Television is a plague
You know, I see all of these blogs out there in cyberland, and I read them and some of them are genuinely interesting. Funny stories about what happened to the author that day, or just amusing ramblings. Well, I sit in my basement all day. The most eventful thing in my life lately was the removal of the tree in our backyard — because the birds are one of the few things in my life that isn’t the basement.
Sigh.
Well ok here’s some other news. I’ve officially cut down on TV. I don’t even watch ‘my shows’ anymore. I’m just pissed off with how commercial TV is, how dumb the content of the shows are, and how shameless the stories try to hook the viewer to watch it One More Time rather than produce a good story. True, my favorite shows (Monk, Dead Like Me, Carnivale, Angel, and West Wing) were pretty good and generally avoiding those pitfalls, in the end they just didn’t cut it. West Wing got too repetitive. Dead Like Me got too slow. Monk also got too repetitive. Carnivale was too in love with its own mystery, and wouldn’t produce anything that wasn’t either cryptic or obscene. And Angel…..
I watched Angel the longest (although that was partly just due to the timing of the show seasons). But I finally gave up. It didn’t go the Buffy route and suddenly get horrible and desperate. It just suddenly wasn’t the same show I liked. Angel ‘jumped the shark’ when Cordelia left. Not when the character died, not when she fell into a coma, but when the character, the spirit, left. She was the beating heart of a show that had style and substenance, just not spirit. When she left, suddenly the show was simply a morose shell. And not in an intentional manner, to emulate the character of Angel himself. Because one-sided characters need to be in multi-dimensional stories. And yes, I do think one-dimensional characters can survive perfectly well, remaining interesting and entertaining — as long as they contain style. Style is the substance of a one-dimensional character. But the story does not do anybody any good by becoming one-dimensional itself.
So, after the horrible Angel-puppet episode I had to stop. No, I did not watch the extremely sad bye-bye-Fred episode. I don’t need for a television show to attempt to give me emotional baggage. I have better things to do than mope about all day because of what happened to pretend people. So screw Angel.
Television is a plague.
I will continue to watch:
1) news and current information (including presidential debates, or profession-related shows like Screen Savers),
2) education (like Science Channel, Animal Planet, etc.), and
3) mindless no-commitment humor (like funny home videos or daily show, where I can get up or turn it off at any point, and it is not necessary to watch for any given block of time in order to receive a bigger picture).
And number 3 is rare. I have to be in the right state of mind or be in the right circumstance. For instance, I can watch number 3 during dinner.
What I don’t watch:
1) anything with ‘reality’ in the title, unless it is part of “virtual reality”
2) anything that makes bald attempts to tweak heart-strings
3) anything with “a musical guest”
4) anything on a music channel
5) anything that is hosted by an early-20s flavor-of-the-month
6) anything with a ’special segment’ meant to synchronize with something commercial (eg. shows that have a guest from the new hit movie release)
7) comedies that aren’t smart enough to make fun of themselves
8) anything that is obviously in love with itself, to the exclusion of providing something for the audience
9) anything that contains people that are obviously in love with themselves, to the exclusion of providing something for the audience
10) pretty much anything with a laugh track
Unfortunately, except for a few channels, that pretty much describes today’s television. So, I repeat:
Television is a plague.
What does television teach you? That the most important thing you need to do is be seen by everyone else, and that you need to be really in love with yourself to be seen by everyone else. But not so much in love with yourself that you think you’re cooler than ‘they’ are. And not so much in love with yourself that their commercials can’t crack your self esteem and convince you that you’re too fat, too wrinkly, too impotent, too bald, too dirty, or too pathetic.
February 28th, 2004 at 1:16 pm
Wow, you really aren’t going to watch any TV are you? I don’t watch much, The Simpsons, Futurama, Conan, Daily Show, and Angel are the big ones. And then pretty much anything on Discovery or TLC. But I liked the puppet episode!! I laughed the whole time. Definitely not the same Angel but I thought it was incredibly funny. And Buffy and Angel have always had stuff like that… like when everyone wanted that kid with the letter jacket (if I remember correctly you didn’t like that one either), and the Angel where the drive through burger speaker thingie was actually some sort of Demigod. Joss has a sick sense of humor.
