lobsterchick's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I Love (Good) TV Settle in with some cider kids; it's a long fireside chat tonight. I know that there are an awful lot of things I could/should be getting worked up about, and that TV should probably not be at the top of the list, but as a genre, it seems to be one of the most unfair. Take, for instance, music. If you're imprisoned within the four walls of what passes as mainstream radio in most cities, you're going to hear somewhere in the neighborhood of the same ten songs, over and over and over again. But beyond that room, there is just tons and tons of great music being made. People are still making music independently, and if you're willing to put forth the effort, you can find it relatively easily. Even if you live in Podunk City, IA, it can be done. It may not be easy or cheap, but it's possible. Same goes with film. People are out there every day, making independent films with more beauty and elegance than anything big studios could ever hope to produce, but, and even more so lately with the advent of DVD technology and the internet, they are generally more available to the great majority of people. If you know where to look, and what channels to exhaust, you can find something that touches you. As for art (visual art: paintings, sculpture, etc.)... I mean, there is so much out there. If you can't find something you like, it's because you're not looking, and you probably don't care, which is your prerogative. But I mean, if you want it, it's there. Same thing with books. If you can't find a book you like, I don't know what to tell you. Unlike video rental services, libraries are free. For free, you can (at least in St. Louis County) go online, select almost any book you want from the entire system, have it delivered to your local branch (which in my case is like, eight seconds from my house), go get it, read it for two weeks (two weeks!), and return it. And even if you do get it back late, there's no Blockbusterian fine of $3 a day; it's like, ten cents. If you have a fairly well-stocked local library, it's a perfect system. Back to my point, though: Television. Even with a kajillion channels out there, there is a limited amount of programming. It's finite. Even with the advent of DVD technology, the amount of programming available in that mode is miniscule compared to the millions and millions of hours of shows that television has amassed since its inception about sixty-five years ago. And unlike most other art forms, TV programs (at least in the case of network or non-premium cable channels) are considered profitable not based on how many people will pay to see it, but how many advertisers will buy time during the show. So that's just one more opinion to add to the already-inflated number that go into producing once single show. Also, in another break from the traditional art-producing modus operandi, instead of Creation-->Approval-->Distribution, you have Pitch-->Approval-->Creation-->Distribution-->Reworking-->and More Often Than Not, Ditching. Good shows, bad shows, okay ones, shows with potential, laughable dramas, boring comedies, diamonds in the rough, passed-over gems, they're all at risk of tanking. I'm tired of seeing the good ones passed over. I submit to you, Exhibit A: My So-Called Life. This show aired in 1994/95, when I was the same age as the protagonist, Angela, played by a now-irritating Claire Danes. As a 15-year-old, I felt the show spoke to me. Even more shocking is that when I occasionally stumble on a repeat, I still find it relatable. Scandalous! Exhibit B: Freaks and Geeks. Piss-in-your-pants hilarious, not to mention so heart-breakingly sweet. I find that these are the truly astounding shows: The ones that can make you laugh and cry (often at the same time) within the span of one episode, and what's more, do it with regularity. Shows like this are examples of what television can be like, and what it rarely is. Exhibit C: Futurama. Everything that made The Simpsons great, and so much more richly-textured than The Simpsons has been in years. This show got cancelled, not like A and B, because of lack of viewership, but because, unlike The Simpsons, Matt Groening and not FOX owned this piece of perfection. It simply wasn't worth FOX's time or money to promote a near-perfect show. Fortunately I can catch it at 2 a.m. on weekdays here on Cartoon Network, but hopefully I'll be taping it soon (pending my getting a job). Exhibit D: Scrubs. Not cancelled yet, that I know of. Tuesday nights at 8:30C on NBC. Watch it. It is a show composed by genius writers for brilliant actors, and there is not a single thread in this tapestry that is out of place. No plotline is ever left dangling out in the frustrating wind of lack of completion, and it, like F & G, is a laugher/cryer. Even more impressive, though, is that they do it in a half-hour instead of a full one. That's commitment, folks. From what I understand, the only reason this show is still even on the air is because it's the favorite show of some NBC bigwig. Thank you, unnamed executive. You and I have other shows to hash it out about, but we can at least agree on Scrubs. Exhibit E: Another show that is in peril of cancellation due to less-than-stellar ratings is Arrested Development. You must watch this show. Sunday nights. 8 PM Central. It's biting and clever and hilarious and cutting-edge and touching and shocking and sometimes sad and Jason Bateman is my secret boyfriend. Shh. He doesn't know. But just watch the show. Everyone who does loves it, just not enough people have taken the opportunity to sit down in front of it. And my final exhibit, F: King of the Hill. This is the rarest of good TV shows: The one that doesn't become so popular that it panders to the lowest common denominator, flies just under the radar in the zone where it still gets picked up every year but can afford to give little thought to the network's fears and opinions. And still, after I believe eight years, delivers week after week. Some people sniff at what they see on the surface and decry the show as a portrait of (cue the eye-rolls) "Teeexas." But there is not a single one-note cowboy character on here, and I'm fairly certain I've never seen a murdering cheerleader mom. It's wickedly funny every time, and a spot-on snapshot of every last one of us. If you can't relate to someone on King of the Hill, then check your pants. You might just be surprised at your species. Thanks for sticking with me up until this point. I know it's been a long haul. My point is, there is sometime on TV beside the infinite variations on single people choosing each other for love/money/fame/shame/gross-out factor. Not every show on TV has been created by Mark Burnett. It's not as easy for good TV shows to get on the air as it is for good music to get made in some fashion, or for good books to get published, but in the rare cases when it happens, viewership is the best communication to let the powers that be know that we're thrilled to death. 2:02 AM - 03 March 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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