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What do you get out of television?
theSquid
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I make this thread partly out of frustration of seeing TV show threads where people go out of their way to bag out a show, calling it a blight upon television yet watching it week after week claiming they're waiting for it to get better. So let's name names (of shows, not people)
Heroes comes immediately to mind, having a 40 page thread for this season as of the time of writing, mostly filled with posts saying how terrible it is, even though it's clearly good enough to watch or else its thread wouldn't be 40 pages long. Then there's BSG, where there's always a few people who complain like mad about "filler" episodes that may not necessarily advance the plot but usually provide good characterisation, and often that the story of an entire season could have been compacted into two episodes (otherwise known as a movie) In fact, come to think of it the same complaints apparently apply to Lost.
But I guess my point to all of this is, why do you watch TV? I watch it as an escape from a difficult day at uni/work so I'm willing to suspend my disbelief and just live in the moment, occasional plot holes and inconsistency among broader arcs being something to laugh at when spotted, then shrug off. Others get something else out of it, being fond of analysing shows and trying to figure out the murderer before the lead detective does, so to speak.
I guess the divide here is mostly along whether you want intellectual stimulus out of a TV show for it to entertain you or not. I personally don't care, others feel differently. Discuss!
Heroes comes immediately to mind, having a 40 page thread for this season as of the time of writing, mostly filled with posts saying how terrible it is, even though it's clearly good enough to watch or else its thread wouldn't be 40 pages long. Then there's BSG, where there's always a few people who complain like mad about "filler" episodes that may not necessarily advance the plot but usually provide good characterisation, and often that the story of an entire season could have been compacted into two episodes (otherwise known as a movie) In fact, come to think of it the same complaints apparently apply to Lost.
But I guess my point to all of this is, why do you watch TV? I watch it as an escape from a difficult day at uni/work so I'm willing to suspend my disbelief and just live in the moment, occasional plot holes and inconsistency among broader arcs being something to laugh at when spotted, then shrug off. Others get something else out of it, being fond of analysing shows and trying to figure out the murderer before the lead detective does, so to speak.
I guess the divide here is mostly along whether you want intellectual stimulus out of a TV show for it to entertain you or not. I personally don't care, others feel differently. Discuss!
theSquid on
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Facebook|Best vid ever.|2nd best vid ever.
The only other things I Tivo are How I Met Your Mother, Mad Men, and next week I'll check out Samantha Who. I like TV shows that are well made, but I don't have the patience to watch many. A lot of the popular shows annoy me or don't interest me, so I just avoid them.
What I do the most, though, is watch movies. I'll search through to see if anything good is on and watch it, even if it's something like The Godfather, which I've seen a million times.
Honestly, once live streaming of news becomes more reliable I wouldn't be surprised if I just get rid of the television part of my cable and just get a second screen to connect to my computer.
However, when it comes to shows I'm (or I've been) seriously interested in (BSG, Rome, GITS - SAC, Dexter, Arrested Development, X-Files, Californication, Scrubs, 30 Rock, etc.) I exclusively watch them in AVI or DVD form, always making sure a hard copy inhabits my collection - if only for presentation's sake.
In other words, I try not to become another rating statistic while avoiding commercials like the plague, and then I show my love by paying for the specific things I like.
Comfortable, permanent
Undisputed, every tense
Not a trace of what went left
More equal than the best
Unparalleled success
Everybody, V-impressed
A way to play video games and watch sports. Pretty much it.
Also, Bourdain.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Unparalleled? What about books?
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
I laughed out loud.
Even then, a direct parallel can be drawn between television and comic books, some of which are published on a weekly basis as well.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
I get it for free since they assume us using the product will help us sell it to customers better. Then they get mad at me when I don't watch tv.
then I shouldn't have used the word unparalleled, should I?
I'm not certain what I get from it, but I also love the Food Channel and will watch Ace of Cakes or Good Eats in high def for hours on end.
Porn.
"There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother."
Also, the great thing about fiction is that it manages to make character flaws admirable. (We all love to think ours are forgivable too.) This mentality does not translate well into real life.
The episodic format is good for two things: comfort and appeal. The comfort of having a familiar arch, beginning to end, with an expected climax and an open-ended outcome. Which leads to appeal: the chance of seeing something new and surprising, withing that cherished and familiar environment. So, change within tedium. I guess.
