on january 01, 2007, i decided to stop watching television, on the tv that is. reason?
i got so sick of all the Reality TV shows (seriously, i do not care to watch a high-school drop-out drone on in a grammatically incorrect monologue, with her screaming child on her knee, on why her boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend and how it's entirely her mother's fault after all!), plus having to sit through ads every 15min, it felt like organized harassment. i don't want to have to bear witness to the dumbing down of society - you get enough of that on public transport!
i hate that there is no in between, that i am forced to cut myself off from this comforting medium of information, i don't think it's fair! there are other people like me, who hate sitting through 10min of adverts every 15min and not wanting to spend tuesday night watching a 'nanny' train incompetent parents how to deal with their spawn. where is our tv? why should we be forced out because the masses like to be fed televisional garbage???!!!
another thing i noticed is that the quality of documentaries is dropping - the narratives are starting to seem more & more like the Big Brother narrations ("Adam is in the Kitchen, Making a Sandwich"); it's so infuriating because i used to love watching documentaries and i can't believe docs are having to follow the Reality TV trend to get funding to get produced.
i was reading an article in December's Vanity Fair by John Wolcott, about Reality TV: "Reviewing the oeuvre of Dog the Bounty Hunter, Kate Gosselin, and all the attention junkies of the Real Housewives franchise, James Wolcott concludes that Reality TV is the destroyer of everything decent and good." it's a really good article, it reminded me of my plight and how unjust this situation is - how is this freedom of speech, when the cravings of an entire society in degradation, dictates that of ALL those who live within its realm?! i'm not saying KILL Reality TV, let them overdose on it as much as they wish, just give us something to feed on too!
having said all of the above - i do love the good shows tv produces. i avidly follow tv dramas and sitcoms, either by dvd or on the net. i love The Wire, The Sopranos, Friends, Seinfeld, Six Feet Under, The X Files, Smallville, In Treatment, Mad Men and i could continue, the list is LONG! i just saw the BBC's latest Emma teleseries which was fantastic. i get my news from online newspapers (especially living in Italy, i'm not always in the mood to read a newspaper with a dictionary) or the radio or podcasts. i read a lot of magazines. i don't watch tv.
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