Oseph's VHS Club! #1

Yes, I do watch tapes in real life. I don't have Netshitz. Which tapes made it into my VCR this week?...

Wild Palms (The Dream Begins, The Dream Concludes), 1993

A quirky science fiction mystery story told as a soap opera, based on a graphic novel, with a controversial real-life inspiration ( as spoiled by this great blog post by ITALKYOUBORED ). It was unfairly compared to Twin Peaks at the time of its release in 1993, but it has an increasing relevance as our tech-obsessed culture develops. The story includes prescient elements such as an organisation doctoring virtual reality footage of murder... a man raising a psychopathic son he doesn't recognise as his own... wide-spread addiction to digital images a la Strange Days (one episode is directed by Kathryn Bigelow)... and a bizarre child-trafficking cult hijacking the state for its own ends. It predicted 2025 Britain! Epic music by Sakamoto and a wild cast including Jim Belushi, Brad Dourif, Ernie Hudson and Bebe Neuwirth. OSEPH SAYS “VIEW IT”

Stella Street, 2004

I bought this in a chazza shop for 75p, thinking it was the hilarious TV series of the same name, in which famous celebrities, played by impressionists Phil Cornwell and John Sessions, all live in one street in Surbiton, Surrey. (This was years before I did it.) Anyway, I was disappointed to find that it's not the TV series, it's the feature length film and Lord is it crap. It feels very safe and bland compared to the TV series, the handheld/DIY feel of the show is totally missing. Also this VHS has terrible cropping from widescreen to 4:3 with zero panning. One day I'll tape something and do my own pan & scan... Stella Street's only highlights are Cornwell's David Bowie and big-mouthed Ronni Ancona's Madonna impressions. OSEPH SAYS “DON'T BOTHER. Watch the TV series instead."

Frasier Season 1, 2001

Perfect for comfort-watching or sticking on in the mornings if Scott Mills is being annoying on Radio 2, which I've been doing. I'm not a big fan of mainstream American sitcoms, but this series has always felt very British to me. Classic class-clash comedy like Fresh Prince and Keeping Up Appearances. Should you get it on tape? Probably not. I'm not even sure why I bought 8 tapes of it.

Simpsons Crime and Punishment, 1997

Compared to Frasier, Simpsons VHS releases appear to be collected by theme rather than by season. I don't know why they did that. Was this the only way to watch The Simpsons on home video at the time? It's unconventional, so it feels like a unique relic of the 90s. Maybe I can sell it to some Simpsons fanatic in 20 years. Anyway, it's the Simpsons. You've seen the Simpsons. Yellow guys, funny etc.

I've got a collection of 30+ recorded tapes I inherited from my aunt and uncle and as soon as I figure out the complex labelling and cataloguing system they used, I'll be going through them to find weird 90s and early 00s nonsense to enjoy. Until then, whatever... get some fresh air.