[DJShadow]

Its not all bad-documentaries on BBC2 and Channel 4 in the UK are pretty good (if often biased). Most programming is pure trite though; the latest series of Big Brother just started

 

[ozstrike]

I barely watch TV at all. I may watch Dr Who some weeks on TV, but I generall watch them over the good old internet, or wait for the DVD

 

[Fallingwater]

Quote:

Originally Posted by randerson3024 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Be thankful you don't Fox news in Italy.

I don't know fox news, but one of our main news programs (the one most people watch, sadly) invariably starts with celebrity-related gossip. Then they move on to popular scandals, some more starlets, a standard dose of obvious information, and then some more gossip.
Thank you, Berlusconi. *sigh*

 

[Lord Chaos]

I owned a black-and-white 13" TV in the mid-70s... when I moved I gave it away and haven't ever gotten a replacement. I watch the occasional DVD (that 17" screen seems huge!) but TV holds no attraction.

What's interesting just how central to people's conversations TV is. I've worked in the same place for 22 years, and I still have people starting a conversation with "Oh, did you see X last night? Oh, that's right, you don't have a TV." They walk away, shaking their heads.

We usually have a news channel up in the Control Center where I work. What I see there just reinforces my antipathy. A few seconds of real news, then 8 minutes of ads based on lowest-common-denominator, and then 15 minutes on burning issues of the day such as liposuction or that baby event of a while back.

The sad thing is that I know there are good things on TV. I've even seen a few. Just that getting to them is much too hard, and expensive. If I were to get a TV, I'd also have to get cable and a Tivo unit to filter the few good krill from the ocean of cold, dead slop.

I'd rather play Myst Online, and develop story on the fly with friends. Time is not an unlimited resource.

 

[F107plus5]

The wife and I were discussing Reality TV this morning and it seems we have opposite views of the things. She feels that the aim of the shows is to point out the winners, since after six or eight weeks of leading up to it, the winner is proclaimed. My contention is that the shows aim to point out the losers. I figure that six or eight weeks of pointing out the faults and the failures is more of what the show is about than the final moment when someone is only "eliminated" cause there are no more contenders. My fear is that after weeks and weeks or years and years of watching people fail and being eliminated, that the general population may be become hardened to seeing folks tossed out of "society" and no longer feel compassion towards people in the general economy when, through no fault of their own in a shrinking economy they fail and are "eliminated." Or worse; that it's totally acceptable to lie and cheat and kick people out of the way for their own gains. The wife was looking at the show "Dancing with the Stars" and the final show was eye opening. In the olympics the top three athletes are given medals and accolades, in this show, the number three pair was actually embarassed with elimination on the last day. These shows are not about winning, but dragging the losers through the mud, and it appears the average viewers of this tripe supports and encourages such crud.

Yuck.

EDIT: No No NO! I don't watch this junk! But the wife does and sometimes I can't help but hear about it!

 

[Contrastique]

Quote:

Originally Posted by F107plus5 /img/forum/go_quote.gif The wife and I were discussing Reality TV this morning and it seems we have opposite views of the things. She feels that the aim of the shows is to point out the winners, since after six or eight weeks of leading up to it, the winner is proclaimed. My contention is that the shows aim to point out the losers. I figure that six or eight weeks of pointing out the faults and the failures is more of what the show is about than the final moment when someone is only "eliminated" cause there are no more contenders. My fear is that after weeks and weeks or years and years of watching people fail and being eliminated, that the general population may be become hardened to seeing folks tossed out of "society" and no longer feel compassion towards people in the general economy when, through no fault of their own in a shrinking economy they fail and are "eliminated." Or worse; that it's totally acceptable to lie and cheat and kick people out of the way for their own gains. The wife was looking at the show "Dancing with the Stars" and the final show was eye opening. In the olympics the top three athletes are given medals and accolades, in this show, the number three pair was actually embarassed with elimination on the last day. These shows are not about winning, but dragging the losers through the mud, and it appears the average viewers of this tripe supports and encourages such crud. Yuck. EDIT: No No NO! I don't watch this junk! But the wife does and sometimes I can't help but hear about it!

I think you are right about that. The winners are not the interesting people on the show. It is the people who loose cause they are the ones to make fun of and indeed drag through the mud. It is about the entertainment. Winners are not entertaining unless you show the people the loosers and how they became loosers in the first place.
On top of that, I don't think that your fear is a fairy-tale but already true at this very moment. Everybody dislikes ugly people, cause they are the loosers on tv, for example. That's where the make-over shows run on. As a ugly person you don't count in society. So get a make-over and you are part of the game again. So nobody feels happy with theirselves anymore cause there is always something that could be better or you could go without. Plastic Surgery is a common thing these days, also for very young people. Wich scares the hell out of me.
And true respect is seldom found anymore. The inner doesn't seem to count these days and that can also be proven by a whole lot other tv than just the make-overshows.

 

[velogreg]

Well I watch less than anyone here. I only watch history and home improvement shows and average 1-2 hours per week. Never watch programed television. I have too much else to do than sit around and have my brained drained away and pummeled by lame actors trying to sell me junk I don't need.

Who writes this stuff on television? There is no creativity left in the writers union. That must be why Reality TV is working. Real life is better than fiction I guess for some.

