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Sunday, Jan. 16, 2005
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What has happened with quality entertainment?I could not care less what happens to Jack Bauer. He can stay spread eagled with two dozen law enforcement guns pointed at him until dooms day for all I care. I should have known better, but I fell for a line that fell off the lips of some far too highly paid sportscaster. Dont even know who the sportscaster was. I was not in the room. My hubby was watching a play-off game on Sunday and a voice from the tube was calling the new television series 24 a must-see and telling folks it would follow the game. Yet he was cautioning viewers to beware because after just one viewing you will be hooked. Not hardly! I watched the special two hour season premier of 24 on Sunday night. Perhaps I should say I watched the commercials, along with some degree of program exposure, that aired in the 8 to 10 time slot. When the episode ended at an especially tense moment, designed to leave us hanging onto the edge of our seats so we would be sure to tune in next time, the screen informedÊ me that I must come back on Monday night to find out what happens to Jack and friends. I went back but with a very ulterior moment. On Monday night, with paper and pen in hand, I sat down to see if Jack would save the Secretary of Defense, destroy the terrorists, and ultimately save the nation. I was a somewhat duped consumer who wanted to know just exactly how many minutes of commercials I would be required to view again. From 8 p.m. until 9:57, I watched 86 minutes of programming and 34 minutes of advertising. I resent such monopolization of my time when I have chosen to be entertained. I let myself recall with each commercial how bent and determined producers, manufacturers and service providers are to claim the consumers almighty dollar. So bent that a tremendously wide selection of products are being thrown at us so fast and hard that there is less and less time for quality to be a consideration. Variety rules. Quality be damned. I suppose, for the most part, the product fits the commercial these days. While I am griping, let me also express in print my total disgust with all the reality shows. ALL of them. One or two was acceptable. To be inundated is not acceptable. Even if you choose not to watch the reality programs you have to listen to the commercials promoting them if you choose to watch other programming. I am starting to wonder if the majority of creative brains in Hollywood and New York have at long last become totally fried. I would like to remind the networks of the existence of the two Americas: two Americas that the networks themselves have almost single-handedly polarized. Recent politics and elections have demonstrated that fact clearly. Oh, how I would like to see more balanced programming to reflect all of America! Most folks I know watch no major network prime time television programming at all anymore! Foul language, drug use, and pathetically poor and sometimes downright silly family values permeate the tube. We are sick of it! Reality? It might be the reality of some Americans. It might be the reality of the network executives/producers/programmers. It is not my reality. How can it be that major network executives cannot see the tremendous opportunity they have to put forth quality programming that promotes decent values and healthier lifestyles? They could so easily offer a more balanced and less polarizing mix. I concede that a tremendous variety of sick controversy, blood and guts, and twisted sex is what rules our entertainment venues these days. Following such concession I am left to suppose the network executives live in such a world or believe the majority of their viewers live there. That is their reality. They can choose to live it, but they can no longer push it on me. I choose to live my reality. When I watch TV, I do so to relax, to be entertained or to be informed/educated. I want programming to offer an intelligent cast of characters who know how to act and I want each episode to come to a satisfying end. I want to be inspired, uplifted, challenged, made to laugh My life is filled with unfinished stuff. That is my reality. Ongoing drama pervades my days. When I take a break from the same I want to enjoy programming that leaves me sated, not hanging which is what 24 did yet again on Monday night. Jack may be back but I will not be! |
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