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Journal Trolling4Dollars's Journal: Rants about Television 51

Journal by Trolling4Dollars

I live in the United States. If I want to watch TV (which is something that happens infrequently ever since computers came into my life), I have to either, A.) rent something or B.) watch the crap on DirecTV.

My gripes:

1. Why are there so many reality shows?
2. Why is any show that's not a reality show, either a coarse comedy or an "ass kicking" show?
3. Why does DirecTV plaster their own ads over the network ads that the network broadcasts? (More on this one later)
4. What's the big deal with HD TV? It's not as good as people claim. (ie. Could be better)
5. Whatever happened to really good programs like Cosmos, The Universe and the original high quality productions from National Geographic? (The National Geographic channel blows chunks the size of boulders)
6. Why does MTV STILL show fewer music videos than commercials and special programming?
7. Why is SciFi channel hung up on their own shitty productions? Which leads to my other question, why isn't there a SciFi Classics channel that shows 50s, 60s and 70s SciFI, MST3K and TV shows like Doctor Who, The Tomorrow People, Red Dwarf and NOTHING produced by SciFI?
8. WHY OH WHY IS SciFi SHOWING CRAP LIKE Tripping the Rift and Mad Mad World????!!! Tripping the Rift wouldn't have even been funny to me at age 13 for god's sakes!
9. Why ISN'T there a classical music channel that has classical works with a video vignette illustrating a story (related or unrealted) or maybe featuring a nice locale?
10. What can we do to change television into something more suitable for an intelligent population?

OK. Those aer just a few gripes. Now I'll detail a few of them. First off, I'll say that profit motive is the main reason TV is so incredibly horrible these days. There is little thought or effort given to creating something with SOME artistic merit. The balance of creativity vs. marketing has tipped WAYYY over to the favor of marketing. In the 50s, there was profit motive too. But the people who produced the shows actually had to make an effort to make a good show to attract advertisers. This resulted in decent shows like Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone (which made a lot of social commentary for it's day a lot of which is even more relevant now). But something changed, and I'm not sure when? TV has had it's up and down periods, but I'd say for most of my life, it's pretty much been down. PBS used to be a refuge for a while, but even PBS has had to "get with the times" and that has lowered the tone. So the marketers are throwing swill at us like Survivor (who the fuck cares?), American Idol (again, WHO CARES?), The Bachelor (Do we even like this guy?) and Married by America (This one made me want to puke all over America). They do this because the stupid Americans who will buy anything and everything just because they're told to do so will watch this shite. And I guess that's what counts these days? Sad sad sad.

Regarding gripe #2, I think Americans have gotten louder, dumber and even more violent and agressive than they used to be. So they respond well to the trumpet and drum beat of shows that portray us as "winners" and "ass kickers" and "wealthy". A hero who uses his intellect more than his fists, is less likely to be a success with most Americans these days. Again... that's sad. It really says something about our collective intelligence.

Gripe #3. Oh... gripe #3 REALLY annoys the piss out of me. I moved from regular broadcast TV to DircTV because, the offerings of regular TV had become so bad and my local cable operators are in the stoneage. But DirecTV brings with it a new horror. No matter which channel you watch on DirecTV there are certain ads you CAN'T avoid. I think these companies pay DirecTV to plaster their ads over the ones that the original network intended. I have no idea what kinds of ads I'm not seeing (if you can consider ads anything more than a necessary evil), but I have a feeling that this power of DirecTV to do this could be abused, especially when it comes to political ads. How do I know this is going on? I've noticed that no matter which channel I watch, I see a lot of the same ads. I've also noticed that sometimes the DirecTV astroturf ads are slightly shorter than the ad the network is airing. So I will see a half second of the REAL ad when returning to a program. I'll bet a lot of people don't even catch it or think it's some kind of simple glitch. What I have noticed is that you can see Dell ads on almost any channel on DirecTV and you see them quite frequently. I would say they outweigh the HP ads, and Gateway is a rarity. On top of that, I've caught the last half second of PeoplePC ads directly after one of the DirecTV ads airs. But I NEVER see PeoplePC ads other than that fraction of a second. Some part of me feels that this is just wrong. The satellites channels should be public property and well regulated. But... I digress... It just really bothers me that DirecTV has that much control over it's viewer. Related to this, my MAJOR gripe is the number of multilevel marketing and ponzi scheme ads that are on DirecTV. There are more of these kinds of ads thatn there are Dell or DirecTV service ads. I see ads that say, "You can make a fortune in wireless internet access point kiosks"! The ads are complete with blonde bimbos looking at the kiosk like the apes studied the monolith in 2001 a Space Odyssey, people fanning out wads of cash and the trappings of wealth (luxury yachts, mansions and expensive cars). *See my earlier rant called, The Great American Passtime: The Scam. Is DirecTV in bed with comapnies that essentially want you to "make big penis now"!?