 

[skullguise]

4 TV's, 13 DVD players in our house (some for audio tryouts only).

I watch extremely little TV. Hockey games, a few other sporting events, and the occasional news program if my wife is watching it before bedtime.

We rent movies or watch them on Pay-Per-View, so that adds up a bit....but I watch not one single show with regularity. Haven't done that since Night Court and Taxi!

 

[F107plus5]

Oh yeah! Ugly folks on the outside for sure. There are plenty of sponsors in some major billion dollar industries trying very hard to make sure we hate our appearance enough to add to their bottom line. And what's this with age?! I feel sorry for all the young ladies these days, what with a useful lifespan of only twenty years! Eight(the new fifteen)to twenty eight! Our six year old is learning from TV shows aimed at her age group the value of all the latest styles and make-up and totally grown-up attitudes! And now the gals are given the idea that THEY should be be sexual predators!! Woah!

And even commercials aimed at the older gals out there. I mean here she goes to the store or whatever, and she looks great! Nice clothes, maybe casual but very attractive, and here comes her husband with flannel shirt unbuttoned with t-shirt being pushed out by his oversize belly with some stupid look on his unshaven face. What's with that!??

And what's with cartoons aimed at kids?! Used to be in cartoons we would laugh at things that were truly funny. Now the meaning of humor aimed at kids is in bodily functions and rude bodily noises! Double yuck! No imagination!

I wonder if part of the problem is there are just too many networks trying to get the too few real writers available?

But yeah; reality TV. A show where people are placed in situations where they would never find themselves in real life doing things they would normally never do while the camera records hours and hours of everything they do so they can boil it down to just a few seconds of air time showing the folks in the worst possible light imaginable looking just as pathetic or devious as the editor wants them to look. And calling it "reality"! Fantastic!!

And the news! I remember when they first started having news on TV. It was fifteen minutes of local and fifteen minutes of national and world news. Now they have so much time dedicated to it that they have to find something to fill in all those hours even if they have to manufacture it themselves. And the first news story released these days IS who was kicked off the reality TV shows!! Arrrrrrgh!!

 

[trains are bad]

I don't even have my TV hooked up. I use it for watching movies. It's safe to say I don't watch TV at all.

I seriously feel my intelligence dropping by the second whenever I'm exposed to someone else's TV. It drives me crazy and I have to get away. Even the 'intelligent' or 'educational' programming is terrible and dumbed down.The most worthwhile things on cable, when I had it, was a few shows on Adult Swim.

 

[F107plus5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trains are bad /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't even have my TV hooked up. I use it for watching movies. It's safe to say I don't watch TV at all. I seriously feel my intelligence dropping by the second whenever I'm exposed to someone else's TV. It drives me crazy and I have to get away. Even the 'intelligent' or 'educational' programming is terrible and dumbed down.

X2, X3, & X4!!

 

[Contrastique]

And here I was, thinking I was the only one who hated tv. I am so glad to be proven wrong

 

[xnothingpoetic]

I used to use my TV to fall asleep to by watching Becker, Cheers, or Frasier

But they don't air at the time I want to sleep at so I use music instead to fall asleep (but now I end up going to sleep later than I want to

)

Now I only use my TV for movies, which I love. Mostly films that make you think. But if I could do it over I wouldn't watch TV or movies, ever. I feel my imagination has dropped since I got into movies because your mind doesn't have to make up the visuals. Books were far better but it's hard for me to get back into them now with 100's of movies in front of me.

Sad I know.

I'm going to watch 3-Iron now.

 

[F107plus5]

Nope; it appears that lots of folks have a major disdain for the Television industry.

What makes it even worse is the way it's becoming structured. It's bad enough that there are about a thousand channels we have to pay for even if we watch only five of them tops, (ok; a bunch of them are music channels which are more entertaining than most of the regular TV channels)but it's the way that they layer those channels! If you happen to have an HD TV, then ya gotta get the whole darn package!! The only saving grace is that although we have to buy all of it; thank goodness we don't have to WATCH all of it!

We don't get the movies on cable though; only the "Movie of the Month"! That's the only good thing the cable company has. When you pay $4 for the flick they send you a certificate for free meal worth $8. Better than a stick in the eye!

Otherwise we normally buy movies on DVD and unless it's a "new" movie we just gotta have, we normally get them after the price has fallen considerably. Our DVD player holds 400 DVDs and it's just about full....we figure one day we may just cancel cable and put up an HD antenna and at least get some use of our home entertainment system. It's almost more fun to listen to the flicks than to watch many of them!

 

[Hermitt]

I never watch tv, but I do have cable (mainly for internet access for me), and for my grandaughter (she watches cartoons) I spend way too much time on the internet but at least it is mostly 'interactive' in forums such as this one or on photography or tech forums. I use my PCs for multimedia content, so I do watch a few DVD movies, but mostly live concerts and music videos, or just listen to music either through my Edifier S2.1D system or my dared Mp5/MS-Pro combo. Lately, since I've taken up guitar, I've been watching DVD videos of guitar instruction. If i'm not at work or sleeping, then I have my PCs on, even if I'm practicing guitar or shooting my 10 meter pistol.