‘Fast’ TV–catch it if you can

“SHOW Biz Konek na Konek” hosts (from left) IC Mendoza, Bianca King and MJ Marfori speak really fast, as if trying to catch a wayward bus.

Have you noticed? Much of the time, local TV shows take their sweet time getting going, with long “greetings” and giggling jokes about this and that as part of the “traditional” opener, before the hosts get down to the topics and features at hand.

In addition, each feature is given too much air time, betraying the production’s laziness in coming up with sufficiently varied features to make for a truly brisk and bracing telecast.

Well, that “slow and low” way of doing things is finally (at long last!) being challenged by a new TV concept that veritably flies in its lazy face and speeds up and energizes the proceedings in a contrastingly breathless and breathtaking way!

We opt to dub this new trend “Fast TV”—as in fast food, fast-track, fast-forward—nothing and nobody slow anywhere in sight!

In our own recollection, it all started with Boy Abunda and Kris Aquino’s late-night show on ABS-CBN, “Aquino and Abunda Tonight,” which tackled “hot” political and show biz topics and newsmakers in very quick order each night.

Only 15 minutes

What made the new format really unique was the fact that the entire show was given only 15 minutes to run its course, from “hello!” to a really fast “’bye!”

In fact, the show is sometimes so fast and tight that the usually voluble hosts don’t even have time to say hi, let alone ’bye! Now, that’s new!’

The show must be doing something right, because it’s still on the air. And, more to the point, it seems to be “catching”: We now see other “abridged” TV shows that are also trying to do a whole lot in very little time—like really fast “cooking tips” and “show bits,” lasting only 10 minutes or so.

In addition, TV5’s magazine show, “Show Biz Konek na Konek,” is only 30 minutes long and yet covers a lot of territory, because its young cohosts (Bianca King, MJ Marfori and IC Mendoza) have been instructed to speak really fast, as if they’re trying to catch a wayward bus to get to work.

Hectic high

All this may give some viewers too much of a hectic high, but it suits us just fine, because we always thought that “traditional” TV hosts and formats were much too slow and lazy, so “Fast TV” is more our speed!

Of course, this breathtaking pace can be carried to extremes with speed (favored) for speed’s sake, and the context of what the hosts and guests are yakking their heads off gets diluted or totally obliterated in the process!

So, let’s hope the new trend’s “pioneering” practitioners will make doubly sure that they still make a lot of sense—even as they’re running for their lives to catch that wildly speeding and careening wayward bus!