broadcast TV
So, there are a scant few events that get people to watch broadcast TV in the numbers they used to. The last one I remember tuning into myself was the Peanuts Halloween Special, which was followed up by another Peanuts special to fill up the hour. And after events like that, and the Super Bowl, naturally they're going to showcase some original programming. Except..... all original programming is heavy post-9/11 bleak cynicism. The show that followed Peanuts was a carefully broadcast-edited scene that cold-opened a show called "Scandal," naturally about corruption in the federal government. The show that followed the Super Bowl is about secret prisons and torture and supervillains and spies and also torture.
It made me think about how that sex scene that played over the squashed credits of the Peanuts special, was explicit enough to probably raise uncomfortable questions from children, but zoomed-in and implicit enough that teenagers wouldn't be sexually aroused by it. And how post-9/11 spy stuff always, always, always feeds the "Torture Totally Works, Guys" assumption that Jack Bauer popularized so that we could get all that non-information out of those Gitmo detainees.
It's giving me serious don't-want-to-live-on-this-planet feelings.
my reaction to this stuff... is that one of the things that's been wrong with me? Am I supposed to be feeling some sense of satisfaction? I sat through the whole episode. There was more torture, a bunch of different spy agencies betraying each other, a code-named chunk of information that's worth more than human lives, and a cliffhanger that took the form of an explosion. Is this what normal entertainment is? If I made myself learn to like it, would people relate to me better?
after that is news coverage of all the crowds of people just milling around on the OUTSIDE of sports bars at Westgate. These are the people who clogged up traffic on the 101. And of course they're talking about post-9/11 security too. Naturally the Seahawks fans who missed the first quarter because of a small bag attributed it to security, and not the stadium's unassailable right to make money on food. again, is this what normal people do? Go into traffic and stand outside a bar 50 feet away from a flat-screen TV for six hours? Is this the society I'm trying to integrate myself into?
NBC thursday is the next episode of that spy thing, followed by the premiere episode of another spy thing, this one with Russians. because everything is betrayal. No wonder it's impossible to keep friends, this is what people are being trained to be like.
It made me think about how that sex scene that played over the squashed credits of the Peanuts special, was explicit enough to probably raise uncomfortable questions from children, but zoomed-in and implicit enough that teenagers wouldn't be sexually aroused by it. And how post-9/11 spy stuff always, always, always feeds the "Torture Totally Works, Guys" assumption that Jack Bauer popularized so that we could get all that non-information out of those Gitmo detainees.
It's giving me serious don't-want-to-live-on-this-planet feelings.
my reaction to this stuff... is that one of the things that's been wrong with me? Am I supposed to be feeling some sense of satisfaction? I sat through the whole episode. There was more torture, a bunch of different spy agencies betraying each other, a code-named chunk of information that's worth more than human lives, and a cliffhanger that took the form of an explosion. Is this what normal entertainment is? If I made myself learn to like it, would people relate to me better?
after that is news coverage of all the crowds of people just milling around on the OUTSIDE of sports bars at Westgate. These are the people who clogged up traffic on the 101. And of course they're talking about post-9/11 security too. Naturally the Seahawks fans who missed the first quarter because of a small bag attributed it to security, and not the stadium's unassailable right to make money on food. again, is this what normal people do? Go into traffic and stand outside a bar 50 feet away from a flat-screen TV for six hours? Is this the society I'm trying to integrate myself into?
NBC thursday is the next episode of that spy thing, followed by the premiere episode of another spy thing, this one with Russians. because everything is betrayal. No wonder it's impossible to keep friends, this is what people are being trained to be like.