly moralistic, but always excellently sharp in his powers of observation. However, he never quite goes beyond to lambast the serious and real underlying limitations and bias of the media. Alas, he is still part of the media set which he tries to attack. Assumedly, his family and friends are probably also corporate media members and disciples. His consistent attempts to analyze and mock the media are commendable and certainly entertaining. Although revealing his rational and intellectual limitations, and the unfortunate constraints of his world, these "Wipes" do work very well and show Mr. Brooker to be an intelligent, observant mind.Amongst the humourous and educational monologues there is also a high quality of featured guest talent such as Morgana Robinson, Barry Shitpeas, Philomena Clunk, Doug Stanhope, and the unimitable Tim Key. David Firth's brief additional animated sections are also delightful.

BJJManchester The journo/writer-performer Charlie Brooker lifts the lid on his opinions of modern day TV,both in the UK and US.His savagely witty criticisms in the Guardian Newspaper have by and large,been successfully adapted to this digital TV programme.Brooker's clever,bitterly acerbic,imaginative,often hilarious critiques are further helped by breathlessly quick pacing and editing.He actually does like some TV programmes(most notably THE WIRE,shamefully neglected by terrestrial TV in the UK),but inevitably his most entertaining rants are at TV shows he hates(reality shows,daytime programming,etc.)which are gleefully attacked with rottweiller-like insane relish.Brooker's eternally stylish wordplay is sometimes over-balanced by frequent use of profanities which,though occasionally funny,sometimes go too far and take the reviews/sketches/interviews out of context and defeat the object at hand.Charlie's unique brand of sophisticated scatology will certainly not be for the easily offended,but often gloriously entertaining for those who don't mind whatever he says.Rating:7 and a half out of 10.

Partha Banerjee This is truly one of the most acute and sophisticated analysis of current tele-tat that we are all being subjected to on a daily basis. Brooker does not just articulately demolish some of these visual atrocities on our regular prime-time diets but he also manages to point us in the right direction. His occasional hints towards the greatness of some of the yester-years television feasts are as much part of the programme as the infectious comedy portrayals of the all the things that are wrong on that virtual world on the other side of screen.I commend Brooker's bold attempt for a fabulous and yet hard hitting message-worthy programme and hopefully, it keeps us all more in touch with our sarcastic and bitter side, with many more of its episodes.Sheer genius from the BBC.

bob the moo Those of us who read the Guardian on a Saturday (in my defence, my girlfriend buys it) will know whether or not they will enjoy this short series that premiered on BBC4 in the UK. Within the review section is a weekly page called Screen Burn where Charlie Brooker reviews a couple of TV shows that are on in the coming week; although his reviews tend to be rather funny and contain such great turns of phrase that I can't help but laughing. For example we can all say that we think the people on Big Brother are horrible but it was Brooker that described one of them as having a voice that is "like listening to rainwater seeping into your own coffin".I wish I had that imaginative phrasing and it is the reason that I enjoyed the TV version because he never just says things are good or bad but rather presents everything in the same way. Not wishing to infuriate anyone who has seen it but, for those that have not, imagine if you took Harry Hill's TV Burp, gave it a late night slot, turned off all the lights, took away the audience, cut Harry with a knife till he was enraged and bloody and then started the show – then you'd pretty much have Screen Wipe. The formula is basically the same – Brooker talks about the shows in between clips – but it is very funny just because of his writing and delivery. His reviews include 24, The Apprentice, breakfast TV and so on but no matter what it is or whether he likes it or not his delivery is funny and very imaginative.The only downside is that regular readers will recognise some of the material and the fact that the series is only 3 episodes long reflects the fact that Brooker's weekly column really only takes 4 minutes to cover. In other words he wrote an entire column on the new series of 24 but in episode 2 of his show he did all the jokes in under 4 minutes. Likewise I recognised his Apprentice material from his column as well. Of course this isn't a problem for me because it was all still funny and Brooker never comes over like he is struggling to find the material but I reckon this is why the series was so short.Brooker himself runs the risk of annoying some viewers because he is a rather smug and acerbic guy who could easily be taken as a smart-arse but, as long as I was laughing then this didn't really bother me and his intelligence and imaginative dialogue were the things that stuck in my mind. It isn't like he is Giles Coren (who also ventured onto TV recently with his movie review show) who is privileged, posh, acerbic and sarcastic but, because he doesn't do a good job presenting, all that sticks in the mind is that he is a bit of a posh tw*t.Overall a great find that I really enjoyed. The writing is as good as his Screen Burn column and his ability to put together phrases is impressive as he does it with wit and imagination. Not to everyone's taste because Brooker's targets will often be TV that some people love but I was laughing whether I agreed with him or not.