Speaking of making parallels... familiar arch, expected climax, short and sweet... it really all is just masturbation.
Comfortable, permanent
Undisputed, every tense
Not a trace of what went left
More equal than the best
Unparalleled success
Everybody, V-impressed
I also watch MSNBC for Countdown, Rachel Maddow, and sometimes Hardball, and obviously when anything big is going on. I watch Daily Show most nights for comedy and a bit of info, and usually will leave it on for Colbert.
Alright, now what do I get out of it. I guess entertainment to keep it simply. Lost entertains me, I don't complain about filler because I'm really not in it just for some final piece of information, I enjoy the journey and the reveals and twists. House, I like the formula of it, it's very straightforward and easy to enjoy with enough overall character development that it's not boring. 30 Rock is my favorite comedy on TV right now and I so rarely enjoy a comedy that when I do I watch it obsessively.
so, entertainment, which for each person will have a specific definition, but that's pretty much what I use it for, information every now and then.
oh, I also watch movies a lot. not just dvds but like cable channels. I almost always will choose to watch a movie over a tv show unless it's one of the main three listed above.
I like him a lot. Also, Andrew Zimmerin.
Generally, if you walk into our home, and the TV is on, it'll be on one of the educational networks - Discovery, History, Science Channel, TruTV (my wife loves the forensic shows)...
Aside from those, I watch 24 and Burn Notice. They are my heroin.
Now to get back to watching Planet Earth while playing DQ IV, too bad NPR is doing a pledge drive or else I'd be listening to that...
If there's a possible answer to that, it is NO.
Comfortable, permanent
Undisputed, every tense
Not a trace of what went left
More equal than the best
Unparalleled success
Everybody, V-impressed
Otherwise, it's just something to keep me busy while I eat dinner, or after I've exhausted being on the internet, gaming, or working and just want some time to sit with the wife and see something different.
... and I cough for every crater that I could see, / on the surface of that coffin we've come to call the moon." Circle Takes the Square
...
... I just like The Suite Life, okay?!?!
Wii: As soon as I look it up.
:^:
Pretty much if my TV is on and I'm not playing video games or watching sports, it'll be on the Travel Channel, or Discovery. I, too, like Andrew Zimmern. Don't ask me how I got into shows like No Reservations and Bizarre Foods, but I'm fairly hooked.
Also, Burn Notice owns.
I also can't stand the notion of spending all that money for cable.
My Name is Earl
Pushing Daisies
Chuck
House
Grey's Anatomy
Scrubs
How I Met Your Mother
The Simpsons
Family Guy
American Dad
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Dexter
Californication
And these are just the shows that are currently on.
Click here to see the ANIMATED version of this signature too big for the forums! :winky:
Mostly, I love shows that feature X Terrible But Fixable Situation Being Solved By Y, so I watch a lot of It's Me or the Dog, Nanny 911, Supernanny, What Not To Wear, that sort of thing. I have a huge soft spot for animals, so Animal Precinct and Growing Up Wild are also on the list. Trashy video footage shows are like crack, so Cops and Most Shocking/Daring are good for if I just want to chill.
Oh, and Law and Order: SVU is always good for slightly sleazy whodunits, although the twist always comes precisely 40 minutes past the hour.
This is what sites like Hulu are for. You think people actually sit down at a regular time and watch TV anymore?
or tivos and dvrs, buying shows on dvd, hulu as you said and other legal ways of viewing on stations websites, or illegal ways of viewing.
Yeah, I watch shows on dvd sometimes. I'm just not a big fan of long, serialized stories or the time I have to invest in front of a screen to get the payoff. With books, I can carry my story around in my purse instead of being trapped on the couch or at the computer.
Basically, most of my tv-watching is for instant gratification when I want to turn my brain off for awhile. No doubt there's some excellent long-story tv out there (Arrested Development comes to mind) but unless I'm watching it with someone else, I'm not motivated to put forth the effort.
As for the reason people post in threads about certain shows saying negative things about said shows, thank god. What's the point of a circle jerk thread. w/r/t the OP example of Heroes, my view as to why there is so much negative commentary is that people are disappointed. Most people crapping on the show at this point probably liked it season one and are venting. I know I am.