Stupid tv shows a mirror of a culture?

I just finished watching the first season of BBC's "Sherlock Holmes."

Well written, well acted
(I'm getting the season 2 DVD this week!)

Probably the best tv show in the northern hemisphere! Well maybe, at any rate.

But onward to my RANT!!!

I was surfing the Drudge and other sites when lo and behold! saw a newsfeed on MTV's new show, "Buckwild". Imagine Jersey Shore but in the mountains and with rednecks.

Now my criticism might be premature, but when compared to the brilliant writing of Sherlock, MTV doesn't have a great track record. The dumber Americans get, it appears to be reflected in the tv shows being aired.

(With the exception of The Walking Dead)

Are we going to continue to be bombarded with shows that highlight the stupidity of a culture?

Is this the sort of tripe that we can continue to expect?

Or can we push to have shows that reflect good writing and great acting.

reply to post by beezzer


Well I wouldn't expect anything that MTV puts out to be gold, anything they create comes closer to the quality of coal.

But I think there is some art that still exists in the entertainment industry. I have liked nearly everything that HBO carries, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, True Blood (even though its getting a little silly still the best portrayal I have seen of Vampires in a long time, i.e. they don't sparkle).

But when it comes to these reality shows that people enjoy, I think people like them for a number of reasons. Either they enjoy living their lives vicariously, or maybe they want to make themselves feel better about their own lives by watching people that act in much more strange and unusual manner.

In the end I say to each his own, not everyone likes the things I enjoy and no doubt I will not enjoy something that some one else enjoys. Come to my place and be prepared to either watch Star Trek or Anime if you don't like it you can get out!

ETA: Oh yeah and I agree, Walking Dead is awesome. So is Breaking Bad.

reply to post by Openeye


Thanks for the reply.

Granted, there are a few quality shows on. Yet the popular shows, reflected in cultural memes, are getting dumber and dumber.

I feel that this is a reflection on society getting dumber and dumber. And it's just feeding to the masses.

We had House! And we have Game of Thrones....

Wait... These all rely heavily upon British actors....

Oh, crap.

Originally posted by Hefficide

We had House! And we have Game of Thrones....

Wait... These all rely heavily upon British actors....

Oh, crap.

Wouldn't you agree that current popular shows are a reflection of the society that its played to?

reply to post by beezzer


I agree completely, Beezer. Yes, television reflects culture. And I think there is a certain aspect of culture in particular that can be seen between reality shows and good shows, like Game of Thrones - that is plot and higher thinking skills.

You don't have to have an attention span or a brain to watch a reality show.

I find it very sad because I like plot and higher thinking skills, but America is bringing me down, man.

reply to post by beezzer


It seems to me that (reality shows) are increasing at an alarming rate on U.S. television; and I will admit that I am nauseated by them.

I think the programing on a high percentage of TV in America is really awful and disappointing; so I choose not to watch those programs that are offensive to me.

I like old movies from the 1930's. 40's, and 50's.

Beezer, I have been feeling the same way for years now. The whole jersey thing, the last ten plus years of the 'real world', the mass reality clones that have popped up. I saw a show called Breaking Amish in the OnDemand list for my browser, and forced myself to browse a few episodes. The whole show is about taking Amish kids to New York and seeing how fast they can F@#$ them up in they ways of the wicked. And what this has to do with legitimate learning, as it is on TLC, seems lost on me. I'm sure they want to see the world at large, but this just seemed to be a complete lowlife thing to do for ratings... Sad...

Breaking Amish on TLC

And people actually aspire to be like these idiots. We have a program over here in the UK called The Only Way Is Essex, its about q bunch of tools acting like dik'ends getting paid to promote night clubs, cause drama and get plastic surgery. It promotes everything what is bad about our society: Slutty girls, lads with no respect for girls because they see then as a bit of easy picking, but it doesn't help when the girl wants to dress like she's doing something sexy for her Mr, bit she's not, she's out shopping with her mum and she's about 12. They have no respect for their selves, what so ever. Their priorities await the weekend where they spend all their money, get banged out, catch STD's and then continue next weekend.

