It might sound like a funny thing to say, but you know, there's a big part of me that would love to go back to a time when television had only five or six main channels, and the quality remained very high in terms of both drama and comedy. On nights when there was nothing that one loved, one went and got lost at the cinema, or better still, turned the TV off, and get similarly lost in a great book. But today there are so many channels, that the great filler has become a staple part of our daily diet: reality TV. The genre is already so saturated that I find myself begging for something/anything else, than yet another reality show with yet another B-list celebrity whose best days are behind them. Or worse still, yet another reality show about a total non-celebrity who is only known due to some previous reality show! In Lindsay Lohan's case, she doesn't even have a reality show, but then again, it seems like her entire life is one! If one presumes that it is mainly the younger segment who drive trends in TV programming, we have something to be concerned about. When did young people start to lose interest in being outside playing a sport with friends, or building something, or watching real entertainment with a story and multifaceted characters, and God forbid, maybe even something of educational worth thrown in? Why would young people want to see some reality show about the Kardashians, total non-celebrities one and all, or Tori Spelling, or Jennie Garth or whomever? One would have thought that the Kim Kardashian wedding fiasco alone, would have been enough to inform people that it is all drivel, moneyed nonsense, and the equivalent of what they stick inside sausages to bulk them up. The TV equivalent of pink slime, even, and that has been making the news recently also!
Our youth seem to be more fascinated than ever with the daily, meaningless yet glamorous lives of "famous" people, even those who actually appear to possess very little discernible talent for anything. They just happened to be born rich. Is it that we all have so much more access to those lifestyles due to how television is now saturated with them, or is it that we are more obsessed with the cult of celebrity than in earlier times? We need to be the stars of our own reality shows, by turning off the TV and going out and living it at least more of the time. We can all make our own lives more meaningful by working on improving our own situations, or spending more time on real arts, rather than watching various has-beens or wannabes heading to the nail salon, counting their money, or fighting like wildcats in some public place. Don't get me wrong, when there is something to learn, or the show is about real people being the stars in their own very tough but rather unique lives, I am totally supportive of reality TV. Just give me Deadliest Catch, Storage Wars, Hell's Kitchen or Dragon's Den. Okay then, fine, I will also admit to a certain love for American Hoggers, and the adventures of Jerry Campbell and his family: "them hawgs are downright evil!" Jerry has been "huntin' hawgs since Moby Dick was a sardine!" LOL
Everything has its place. I think we just need to keep an eye on what our kids are being taught by a lot of the trash on TV, and we need to continue to educate them on the value of curling up on the sofa with a good book, instead, sometimes. Ah, now don't get me started on books......... ;) Cristina
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