Gripe #8. SciFi can't make a quality original production to save it's life. Apparently the shows are popular with some knuckle draggers somewhere in the United States, but the production values are low and the writing and acting are poor. And now we are being treated to even worse fare... I never thought this could happen. I can't even begin to explain my dislike of the "new" series Tripping the Rift. A TV series spun off of a crappy CG thing that was floating around the net in 1997. This show wins top ranking for my "Most Poorly Produced and Poorly Though Out Idea for a Crapy Show" award and the "Coarsest Comedy Lacking any REAL Humour Whatsoever" award. This show is incredibly unfunny. There would be more laughs at a Republican National Convention than this show garners. I hope that this series fails, but it probably won't because it's what the collective American audience seems to want to watch. And Mad Mad World. MUST SciFI try and jump on board the reality show bandwagon? I could deal with it if it was all a big joke, but nothing, so far, indicates that it is. Give me a break... A "REAL" vampire? Named Don? And a blonde bimbo who is a Wiccan? PLEASE! This show is so laughable that I can't even dedicate any more words to it.

So what can we do to try and bring back intelligent television? Shows that actually have a positive effect on the viewer that DOESN'T make them want to buy something (or in my case put a pin through my brain to stop the pain). Personally, I watch a lot less television than I used to. My wife likes to watch TV to relax, but she has trouble finding many shows that are that entertaining. Right now, we've been hooked onto BBC America because for all the shite it plays, they at least have some decent mysteries with intelligent adult (ie. over 21) heroes. But it would be nice to know of an alternative. Our other solace has been the Prelinger Archives at http://archive.org/ (Yes, I'm too lazy to link this right now). Yes, it is actually more fun to watch hygiene films from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s than it is to watch modern television.

My final word... the saddest thing that I've seen is when there IS something good on TV and it only runs for a few episodes all because some idiot of a network exec somewhere sees that the viewing audience hasn't met some quota. We need to take television away from people like these.

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Rants about Television More

Rants about Television

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  • Gripe #3. Oh... gripe #3 REALLY annoys the piss out of me. I moved from regular broadcast TV to DircTV because, the offerings of regular TV had become so bad and my local cable operators are in the stoneage. But DirecTV brings with it a new horror. No matter which channel you watch on DirecTV there are certain ads you CAN'T avoid. I think these companies pay DirecTV to plaster their ads over the ones that the original network intended. I have no idea what kinds of ads I'm not seeing (if you can consider ads
  • Since I purchased my TiVo, I haven't really noticed any ads. I have no idea what movies are coming out or what new product I should avoid like the plague. Besides being able to skip through the commercials, it is also handy in that you can actually FIND things that interest you. I know a lot of the older or less exciting to the average Dumberican shows are played during times when you don't usually sit down to watch TV, so now you have it availabel to you. I'm not sure where you live, but there are some
    • This is a good point. Although I don't have a Tivo, I have one of those "PVR Conversions". (ie, a PC made to fit into my entertainment unit) I have it scheduled to record shows I AM interested in that play when I'm at work, or unlikely to be watvhing TV. More commentary on that later on as other folks have been talking about downloading programs from the net... In general, I just fastwind through ads. Not as good as the Tivo, I suppose, but in some ways I am limited by my income. As far as public TV

  • I cancelled my cable. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by grub ( 11606 ) on Monday March 01, 2004 @01:23PM (#8430575) Journal

    Kept the cable modem but dropped TV. If there are any interesting series or movies I download 'em. Have coax running to my TV and DD receiver from the computer. Also installed an RF remote control for handling the video/music software.

    That all said.. "TV SUCKS" (the exact reason I gave my cableco when cancelling). I had a mini-rant about TLC [slashdot.org] on Sept. 30 2003 in my journal. It was early November that I cancelled.

    One interesting thing I noticed is I'm far more selective about what I download (watch) because I can be. For once the selection is back in my hands rather than having to sit there at a time the networks dictate. The lack of ads is nice too.

