if there is anyone out there that thinks TV has gone to the B movie blahs?
I miss the great days of well written television on the main stations, CBC, ABC, NBC,CBS, and still watch them on reruns..
Frasier, Friends, Will and Grace, The Gilmore Girls, etc etc....top quality actors, directors, writers...the A squad of television.
It is unfortunate that some of our best shows now are on specialized channels, HBO, for example.
This chasing 15 minutes of fame and creating a whole show around it just makes me sad in lots of ways.
Now I don't mind the actual talent showcase shows, "So you think you can dance", The Idols", Rockstar....but the shows that are simply there to share the odd and surreal lives of people intimately, kinda disturb me.
It seems like the B string of writers, actors, or non actors as is often the case, have taken over our airways.
"Life imitating art, art imitating life"....hmmm..when did that become "life not art" on tv?
I totally agree. And in my opinion, you could ose reality TV and I would lose no sleep what-so-ever. And heck, it's not even reality. Hidden cameras, now that would be reality, but that is an entirely different post.
ReplyDeleteGilmore Girls. I was recently introduced to that show, via my daughter. My son bought her the fist season for Christmas and we watch the reruns nearly every day. We had to rent the last season on Netflix, for ABC family stopped airing the show at the end of the 6the 6th season.
When I watched the final episodes, I had an ache in the pit of my stomach, I was near weeping status. When a show can bring you to tears, just because you got yourself so connected to those characters, then that is the sign of a not only good, but great TV show.
Sorry my first comment got so long.
Network TV, with very few exceptions, has indeed gone downhill. All the good stuff is on the cable channels and I think most of it is because of money and pandering to the lowest class of viewers/opinions.
ReplyDeleteI hate reality TV. Even the ones you would think I would like, Top Chef for example, are too contrived and over-dramatized, and are less and less about the main idea (here, cooking) than about personal drama. It is ridiculous.
Even the 'talent' shows imho are over the top, more about bad and cheesy performances than real talent. I think the only show I have been able to watch in this vein is 'Dancing with the Stars" and even then I skip all the backstage stuff and just watch the dancing, as I am a ballroom addict.
I don't have cable sadly, but I actually don't mind some of the better shows being on cable (yay DVD) as they can put in better/more adult content than the networks and I think in most cases that helps the shows. Deadwood, Madmen, The Shield etc. for example, would never work on networks because of censoring. I don't mind waiting to watch them online or DVD.
I think there are waves of good and bad TV, though the reality thing has gone way too far. I would trade the sexual-beauty-shallow-drama of things like The Bachelor for more violence on network TV...it has to be less damaging to viewers than more plastic people competing for sex and cash. Ugh.