Well, we haven't had a chance to watch Current TV because somehow it ended up in Comcast's "Premier Tier," and we're not about to pay an extra five dollars a month after reading these reviews:
"As for the content of the pods, they're just wide-ranging enough to be officially 'diverse,' while remaining remarkably bland in tone." -- Dana Stevens, Slate [thanks, George!]"So far it seems like a cross between 'Saved by the Bell: The College Years' and one of those in-hotel channels that offer you tips on how to get to the golf course from the lobby and where to eat in Key Biscayne." -- John Podhoretz, The National Review blog [via]
"All the new-media spiel that chairman Al Gore and other Current hype-meisters have been spinning of late sounds like some fairy tale from the dot-com boom. Given the hyperbolic pronouncements about how it would change the face of television and the Internet and the culture, blah blah blah, Current's first 36 hours were particularly disappointing." -- Maureen Ryan, Chicago Tribune [via]
"The entire look and feel of the network, at least in this early conception, reeks of corporate Groupthink mixed with naive amateurism. Those two cornerstones of youth culture -- irony and subversion -- have been supplanted by endless mini-docs that bore more than they engage." -- B-Side, TVGasm
"Imagine 'Channel One,' that TV show many of us were forced to ignore during homeroom, except now you're not at school. You're in your own living room, holding a remote control, eating chips with beer and the total freedom to watch a show that isn't uninteresting, poorly-written, pseudo-educational garbage. That's what watching Current is like." -- Alex Blagg, Blagg Blog
Ouch. Trust us, we looked for a good review on Technorati, but we couldn't find anything better than lukewarm. Better send those executives from Channel One and Rupert Murdoch's Sky News back to the drawing board.