There's another # show too called Geordie Shore...I'd say it's worse but the whole reality crap is equally
abysmal. Anyhow in this crap program they call each other hoez, and guess what..now loads of young girls call their selves and their friends hoez..#s crazy. They ask for respect but don't give their selves it, this stands for both boys and girls. It genuinely annoys me that our society is been dumped down by programs like these.

I wish a invisible bitch slap would occur every time somebody referenced one of these # shows in real life

reply to post by beezzer


I think it could possibly be the other way round, that the tv shows showing bad behaviour, people doing dumb ass things etc are massaging the general public's view of what is acceptable/normal behaviour and expectations.
I read a few years ago, to my surprise, that the White House actually tells the tv programme producers what themes they want to be included in the storyline. These could be anything from 'good to get vaccines' to 'man made global warming'.

It is only when you watch an old tv series that has spanned several years, and watch all the seasons that you see a steady progression of change of content. Oddly enough they all seem to have the same kind of changes going on too. One example of this is the originally very funny series The Detectives with Jasper Carrott and Rober Powell. The first few series were basic comedy and very funny, but by the last series in had crept a whole load of sexual innuendo, often not adding anything to the scene. It got to the point that I was not only disappointed but rather disturbed as this was a family show and my kids loved it up until that point. Even my eldest noticed it's change.

I have picked up on this time and time again, often to do with swearing too. In the 80's the b*****d word was rare and a bit risque, but came out on programmes like The Young Ones. Then the 'F' word started to slip into the content, starting with more adult/after the watershed programmes but now is in everything (apart from things like Bob the Builder) and now I am seeing the worst of the worst finally making itself known, which is the dreaded 'C' word. I see from my son's friends that this really influences them and notice they use it rather a lot, not really grasping the severity of it's offense to others around them. Occasionally they have let it slip out in my company, as they are so used to saying it, and I put them right in their place with a 'if you say that again you are leaving this house' warning.

So in conclusion, from my observations, society is learning behaviour from the tv, one of the many reasons I gave up having a tv 4 years ago, and never regretted it.

A common sentiment, for sure!

Darkbake perhaps said it best when shows are offered that require no thought. And that these shows are the popular ones.

I see a growing divide between those that think, and those that want their thinking done by others.

reply to post by Hefficide

We had House! And we have Game of Thrones.... Wait... These all rely heavily upon British actors.... Oh, crap.

Damn, you got a point... Andrew Lincoln who plays Rick on The walking Dead is English and impersonating an American accent.

I think it has a lot to do with how MUCH people watch tv, rather than just the quality of shows. Heck, I like the show "Wipeout" and it's just as stupid as reality tv.

But back to my original point, many people don't give themselves time to process what they expose themselves to. They just "chainsmoke" shows, movies and radio. One thing about life is that, if you want to look deeper into something, you can. There's always a lesson; even in reality tv. But if you don't give your brain time to digest what you've just watched, it becomes like empty calories.

For example, last season of the show Supernatural had an interesting twist of the main villains "dumbing down" humans by putting an experimental ingredient in processed foods - that ingredient was corn syrup. The company that did this was called "SucroCorp". I thought that it was a brilliant parody of real-life. But none of the fans I came across even mentioned it. They just talk about how hot Jensen and Jarred are, or how fat a female actress had gotten, etc. They talk about those things because it's right in front of them; it takes no effort on the brain's part. But I can't help but wonder if they had just turned off the tv after the show was done and spent just a little bit of time in peace and quiet, if they would have noticed the deeper aspects of the show.

reply to post by CthulhuMythos


Hmmmmm,

So you believe that instead of being a reflection of how society thinks, it's actually a driving force to dictate what society thinks.