    Another neat benefit was discovering foreign series that I'd never see here. Two prime examples are Riget [imdb.com] or "The Kingdom" (Denmark) which is now being shown as a Stephen King re-hash on US TV called Kingdom Hospital and Ultraviolet [imdb.com] (Britain)

    The best payoff of all is that my reading level has skyrocketted to where I'm comfortable again. It's too easy to forgo the mental stimulation of reading for the whiz-bang numbing of a TV
    • Ditto, grub. I pay an extra $10 a month for the cable modem because I don't get cable tv any longer, which makes the price difference that much smaller (which I'm sure is the idea). I still don't want it.

      Having done this a little while ago, I was surprised to read your TLC rant just now -- thanks for the info. That's disappointing but not surprising.

      Word to Trolling, my man. I hate to say it, but yeah, this drech is popular. I hear a lot of people chatting about god-knows-what reality show -- personal ste

      • and it's really the "broadcast" feel that I miss, anyway. (ever have a movie sitting forever on videotape that you never watch, only to sit through it on tv because "live" it's somehow more interesting?[...]

        A few weeks ago I was staying at my folks' house while they were on a trip. Blade Runner, Director's Cutwas showing on the Space Channel, the .CA version of the US's SciFi Channel. One of my favourite movies of all time, in widescreen even. So I sat down to enjoy it and a commercial came on. That tota
        • The Blade Runner is also one of my all time favorites. I actually bought a copy of it on VHS in 1983 when I was 13 with allowance money saved over months. Cost me nearly $50 at the time, but it was well worth it. I still have that thing... :) I have no idea how many times I've watched that movie, but it must be well over a few hundred times.
          • Ah, synchronicity.

            The last two nights I've come home late from work, aching to watch Blade Runner. I keep almost buying it at ye local DVD shoppe, and always end up picking stuff I've seen less - because I, too, have been watching it since my early teens, and know it pretty much inside and out. (actually, going slowly mad ransacking my apartment looking for the soundtrack. Have no idea where I put the bugger)

            Since you guys know the movie well, however, you'll appreciate my mini-rant about the director's c
            • Yes. I saw the clip you mentioned. In fact I still have it because I'm a Blade Runner nut. :) I also managed to find some of the music in MP3 format online that never made it onto the official Vangelis release. That was WAY cool.

              Did you ever notice that in the section where Deckard is interviewing Rachel with the V-K machine, they pull away for a long shot. They do a cross fade between the close miked dialogue and some echoey dialogue, then come back to the close miked dialog when thay cut back to a c
              • I do remember that snippet of soft dialogue, but I always thought it was a mix of these weird V-K scenarios, so didn't think of it as a gaffe or anything too unusual.

                A box set is exactly what I've been hoping for, but don't know if I'll hold out.

                Heh. I've got the photo -- you've probably seen it -- B&W of Deckard running on the roof, just before Rutger pushes open the trap door and comes after him -- in my office. My boss doesn't like it, but f**k him. Also, I've been thinking of taking down the "clas

              • "...orange body, green legs".

                Oh.. my.. fucking.. $DEITY.. I had never noticed that before although I know the line. I'll have to watch for that next time. Thanks a bunch for the pointer!
              • Holy crap, Trolling!!

                Yeah, after the viewing tonight, I went back to that part and replayed it a few times at high volume. Not only does he say "orange body, green legs" but right before it, he's saying "outside your bedroom window" -- which is where that spider built her nest... that is totally weird. Almost like the Deckard unicorn dream/foil unicorn, but rather than forging a connection, this makes their later conversation a little senseless. It's a little faint to be expecting people to catch it and re
                • - - SPOILER ALERT!!!!!! - -

                  - - - - I mean it, Blade Runner spoilers ahead!! - - - - -

                  IIRC, The matchstick man is meant to inform Deckard that Gaffe has been there, knows the score (that Deckard is himself a replicant) and is letting them go.

                  "You've done a man's job, sir!"

                  According to Scott, the deal is that Deckard is dreaming about unicorns because of his *own* implanted memories. Gaffe's real job is to "retire" Deckard if he ever gets out of line.

                  Once the Batty team is all dead, Deckard is suppose
                  • noooo... the foil unicorn is to show Deckard that Gaffe has been there. Gaffe is with Deckard, going through Leon's apartment, when Gaffe places the matchstick man. Deckard is just coming out of the bathroom where he scooped up the snake skin scale, and watches Gaffe do it.

                    so what is that darn matchstick man about???

                    yep, the unicorn is a hint to Deckard, which is why the DC was such a *huge* deal, apart from the lack of narration. biggest impact of a few extra seconds ever, that unicorn dream.