But I do agree, killing Fred THE EPISODE AFTER she and Wesley got together was a little much. It was a powerful episode though, she’s an incredible actress. Some good fight scenes there too. I think the rest of the season is going to be pretty incredible though, since there’s only going to be 6 more episodes til doomsday.
Also, I doubt Fred is actually dead for good. Willow, Buffy, and Faith are supposedly going to be making appearances, so who knows…Willow could bring her back to life in standard Joss style.
February 28th, 2004 at 4:24 pm
Yup, pretty much no more TV, expect for the three cases I mentioned above. (like The Screen Savers, or Science of the Deep). And when I was watching the puppet episode, it was just too painfully clear that I was laughing ‘at’ the show, instead of ‘with’ it. I mean, really, what a stupid thing to happen.
And don’t get me started on the letter jacket Buffy episode. That was very VERY nearly the end of the Buffy road for me. My all time least favorite Buffy episodes. I’ve seen episodes of Saved By the Bell that looked like Tolstoy next to the letter jacket Buffy.
I remember not liking the demigod burger speaker thing too much either, but I believe that was just a small portion of an otherwise good episode….
February 28th, 2004 at 4:41 pm
I wasn’t so jazzed by “Smile Time”. It had a lot of potential to be great, but was really only so-so.
And I do disagree about the loss of the spirit of the show when Charisma Carpenter left. The show certainly took a different direction, but I think that adding James Marsters to the cast gave it a whole new fabulous vibe. Screw Buffy and Angel, Buffy and Spike, or Cordy and Angel. Spike and Angel are the best couple I have ever seen in the Buffyverse. (I just love how they had a “break-up” conversation this past week on Angel.) Sure, the show took on a slightly lighter tone, but I think that it suited Angel. There have been some fantastically dark episodes this season. “Hellbound” (Spike fights getting sent to hell), “Lineage” (Wesley shoots his “father”), and “Damage” (crazy slayer) were all standout episodes in my opinion. I think that “Damage” was so good that I would consider it one of the best episodes of Angel ever.
Of course, I can understand that if you REALLY liked the way Angel was going last season that you might be disappointed with now. I agree that TV in general sucks ass. I’m really only making a point of watching Angel on a regular basis. I watch 24, Enterprise and The Daily Show, but not nearly so religiously. I can’t stand the reality trend. I’ve been waiting for it to fade for about 4 years now. I could give a shit about how these 5 people trapped on a sinking battleship in Lake Erie with a can of Spam, a torn Hawaiian shirt, and three bent tacks can get along together. I don’t know what I’m going to do when Angel goes off the air at the end of the season. I won’t have a reason to watch TV anymore. It makes me sad. (Actually, it makes me sad that I won’t get a weekly fix of Joss Whedon, but for me, that’s kind of the same thing.)
February 28th, 2004 at 7:04 pm
We can always hope for the Firefly theatrical movie and the Angel TV movies though
February 28th, 2004 at 7:13 pm
You’re right about Lineage, that was a terrific episode. Damage had one major problem for me — and it’s name was Andrew. I was just too corny. BUT, that said, the dialoge between Angel and Spike at the end of Damage was, in my opinion, the best five minutes of the entire show. Not episode, not season, but show. It was that good.
And it was altogether too brief. I need more than five minutes glimmers into greatness. Gene Siskel once said that for a movie to be considered great, it needed at least three incredible moments, and no bad ones. Now, for a television show three might be pushing it, so I would settle for one (although a one-hour show like Angel should really have two). But the key is “and no bad ones.” And Angel blows that for me, just about every time. There is always some corny humor, or an empty romantic moment, or whatever. In Damage, that final dialogue was just incredible. And by itself would have turned that episode from good to great. BUT there was the too-transparent and too-weak attempts at humor with Andrew’s character that just disgusted me. They didn’t belong in that episode. The ruined it.
