I'm a big fan of the This American Life radio show hosted by Ira Glass from WBEZ Chicago Public Radio. I listen to (and save) every podcast because I find them to be such a wonderful view into the lives and perspectives of so many different kinds of people and circumstances.Thanks to Netflix, I just watched the entire first season of the new This American Life television program on Showtime. I found the production values to be extremely good and they succeeded in translating the personality of the radio program into the visual format of TV.
I enjoyed the series for the most part, but didn't find it to be as consistent or compelling as the radio show. In fact, I didn't care for a few of the stories at all--something that almost never happens when I listen to the radio show. I would expect TAL on TV to improve in future seasons, simply because I believe the TAL crew is brilliant.
I'm not sure, however, the TV show will have enough of a following to keep it going. Is the TV audience mostly made up of listeners? I'm all for TAL to have success on TV because I don't think the world can have too much TAL. On the other hand, I'm so satisfied with the radio show, I don't really need the TV program to be happy. But if you take away my radio show, I'll be blue!
The first season of TAL on Showtime is worth a watch, but it's not worth as much as listening to TAL every week on the radio.
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