He's everyone's favourite miserable bastard - and he's on tv more than ever at the moment. Love him or hate him (or his hair) you cannot deny he is a major part of what TV is now.
He's just begun a 15 week run of 10 O'Clock Live on Channel Four which is getting stronger and stronger week by week (that is to say that episode two was better than episode one... they were both great though!) and now Charlie Brooker can be seen on BBC2, Tuesdays at 10pm, on 'How TV Ruined Your Life', a programme that sets out to explore the sheer vastness of the gaping chasm between the world we see on TV and so-called "real life". Using a mixture of his trademark 'sofa narration' and sketches, the first instalment (available on iPlayer, here, for a few more days) looked at television's approach to FEAR, be it in drama, or docudrama, or the sensational way the news is made nowadays.
It's a blend of what Charlie does best; witty (and sometimes cruel) observations about television and a frighteningly misanthropic outlook on humanity generally. But we love him for it! Charlie Brooker is the most in-touch face on tv at the moment and a massive hero of mine - although he'd undoubtedly hate me saying so.
Tomorrow's instalment focuses on The Lifecycle, a look at how TV takes advantage of viewers of different ages "from kids' TV to Countdown". Expect more sarcasm than is really necessary and buckets-full of criticism and wit. As I say, it's what Charlie does best. I have not got a bad word to say about him. Literally.