Interesting premise.

reply to post by beezzer


Yup I do think it is shaping us, and not in a good way. People copy what they see/hear, we see examples of that all the time, from suicide (is the main reason why this type of death is not reported due to it sparking others to do the same) to the behaviour of young and mid teens thinking it is good /acceptable to go out looking like a prostitute, get falling down drunk and sleep with anyone who happens along.

How many programmes have decent morals/behaviour/kindness these days? Even the 'reality' tv show and the damn X-factor is often about putting people down for 'laughs' or 'drama'. I hate it all!

reply to post by beezzer

First you have to have people who can write the material. Then you have to find people who can act.

In America, good luck with that.

reply to post by beezzer


What's interesting is that this isn't a new idea, far from it. Even in the 1940's people were predicting the decay in society as a direct result of the inevitable decline in culture.

What these same people would think of the likes of "artists" such as Justin Bieber and television shows such as Big Brother and The Only Way Is Essex is beyond me. They would probably shed a tear or two for humanity.

Related.

reply to post by CthulhuMythos


reply to post by LiveForever8


Quite honestly guys, outside of reality television the entertainment industry is not that horrible, at least not any worse than it was in the past.

In the past there was tons of censorship, people got arrested for saying curse words in public or expressing themselves in some other "immoral" manner.

Lenny Bruce anyone? Jim Morrison?

Words are just that, words, they don't have "mystic" powers of suggestion that creep into the subconscious. They simply have meaning and in the case of curse words multiple meanings which can have both a very negative or very positive context. There is in essence no difference between me saying the F word to make an exclamation and me saying fiddlesticks, the context is exactly the same.

The quality of film and television was stifled by censorship, making characters act like unbelievable scripted machines. Don't get me wrong, there were great performances in the past and many great films, but just think about all the crappy B-movies and just outright propaganda films that came out between the 1920's and the 1960's. It was people like Kubrick, Spielberg, Leone, Coppola, Hitchcock, and Scorsese who pushed the envelope to take us to a new and better era of film which showed us true emotion, and because of them we have Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson, Frank Darabont and the Coen brothers.

As for sexuality on the television I some what agree with what some people are worried about, the whole "But what about the children argument" does have at least a little bit of validity. I mean the Disney channel teaches little girls to be little spoiled, slutty, brats, which is pretty of disgusting on so many levels. But as for sex on television made for an adult audience, there is nothing wrong with it. Sometimes it is over used, sometimes it is used perfectly and realistically.

If there is one thing on television which is actually deceiving and does harm to the people, its the news media. Fantasy is fantasy even a child can tell the difference, but the manipulated reality that is presented as truth by the news networks is far more influential than any fictitious or "reality" TV program.

reply to post by CthulhuMythos


I agree that some people copy what they see/hear on tv. Also, some people don't, yet they get influenced by their peers, which is of course indirectly copying the tv.

But it's also a give-and-take. Businesses study the masses and try to appeal to them as much as they try to influence them. They have focus groups, psychologists, etc. dedicated to understanding the masses.

I'd like to add another dimension to this though, by saying that the sheer volume of entertainment has increased so much over the decades, and companies have become so much more aggressive in exposing it to you. Remember when tv stations actually went off the air? Remember when you could visit a grocery store and not hear pop music? Remember when there weren't televisions at the check-out stands?

That's why it always cracks me up when people say "if you don't like it, just turn it off!" Right, because it's THAT easy to get away from it. Let me just talk to the Taco Bell manager and ask him to change the station to public radio, lol.

Life imitates art and art imitates life, and in this case these reality shows mirror what may be deemed as rating worthy facets of social behavior in terms of humor, ridiculousness and shock. I recall reading back in 02 that there were over 300 reality tv shows in the works, and the article suggested it was because these type of shows are hella cheap to produce when compared to good shows. Less writing, professional cast, studio/set and production expenses make the promotion of these reality shows appealing to the creators.

Hell with so many dang channels to fill these days, guess we gotta expect some fluff, but I do wonder what effects they have on society,particularly the youth. I hope the portrayed "realities" are not a direction many will strive and settle for