Sex, violence, extreme weather, money,
October 03, 2002
Sex, violence, extreme weather, money, celebrity scandal. Same old same old. The gatekeepers at the narrow end of the TV intestine must all be 13 years old. Nothing shoots out that seems anywhere outside this formula. I speak in broadly general terms but so does the TV. Even the “highbrow” channels are variations on the same themes. Lets speak to a renowned author about his/her views on the same five topics. Lets watch the discovery channel to see animals captured doing the same things (through creative editing). Lets talk in low and intense tones about the nocturnal life of the tree frog. Lets use the same tones we use for tracking the murderer throughout the Detroit crack house.
Although life is constantly peppered with intense moments there are a lot of things in between that could do with some attention. How about some TV about people watching TV. I would like that channel just as a motivator. If you want to do something with your life then rent a hotel room and turn on the “People Watching TV in Hotel Rooms Channel”. It will force you to do something with your life. How about the “Teens Typing Into MSN Messenger Channel”. You’d find more suicide notes beside idiot boxes playing these channels than any other. Why am I not wrestling the alligator? Why am I not the philandering drugged out movie star who has just flipped his Ferrari? Because those aren’t all the best things to be doing?
We’re all watching a world carefully selected for us. Not all great things make good television. The “People Staring At the Sea Channel” and the “People Reading the Last Chapter of an Amazing Book Channel” would have 9 viewers between them at any given time. If things come out boring at the small end of the telescope then the gatekeepers try to make them what they are not (see exciting tree frog). On the other hand I’m watching this live hurricane coverage and it is making an exciting event boring. Its like they are attempting to tame this wild wind by being ready to document its every facet. Impossible. Its only television. You can’t fit a hurricane into that limited language. GoreTex jacket with a necktie rhetoric. I wish it had just died offshore and left them all holding their limp mics like Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone’s safe. Reality TV is far from real. Everyone is making choices about what is shown. I think people are now narrowing their focus on what is exciting to only include those things predetermined to be exciting for them. The obvious thrill sports and “extreme” activities and the head and crotch games of “Blind Date”, “Survivor”, “Friends” , and “Will & Grace” are the only options. A life without black & white reactionary behaviour and manipulation is a life without “drama”. Like a hurricane you can’t even fit cancer into the TV. All the medical dramas can’t get the real feel. Its still “General Hospital” with better acting and lighting. Can we widen the focus back out beyond what makes good TV? Good TV might not be good living. Hey...”the Simpsons” is on...got to go.