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I can’t tell you the last time I’ve turned on the television to take a break from work or catch up with my favorite show. My neglect of the medium becomes apparent when I ask a classmate how a documentary on a ’60s advertising agency like Madmen can become so popular among college girls. Of course, it makes so much more sense now that I realize it is just another drama show attracting girls like flies to bright lights with its cast full of rich and sophisticated ad men.
But it’s instances like this that make me feel out of the loop and make me wonder if it’s worth wasting a good deal of my time catching up on shows, hoping that there is something worthwhile on television. And I’m sure there are plenty of good programs on TV but then again, every time I walk past a television at my house, the only reason why I am ever convinced to stop in my tracks and gawk at the boob tube for a minute is how terrible some of these shows are.
For instance, I sat down for a little bit as my roommate was watching The Rachel Zoe Project, a reality show following a fashion designer around town as she goes through her grossly materialistic day. I’d have to admit, it was kind of interesting, but only because of how fake every conversation was and how ready the program was to assume that a viewer would be interested in such an artificial individual.
It’s not trying to say that all television is trash, but I do think that all these reality shows have really lowered the standards for programming. I guess their success makes sense — you don’t need to hire real actors or writers, you don’t have to worry about sets or scripts and it’s a perfect spot for product placement and promotions for other shows. It all just seems so much easier than actually writing out an original show. But I still always find myself appalled at how much the networks get away these days. So until someone can sit me down and teach me how to navigate through all of the MTV’s and AMC’s and TLC’s to find a primetime show smartly composed and well written, I’ll stick to the news and not waste my time.
Sound Off
Last post: Oct. 1, 2009 at 10:43 am
Nikki (Nikki Blight) said on Oct. 1, 2009 at 10:43 am:
The reality trend just needs to stop. For every halfway decent reality show on TV, there's at least three absolutely horrible ones (and I'm probably being conservative in that estimate). And what's worse, they seem to be running out of ideas. I've lost track of how many nearly-identical cooking "reality" shows there are anymore.