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It was very evident to me the day after the Golden Globe Awards were handed out. You know, the Golden Globes, the awards show that honors not only the best in motion pictures but television as well. As I looked through my TV Guide for something to watch, it became evident to me that the best in television was not available that night. In fact, in a quick perusal of the upcoming week’s fare, the rest of the week looked equally as bleak.
In 1992, Bruce Springsteen released a song called 57 Channels (And Nothing’s On.) The song addressed the problem of cable TV offering up every channel then available (hence, 57 channels) and the lack of any interesting shows. Well here I am 12 years later, and thanks to my digital cable, I have access to over 200 channels but I have the same problem as Bruce had. Nothing’s on!
I’m sure if I wasn’t so picky and if I lowered my viewing standards I could be mildly entertained, but I just don’t want to do that. Given the number of channels that I have available, I shouldn’t have to. During this time of year I usually expect to find most of the shows on the main networks to be new, but for some reason most are not. Most of the shows that are new, unfortunately, are shows that I don’t like.
You see, I have not really embraced the current reality show craze. Let me rephrase that, I hate the reality show craze. No sense in mincing words about it. I think they are all, without exception, ridiculous, irritating, and annoying. They present themselves as spontaneous and “real,” but the word real is being stretched to its limit by these shows.
On the aforementioned Monday night between the hours of 8 to 10 PM here are the shows that were new: Fear Factor, The Simple Life, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé, and Average Joe: Hawaii. Everything else on channels 2 through 13 were repeats. If you have cable you could probably find some classic movies to watch like “Joe Dirt” and “She Devil” or catch a repeat of “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” or “Pokemon.” I didn’t watch any of them when they were new why in the hell would I watch them now?
It’s not that I have not sampled any of this “reality” fare. I have actually made numerous attempts to get on board with the masses that gravitate to these shows. I mistakenly thought that there must be some sort of redeeming qualities about them that warranted people tuning in week after week. Boy was I wrong.
If there are some hidden qualities or entertainment value they must be hidden pretty deep because I have yet to unearth them. Granted, there was only so far I was willing to dig to find it, but I really shouldn’t have to. All I see are attention-starved want-to-be celebrities who are willing to demean themselves for 15 minutes of fame, Andy Warhol didn’t know how right he was.
Think about it, how real can you be when you know you are being filmed 24/7? Those cameras are not invisible, so right there you would think that a majority of the people watching would be savvy enough to realize that all of these shows are a sham. But maybe that’s the appeal, who knows. All I know is that Coke commercials have more reality content.
The only reality show that is real and entertaining are the auditions for American Idol. Primarily because 99% of the contestants have zero talent, but are so delusional that they believe they do. But I would rather watch any of them self-destruct trying to achieve fame for fames sake instead of watching them pretend to be a participant in a stunt or a game and acting as if the fame aspect didn’t matter, which is a lie.
As far as I’m concerned that lie is the only thing that is a reality.
The Shrub Speaks: Unemployment dropped today to 5.7 percent. Washington, D.C., Jan. 9, 2004
B.D.’s Response: I love that our Prez is so wonderful that he drops the unemployment rate in one day!
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