Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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.

nekosensei I recently binge-watched this, which probably wasn't a good idea as although it's very amusing if you're inclined that way, Brooker wears his pathologies on his sleeve in it in a way that makes me feel morally uncomfortable. Comedy is a dark business, full of revealed pain, as even Victoria Wood observed, and in this series Charlie went full-out raging exhibitionistic self-loathing mode. Being from the generation before his I would call the sensibility of this show punk, but I guess that's just something he absorbed in his childhood the way I absorbed hippie culture without having actually been old enough to have been a hippie. While watching this series my maternal instinct makes me want to want to say "Stop this right now, young man, look what you're doing to yourself, is it really worth it just to get on TV?" while my superego reminds me that, yes, obviously, it's worth it to him. So I just watched the whole series in fascinated horror, frequently roaring with laughter despite myself. And that's showbiz, kids.I still haven't figured out what exactly is going on with that figure in the opening credits, the obese individual in a track suit shuddering while holding up a speared bleeding sausage-like object. Somebody's probably written about it in some fan forum and I could probably google it but something tells me to just move on.Anyway, despite not liking the opening credits or the other animated sequences for that reason (too callow and unformed for my taste) I think Charlie has a lot of interesting things to say in this series and his humor rubs me the right way. My heart was won forever (probably the reason why I went on to binge the whole thing) in the early episode in which he both vigorously recommends the great "Mr. Show" and has my man Simon Farnaby on making a strong personal argument for "Last Of The Summer Wine." Thank you, Charlie.

Xanthe Young The title made me sound sad, now i'm going to make myself sound sadder still. I saw my first episode of screenwipe halfway through series 4. I had just finished watching QI on BBC4, i was going to turn it off when Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe started and i couldn't move I just sat and watched it through to the end completely captivated my only movement being when i laughed- most of the time then. After that i have watched it religiously and i suggest everyone else does the same.When series five came out last week i didn't even want to miss the advert break that came before it. My debating club finished at ten and i ran home to be back in time to watch it at the proper time. The next day i tuned into i-player and watched it again, i watched it another 4 times before the next episode came out yesterday.If a program can be so good as to captivate me like that and turn me into some mad obsessive it surely has to be worth a try. Watch it! I don't think i need to say anymore.

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.