                    I agree. I
              • "Are checking to see if I'm a replicant or a lesbian, Mr. Deckard?"

                Have you noticed that just like her down-market cousin, when she is about to be revealed, she changes the subject?

                "What's a tortoise?"
                "How did I get there?"

                I long since started assuming that Roy prepped the others that if they were ever being V-Ked, to keep changing the subject and randomingly accusing the agent of other things. Afert all, what better technique to cover the significance of their own "pupil dilation, skin response", etc?
      • I know exactly what you mean about the "broadcast" feel. I've found that the time shifting feature of my pseudo-PVR works well enough that I really can't tell the difference unless I fast forward through the ads. But... I do have a theory about how to get the "broadcast" fell back. However, it requires a lot of disk space and a lot of video gotten from IRC/P2P or capped on your own:

        With enough source video, and a decent video player that can handle playlists, it becomes possible to make your own "broadc
        • Well, I've got two 120GB drives, one completely empty and the other with still 30 to go. I am slowly working my way through my CD's, burning away. I've got a tv tuner that I was using to catch quite a bit of stuff -- the VCR became totally redundant, though I was incensed at the amount of hard drive space it took to record stuff -- compared to the size of files other people had made that I'd download.

          Nice idea about randomizing the playlist. I just haven't had the time to acquire much more content, but con
    • When I first found the Morpheus file sharing program back in 2000/2001, I noticed that I could find episodes of TV shows that I missed that had aired within the past week or two. I liked this and it led me to searching for other shows that were no longer on the air at all. I found less stuff that wasn't popular. Then I noticed a lot of the shows had IRC #channels associated with them. It had been a long time since I used IRC, but I decided to give it a try and got onto the #qlc (Quantum Leap Central) ch
      • I followed the same process, stumbling across Dalnet, except that I never found out what the heck it is or how to use it.

        Where can I look for some answers? or is it a relic, now? I know nothing about IRC.
        • Well... back when I could get on DalNET, I used an IRC client (xchat in Linux) to connect to irc.dal.net. Once connected I would join the channel I was interested in and then I had to re-learn the arcana of fserves and how to get into a download queue. It's definitely not as easy to use as P2P, but there is a lot more stuff there. DalNET changed their policies (or amplified them) about trading copyrighted material and file sharing in general once all the RIAA and MPAA stuff starting hitting the fan. So

      • When I first found the Morpheus file sharing program back in 2000/2001

        What do you use now? Personally I love BitTorrent for popular things and eDonkey/eMule for popular & more obscure things.

        And a rant about "you're a pirate". (yeah I'm high, it's almost legal here in .ca) To whoever says that: fuck you. I treat everything as "shareware", in the proper sense, and support what I find worth my time and money.

        Downloaded all of The Prisoner [imdb.com] TV series.. bought it.

        Downloaded all of The League of Gent [imdb.com]

        • Jesus, grub, you're a pegger?

          That's my home town!!

          What are the odds?
          • The odds?

            Hmm.. 5 billion people... ah, forget it. :)

            Where are you now?
            • awwwww. Sorry, man, you failed the test.

              The Odds are a local Winnipeg band.

              Poser!! ;)

              Well, was in Vancouver for awhile -- there's a huge ex-Peg population out there. Brief stopover in Toronto, and now I'm just getting settled in Ottawa.

              I was a St. James boy, out by the (now parking lot) Unicity Mall. Where you from?
        • I treat everything as "shareware", in the proper sense, and support what I find worth my time and money.
          I know the feeling and agree. Right behind me are *two* four-plus foot tall file cabinets meant for index cards (so we're talking nineteen two foot deep drawers) full of media, about two thirds of which is commercial. CDs, tapes, blah, blah, blah. So I figure that I've proven my sincerity in terms of being willing to pay for what I use. That having been said, goddamnit, I do *not* want to have to pay fo
          • I find this intriguing;

            Especially with more and more people walking out on the nine-to-five foolishness, learning to live lean, and thereby having the option of doing films/tv/music/etc.

            I've forsaken my musician background to work IT for a non-profit (one that I believe in and support wholeheartedly). But your comment about living lean caught my interest. Just out of curiosity, what would you suggest is "living lean"?