For the longest time I just figured I was being too harsh that I let things like that bother me. I don’t believe that anymore. I don’t have a lot of free time these days, and I refuse to waste it watching something that has moments I have to forgive. If the three of us (myself, Jen, and Jen’s sister Erin) sit down to watch a movie with dinner, and it’s not doing it for me by the time I’m finished eating, I’ll leave. Heather, you probably remember that I HATE starting to watch something and not finish it, even if I don’t think it’s good. Well, it turns out, not as much as I hate to watch something that feels like it’s wasting my time. So I just decided I won’t do it anymore.
February 28th, 2004 at 7:20 pm
I am holding out hope for those, but it still won’t be the same.
In a way, the Firefly loss kills me the most. It never even got a chance to shine. I just finished rewatching the series when I got the DVDs for Christmas. It was so good. I was really getting into the stories. It hurt me so much more once I got through them all together (and in the right order). It just makes me sad how instant-gratification-oriented our culture has become. I want a STORY, dammit. Compel me! Draw me in and keep me interested, and please, do it in a creative way.
So, yes, I am EXTREMELY eager for Joss to get his Firefly movie underway.
February 28th, 2004 at 8:06 pm
Joss has announced that he’s going to call it Serenity when/if he makes it, and Universal has quietly announced a new movie called Serenity. So there’s SOME hope. They haven’t released any info on it, but… we can hope.
February 28th, 2004 at 8:11 pm
David, I guess the Andrew thing is where your taste and mine differs significantly. I think that Andrew is HI-larious. I couldn’t get enough of him on Buffy during Season 7. His wimpy ridiculousness was the perfect contrast to all the fantastic butt-kicking seriousness of all of the rest of the regulars in the Buffyverse. And his crush on Spike is the most adorable thing. He’s like uber-prissy Wesley. I wouldn’t want him to be a regular cast member, but his occasional visit is most welcome in my opinion.
I guess that’s what I love so much about Joss’ shows. I love the silliness that pops up at the most extremely serious moments. Joss rarely lets his shows lose sight of the big drama, but he won’t let us get bogged down in it either. The most beautiful moments in Joss’ worlds are often the most heartbreaking: Buffy curled up in Joyce’s lap at the end of “Innocence”; the discussion between Spike and Angel that you mentioned at the end of “Damage”; the delivery scene at the end of “The Message” on Firefly - just to name some good examples. Those moments really make the shows special, but I think that all the moments together make the shows amazing.
February 28th, 2004 at 10:37 pm
The thing that makes me disagree with you, David, is basically what Heather is saying… Joss has uber silly shows, uber serious, uber kickass, and uber heartbreaking.. I don’t think Joss is trying to give you emotional baggage, I don’t think he’s delving into the emotional jerk-off genre that so many movies have started falling into. He’s touching on something we all experience: loss. And it’s not done in an unbelievable manner (well, except for the whole demon virus… I mean the sickness itself, and the way she dies). It was sweet and very touching. And the funny moments have always been around in EVERYTHING Joss does. Andrew was one of the greatest parts of season 7, and the incredible contrast AND incredible similarity of his character between season 7 and psycho-slayer episode were great. And EVERY time a sub-plot is finished with anything he does, there’s always the silly episode. Like when Jonathon casts the spell to make everyone love him, the entire town starts singing as if in a musical, a loan shark (who really is a shark in a business suit) comes after spike to collect on his kitten debt… etc etc… something mystic causes something silly to happen. So its no surprise that Angel turned into a puppet. And the Spike-Puppet Angel dialogue was great. I can’t explain how much I laughed when Angel and the crew were walking out in slow-mo and they zoomed down and there was wee-Angel with the sword. Its just so silly it must be loved!
Anyway, that’s quite a ramble. Enjoy!