What bugs me is the wide shot of a group walking side by side in slow motion - is it some sort of Reservoir Dogs leftover or something?!

Well personally I loved the lighting in Star Trek. I thought it was downright beautiful to look at.

But I've not witnessed this whole not-talking-to-camera phenomenon. I don't watch enough British television, obviously. Sounds a little weird. Anything currently airing that exhibits it if I wanna see it for myself?

I know I'm watching JJ when my eyes get abused by lens flare

http://io9.com/5230278/jj-abrams-tells- ... ens-flares

The BBC1 programme Fake or Fortune on Sundays. Presented by Fiona Bruce.

It'd be weird if they were talking to camera in that though, as they're meant to be discussing things with each other.
We, the viewer, are observational not participatory to the show, a decision made by the production.
It'd be weird if it was something the news spots started doing.

This is the thing, though: they're not. They're obviously on their own, presumably speaking to someone to the left of and behind the camera. It's a one-way conversation, often about the other participants so they're obviously not even in the room.

It just seems so, well, odd.

No - there are sequences when she is on her own - quite definitely not discussing stuff with others, but putting information across to the viewer. And she’s not talking to camera.

Right, watched about 12 minutes of the show on iPlayer last night, and then skipped around a bit before I could stand no more. Found it massively boring.

However, I couldn't find a scene where there is one person presenting info to "us" but not looking at the camera. It all looked like standard "interview" technique to me. Conversation taking place with somebody just off camera. Am I missing something...?

There was no conversation. The "interviewer" remained silent. They may as well not have been there.

This is the beef Paul and I have. This off-camera talking thing only works when there's a voice off camera asking or prompting. If there's no voice, no interviewer, why not look straight at the camera and talk to us. We are the viewers, after all.

See if you can find American Hotrod or American Chopper on YouTube. They use exactly the same technique, but it's completely obvious the "interviewee" is reading from a prompter in that stupid American sing-song way they have.