            • Just out of curiosity, what would you suggest is "living lean"?
              What I meant by that is that my anecdotal experience, my suspicians about where our society is going, and a certain amount of real formal data have lead me to conclude that more and more folks, especially my (your also?) fellow Gen-Xers are deciding that we'ld rather learn to live on a lot less money in return for the freedom to do more variable stuff like independant filmmaking, music, other arts, or even focusing on some avocation like rebui
              • Excellent! :) My wife and I fall somewhere in the Gen-X catgory. I'm the younger of the both of us, so I'm just on the edge. However, I actually understand exactly what you mean. Me and a lot of my friends have been doing a lot of the same kind of thing. I make far less money at this IT gig than I would in the coporate world and my house is probably more modest than most people would expect, but the way I live allows me to afford the tools that make life easier and more self sufficient for me and my wi
                • Hmm... I was just reading something about this movement, and I highly approve. Better, home-made food, and music, are two ingredients I've been working on lately.

                  I'm just working out how the big work jump may happen, and cultivating several plans for possible home-brewed income when that day arrives. Can't do it in the meantime, unfortunately, due to debt, but better to plan for that future than simply hope.

                  My brother is my archetype of old for this, having raised a daughter on his own, and now with two m
                  • "Alternative energy engines"? Do tell. Details, give us details!
                    Speaking of "home-brewed", that was another thing discussed at the "getting out" dinner here a few nights back. The very significant skillset of brewing. Maybe we should all be taking lessons from gmhowell [slashdot.org] and his circle of brewmasters.

                    Music? Also discussed. The friend who makes her own tofu is learning the guitar both for fun and as part of the whole roll-your-own shift. Me? Nothing yet. I *used* to be a fair to middlin' singer but that was
                    • I SO must learn more about strawbale housing. Another thing I heard about first via my brother (I can't help if he got into the cool stuff first; he had a head start).

                      Hehehe. I got a book on brewing awhile back, but I've been shuffling cities and jobs ever since, so I look forward to the day when I can take it up. Thanks for the reminder!

                      Well, there's a lovely little place called the Ottawa Folklore Centre where I've recently finished tin whistle lessons (largely to learn ornamentation) and am currently t
                • "Oddball"? Naw. Not at all. I'ld just say earlier then most to turn sane.
                  As I mentioned, I've been putting a lot of time into studying this. Been at it on and off for over ten years now and I'm solidly convinced that there are a lot of us out there. Isn't it funny that the very book from which the term "Generation X" was taken ends with them deciding to walk out and build lives for themselves outside the 50's mainstream ideal and yet there is the assumption that we are all either earnest dot-commers or simp
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I'm basing it mostly on the fact that all the HD systems I've seen appear to be only slighlty sharper or clearer than my plain old CRT. What "im looking for in what I would consider HD is something that has the same resolution/dot pitch of my laptop's LCD display but in a 60" format. So, if my 15" LCD is 1280x1024, then the 60" screen would be about 5120x4096 or therabouts, taking into account the 16:9 ratio. I should be able to be only a foot or two from the screen and clearly read text with the same sh
  • why isn't there a SciFi Classics channel that shows 50s, 60s and 70s SciFI, MST3K and TV shows like Doctor Who, The Tomorrow People, Red Dwarf and NOTHING produced by SciFI?

    currently getting repeats (from the start) of the Doctor here [abc.net.au]. Up to the Krotons [epguides.info]. The local show seems to be missing and skipping episodes. I reckon I've seen most of them first time (aside from series 1 and 2). To your list I would have added ...


    • space patrol - last seen in early 70's

      thunderbirds (also on air at moment)

      UFO - las
  • "Coarsest Comedy Lacking any REAL Humour Whatsoever" award....

    You obviously haven't seen "Stripparella", or however they spell it.

    I record Spike TV for MacGuyver episodes and sometimes TNG or Most Extreme Elimination, but a lot of the time they are playing with timeslots or wrestling runs overtime (it always seems to, WTF, I mean it's not like a real sport). Anyway, so I wind up picking up Spike's other prime time crap.
    • Actually, I caught the debut of Stripperella. My wife and I have this odd tendency to label certain things as "Jackass Appropriate". (Note: we've been using this label for a long time before MTV's Jackass show was ever on) One thing to keep in mind is that for us, "Jackass Appropriate" is not always a bad thing. We've taken to a theory of ours we call "embracing your inner jackass". This means, accepting the fact that despite how you feel intellectually, you might actually laugh when seeing something
  • will be the day there is some mechanism for individual viewers to rate programs as they watch them or that individual viewers can choose what they want to watch when they want it.

    Only then will eyeball data flow directly to advertizers and that movement of cash will prop up the most popular shows. When that happens you'll get directed adverts and stuff... that will change TV.

    I expect, however, that eventually we'll all download what we want to watch and pay some dollars for it directly. That choice wi

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