While a lot of people who say they don't have cable are smug about it, I disagree that there is no correlation between the way you access your media and the type of media you consume. For example with something like Netflix you have to actively pick a program from a list of other programs, there is no flipping between channels or "seeing what's on." It's like having cable but you're only allowed to watch stuff on your DVR. And because of a lack of commercials you're further insulated from pop culture. Don't get me wrong, you can still watch garbage, but someone like me would have been more likely to flip through channels and land on whatever this boo boo kitty thing is for a few minutes, but no way I'd pick it out of a line up on Netflix. The downside is I pretty much lost interest in UFC because the online paid versions are garbage and I'm too lazy/stupid to stream it. I think what has people up in arms is I don't think that this show would have made it a week fifteen years ago. Not really anger to the cast or the people shooting the show, but the fact that there's an audience for it that (we think) didn't exist before.
I hear myself: Deadwood, The Wire, The Sopranos, Oz, etc. because no prime time/cable show has ever.....EVER been better than shows like those. West Wing? Lost? Friday Night Lights? Pfffft. Those PG-rated glorified soap operas are NOTHING compared to what HBO, Showtime, Starz and such provide. And truthfully, I like True Blood as well as an entertaining guilty pleasure.
Can we all agree that TLC should at least change the name of their channel to "Uh-Hyuck!" or something? At least then Clovis and the gang can show up and light their farts for a half hour and it's kind of expected. The decline of television, to me, was always inevitable just due to the constantly increasing number of channels. Back when you only had 5 options on the dial, shows had to be good--or at least better--because that's all that was on. Now there are 300 options and they need controversial shit like this to generate buzz so that you're not tuning in to Family Guy reruns on TBS for 3 hours (another problem in and of itself, but I digress). I like to think that they know this will fail quickly, but in the meantime, they've got a pretty successful system in place where they keep developing shit, people endlessly comment about how ridiculous the shit is, and then in the midst of that shit, they advertise the next steaming turd that's coming down the pike to keep the sentiment going. I'm not saying it's the best model for a channel to continue in perpetuity, but it does seem to work.
Even the Food Channel has slide into this trap. Their prime time fare shifted from actual cooking shows (Emeril, Alton Brown, Flayming Fag) to competition cooking and Guy Fieri eating his way through the 50 states. The "highbrow" channels certainly have shifted their programming away from the historic/scientific bases on which they started due to ratings and resulting revenues. They still run programming true to their names, but I'd bet the ratings differences between the two types on the same channel would be pretty wide. It would be pretty interesting to see the Neilsens for both by demographic. Luckily, we live in a country where we're free to change the channel or *gasp* turn the TV off and pick up a book or newspaper.
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and he mentioned he was re-watching The Wire on DVD and I had to admit to him I had not watched one minute of that show, or any of the others listed above. Add in Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and whatever else is the best thing on television these days and I haven't watched any of those, either. He was appalled. He simply couldn't believe I hadn't seen any of that. I don't get it. It's television. Maybe it's very good television, but it's still just television. As for fat rednecks? I haven't watched any of that, either. I had enough of that in person when I lived in South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina. I'll admit to a disturbing knowledge of upper middle class pain in the ass couples buying houses in foreign countries, though. HGTV has its hooks in Mrs. Noland and will not let go.
When I become king, the scourge of reality tv and pseudo-celebrity worship will be quashed with haste and great prejudice. Sure, many jobs will be lost due to the new forced labor camps that these oxygen stealers will inhabit, but there will be plenty of new 'whip-cracker' and 'executioner' jobs opening up. I can't wait to be king.
Thats a bit unfair. Anything on HBO/Showtime/etc... has a level of profanity, nudity, and extreme content that those other networks can't provide. It adds entertainment value and realness. Not to say that I don't think alot of the writing is more ambitious and edgy on those networks anyways, but its not an even playing field. AMC is even a bit more out there compared to some of the other networks (FX is too) cause they were bit under the radar and not as closely monitored by the FCC and such. I don't know why you would take a shot at FNL though, that was just a fantastically written and acted show.
I take back everything I said about guns. In fact, now I think all Americans should double up on weapons of all kinds just so that some of them eventually kill this family.
Actually quite the opposite. They could have more shit on because that was all that was on. When it comes to reality TV, it comes down to finances, its cheaper to produce because you're not paying actors who have been training their whole lives for this. I bet what they pay those clowns on this show is not even a 10th of what Sorkin or his actors are getting.
Better that than any home remodeling/redecorating shows. When my wife watches a week of that shit, it ends up costing me $10-20K. Why can't there be a Better Blowjob Network?
Here is what reality TV "actors" (that aren't on Jersey Shore) are getting paid compared to top level premium network actors. Assume Little Honey Retard (or whatever her name is) is Earth, and the actors on let's say The Newsroom are somewhere between Aldebaran and Betelgeuse.
I think they need to get some REAL reality TV and then I may actually watch one for once. What I want to see? "The Greatest Game" It's 24 people on an island, and the host, well he has a tranquilizer gun. Last person of the 24 wins. I know bad movies have been done like this, but lets make it real, just when they get shot they take a nap. Hell what if he gets shot but not tagged and crawls away to sleep it off? What about the guy you find out after had been taking horse tranqs to "train" for the show. Edit - as I think about this more I think that each day the hunter changes. It's like the immunity idol. As well every day 2 other guns are hidden on the island with 1 shot that you can hunt the hunter or take out anouther contestant. (Taking out the hunter makes you the next hunter and mostly immune) It's got to an easier pitch than "Hey Bill remember that fat retard that effectively abuses her child health wise?, Can we give them their own show?"
I think the most criminally overlooked fact about this little precious piece of shit is the fact that her "go-go" juice is Mountain Dew mixed with Red Bull. What in the fucking hell would possess any parent on Earth to give that to their kid???
Well it's not like you can give a child red bull and vodka, so what else is a responsible parent to do?
Well no second season then. Her little heart should be exploding anytime now. On a positive note ... oh wait.
It's interesting how many television shows ("Jersey Shore", "Swamp People", whatever the abortion linked to by Aetius in the first post is, etc.) and movies (clip from "Idiocracy", countless others) make fun of white trash. Yet, how many shows or movies are there making fun of black trash or Hispanic trash? Well, virtually none. That's the thing that always stands out to me about this stuff. It's like when Adam Carolla makes fun of the ADT commercials that always feature home invaders/rapists as slightly scruffy white guys.
Well mass riots come to mind. And then there's outcries from the oppression of their culture or religion or whatever because ... well just because. I'm sure if you could tune into Hispanic TV, they have their own version of this shit - or at least I'd like to hope so.