Telly Text #9: Skint + Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life

on Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Words: Jordan Andrew


'Skint'


On Monday night, my Facebook and Twitter was blowing up over this 'Skint', a new show on Channel 4. There were so many statuses full of hate about these folks that I had to catch up on 4oD. As I watched I could slowly see myself also wanting to write a Facebook status about these people and the way they lived.

'Skint' is Channel 4’s latest crazy documentary series following a select few unemployed people living in a council estate in Scunthorpe. These are the people that you would see on 'The Jeremy Kyle Show' making a fool of themselves and as well as the whole nation.

One of the more irritating personalities on the show is 15-year-old Connor, who has been excluded from seven different schools and has a habit of smashing windows all the time. As I watched on all I can remember this complete idiot saying is “F the police” about 20 times throughout the show and pulling out his middle finger. His mum clearly does not have much of a backbone as I know my mum would have sorted me out good and proper if I were acting like him!

Another crazy one on this show is sixteen-year-old Jemelia, who left home when she was 14, had a baby at 15 and now living in a shared house age 16...it's almost like a Craig David song. She is gobby and quite deluded about the real world, which could be partly because of her age and lack of education. She keeps hoping that the court system will give her back her child but living in a shared house with a heroin addict, I don't see how she thought that would happen.

There are however some slightly decent people on this show like Dean, raising a family of stepchildren and children. Dean uses the community for his own needs such as buying deodorant from shoplifters or even chickens from the boot of a car. As much as yo can frown at his actions, I understood that he is doing it for his family and not just to cause trouble, like others on this show.

After a hard Monday at work, watching this show clearly upset a lot of people. This real life version of 'Shameless' is another one of Channel 4’s long lists of extreme programming. It's hard to find many positive things to say about this show as unfortunately most of the people on the show are quite disgusting but I'll probably carry on watching the show just to see what happens to them.

Catch 'Skint' every Monday at 9pm on Channel 4 or on 4oD.

'Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life'



When you start singing about brushing your teeth with a bottle of Jack Daniels and covering yourself in glitter, you are bound to get your own show at some point. Since 2009, Ke$ha has made a name for herself for having a wild image, drinking, partying and generally looking a hot mess. The 'Tik Tok' singer has had a sting of hits across of the world and now she is giving us an insight into her life.

In this show, filmed by Ke$ha’s brother, he followed her around for two years while she tours. He shows Ke$ha at her best as well as at her worst, from the love of her fans to how she deals with her haters.

A continuous talking point is the battle between Ke$ha and Perez Hilton (a celebrity blogger), which has been going on since the start of her career. In the show there are clips of Perez Hilton making some nasty remarks about Ke$ha, which clearly shows how bitter he is. There's making general comments about someone and then there is continuing a hate campaign against someone just because you do not like their music or the way they act when you have never met them. I can understand why Ke$ha allowed this to be shown, at the end of the day she is a human being.


As you watch the show, one thing you will notice is Ke$ha’s love of beards and wanting to sleep with a bearded men. When she is not performing she is on the hunt for a beard, she even starts having dreams about bearded men. Watching her touch up and talk about beards is just a bit too creepy for me, although maybe that's because I'm lacking in the beard department.

With the trend of artists getting their own television shows from The Saturdays to The Wanted, it makes you wonder if artists actually need to have much talent these days to get their own TV show. Ke$ha is a big enough artist to really not need her own show, but I could argue that perhaps surprisingly, it has improved her image and is making her much more likable. Her love for her fans is shown through the show in each episode, the testimonials of fans that have had their lives change by Ke$ha is the added bit of sugar this show needed.

Catch 'Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life' every Wednesday at 10pm on MTV.

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