Post by chemikalman on May 10, 2005 11:20:30 GMT -5
This is a compliment -- I think.
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It’s good that TV is now so bad
This is in praise of bad television. What other kind of television is there to praise?
Every so often there is great television; for example, the first season of “The Sopranos”; about every third episode of “House,” a show on Fox about a doctor whose crankiness jump-starts his creativity; and every other showing of “The Shield”[/color] which goes Tuesday night at 9 on FX, cable 35.
I would list “The Shield”[/color]as the best show on television this season because it is less like television than anything else on it.
It is nasty, ruthless and violent it makes the frequently excellent “Deadwood” on HBO look like a tea-and-crumpets party. The acting on “The Shield”[/color] is so good, the viewer is able to look away during the required human atrocities in a heartless Los Angeles gangland and then pick up once the screaming has subsided.
The problem with the shows you like is this: ideas. If they, they being studio executives and producers, can’t think of a single good idea for a movie every, oh, six or eight months, how could they think of 10 or 20 high-quality ideas for a television series?
Tonight on “CSI Brooklyn”: Blood splatters are found on a meteorite that landed in the river!
24 hours, all bad: Many of the most popular television shows are bad when it comes to story lines, the more implausible the plot the better, sometimes. I found it impossible to flip from the critically acclaimed show “24” a couple or three episodes back simply because it was making less sense than, quite possibly, any other program in television history. The series “24” is about a crime that takes place in real time, in 24 hours. This would be a tremendous gimmick for the looting of a bank or something like that. This season’s crime is an attempt to destroy the United States. It’s as though cars can drive across town in a minute, thirty, and airplanes can traverse the continent in an hour, ten. In a recent episode, a bad guy who knew of a stolen nuclear weapon was caught but permitted to remain silent a while because we as a country would sooner start from scratch than rough up the worst enemy ever to get an answer.
And who can ever turn the channel from David Caruso on “CSI: Miami” when he stands over yet another corpse and jerks from his puckered-up face his sunglasses in the haughty style of a William Shatner and says to crooks everywhere: Somebody shouldn’t have done that.
In reality, bad: Reality television remains popular because there are no plots; throw Paula Abdul out there and let her be herself. So what if most of the American Idols can’t sing a lick? So what if you’ll probably never see the next “Apprentice” again?
Average television is unwatchable, so keep it sorry.
Here’s the key: Bad television can be a beneficial diversion from the rigors of everyday life, just as long as you know what you’re watching is terrible
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It’s good that TV is now so bad
This is in praise of bad television. What other kind of television is there to praise?
Every so often there is great television; for example, the first season of “The Sopranos”; about every third episode of “House,” a show on Fox about a doctor whose crankiness jump-starts his creativity; and every other showing of “The Shield”[/color] which goes Tuesday night at 9 on FX, cable 35.
I would list “The Shield”[/color]as the best show on television this season because it is less like television than anything else on it.
It is nasty, ruthless and violent it makes the frequently excellent “Deadwood” on HBO look like a tea-and-crumpets party. The acting on “The Shield”[/color] is so good, the viewer is able to look away during the required human atrocities in a heartless Los Angeles gangland and then pick up once the screaming has subsided.
The problem with the shows you like is this: ideas. If they, they being studio executives and producers, can’t think of a single good idea for a movie every, oh, six or eight months, how could they think of 10 or 20 high-quality ideas for a television series?
Tonight on “CSI Brooklyn”: Blood splatters are found on a meteorite that landed in the river!
24 hours, all bad: Many of the most popular television shows are bad when it comes to story lines, the more implausible the plot the better, sometimes. I found it impossible to flip from the critically acclaimed show “24” a couple or three episodes back simply because it was making less sense than, quite possibly, any other program in television history. The series “24” is about a crime that takes place in real time, in 24 hours. This would be a tremendous gimmick for the looting of a bank or something like that. This season’s crime is an attempt to destroy the United States. It’s as though cars can drive across town in a minute, thirty, and airplanes can traverse the continent in an hour, ten. In a recent episode, a bad guy who knew of a stolen nuclear weapon was caught but permitted to remain silent a while because we as a country would sooner start from scratch than rough up the worst enemy ever to get an answer.
And who can ever turn the channel from David Caruso on “CSI: Miami” when he stands over yet another corpse and jerks from his puckered-up face his sunglasses in the haughty style of a William Shatner and says to crooks everywhere: Somebody shouldn’t have done that.
In reality, bad: Reality television remains popular because there are no plots; throw Paula Abdul out there and let her be herself. So what if most of the American Idols can’t sing a lick? So what if you’ll probably never see the next “Apprentice” again?
Average television is unwatchable, so keep it sorry.
Here’s the key: Bad television can be a beneficial diversion from the rigors of everyday life, just as long as you know what you’re watching is terrible