Don't get cute
The PBS show 'History Detectives' is not uninteresting, although it's for some reason never actually gripping enough that I seek it out (I suspect the fictionalisation of a hunt for information, glossing over long hours in this or that library, the expert advice that feels flat and weirdly too-well-suited (no long rambling conversation in which important information emerges)).
Anyhow, I was flipping channels a little while ago and ran across an ad for it, which I stayed and paid attention to long enough to figure out what the advertised show was, and why they were using the opening (and titular line) of 'Watching the Detectives' as a soundtrack.
I am somewhat amused to imagine Elvis Costello amiably agreeing that it was fine for PBS to use the song (I know they can't have the budget to pay much for it), but I am also amused by the metadescriptive aspect of this song, delineating not the content of the show but the relation the viewer has with it. Yes, I guess I am watching the detectives. Thank you for making that so clear.
Anyhow, I was flipping channels a little while ago and ran across an ad for it, which I stayed and paid attention to long enough to figure out what the advertised show was, and why they were using the opening (and titular line) of 'Watching the Detectives' as a soundtrack.
I am somewhat amused to imagine Elvis Costello amiably agreeing that it was fine for PBS to use the song (I know they can't have the budget to pay much for it), but I am also amused by the metadescriptive aspect of this song, delineating not the content of the show but the relation the viewer has with it. Yes, I guess I am watching the detectives. Thank you for making that so clear.