ONE DOWN, and counting.... by Ruxton

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

ONE DOWN, and counting....

POSTED BY: RUXTON
UPDATED: Thursday, April 21, 2005 01:51
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 2747
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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 10:48 AM

Well, it happened.

U.S. TV is surely the worst-run enterprise most of us will ever experience. The main problems include stopping the storyline midway in the season for arbitray reasons. Then we're fed fill-in programs, most of which are of little interest to me, such as the Next Big Model, or the upcoming Starlet, and the like. They are boredom personified. Worse, while these things are on, we get no flashbacks to any of the main shows, like "Everwood," which I used to follow somewhat. The result is that those of us with better alternatives for entertainment, such as reading, or good DVDs of older programs, or a real life, forget what happened on Everwood.

Just last night was the first new episode of Everwood in many months. And though I tried, I couldn't bring myself to watch it because I no longer give a damn that Efram once again hates his father, that the other doctor has a patient who is about to give his gizzard to his dying son, or any of the other phony crapola that is supposed to hold our attention while we are forced, every hour, to sit through 18 minutes of blinding ads trying to sell us stuff we don't need.

Everwood? Who cares!

That's one show down, and mighty few to go.

I thought one or two of you might want to know how thoroughly disgusted I am with myself that it took so long for me to see the light. My salvation is that I finally had the guts to turn off at least one show forever.

(Veronica Mars is another story altogether.)

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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 11:09 AM

SERGEANTX

whaaa? You're still watching television??

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 11:17 AM

RUXTON

SergeantX,

Yes, but I NEVER watch commercials. Instead, I play guitar, or read a book, or bite my dog, all far more entertaining than looking at new cars that cost more than my house. And I find I spend increasing amounts of time on PBS, when I do watch TV. A new Miss Marple was on last night....

A zillion kudos to those who have turned the TV entirely off.

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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 11:24 AM

CHRISISALL

My television is merely a coduit for my dvd player.
And PBS Kids for my 6 year old.

Corporate commercial hating Chrisisall

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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 11:59 AM

RAE

Amen! We got fed up with all the crap and commercials a few years ago. We have to be a little patient, but the shows we like are eventually released on dvd, and we buy the season. We have a LOT of dvds. But, the only time we get "to be continued" is between seasons. It is definitely worth the wait! We watch what we want, when we want, without interruptions.

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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 12:16 PM

CHRISISALL

It's a little difficult, though. My friend (the gorram little Browncoat resister) keeps talkin' at me about Galactica, and I have to keep saying 'I'll discuss it after they're released on dvd!'
The only commercials I ever have to even think about is when I play my old Brisco County Jr. tapes, and that'll change when those come out to dvd too. ha ha

COMMERCIALS

Commercial-free Chrisisall

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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 12:27 PM

SERGEANTX

Quote:
Originally posted by Ruxton:
SergeantX,

Yes, but I NEVER watch commercials. Instead, I play guitar, or read a book, or bite my dog, all far more entertaining than looking at new cars that cost more than my house. And I find I spend increasing amounts of time on PBS, when I do watch TV. A new Miss Marple was on last night....

A zillion kudos to those who have turned the TV entirely off.

Well, it's not like it's a moral issue or anything. It's just entertainment. The only reason I encourage people to turn off to TV is in hopes they that networks will be persuaded to start producing quality programming for a change. Or maybe even start treating viewers like people rather than cattle to be herded.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 2:05 PM

SIGMANUNKI

We have a VCR, buy DVD's and download. If the download's good, we buy when we have money.

Actually, for a large chunk of time, we watched DVD's and downloads for sooo long, when we watched some TV b/c we ran out of the other, it was weird to actually have these things called... commercials.

Funny thing is, when that happened, I actually reached for the VCR remote! Gave us a good giggle

----
"Canada being mad at you is like Mr. Rogers throwing a brick through your window." -Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 6:39 PM

STARBERRYGIRL

Pulled the cable plug on our TV a couple of years ago (as a poor college student), and have for the most part been watching TV through DVD's, and the internet as well. The luxury of not having to sit through commercials has apparently spoiled me. I was staying in a hotel last weekend at a conference, and while flipping through the channels came across an episode of Buffy (Tabula Rasa, which I love watching on DVD). At the first commercial break, I started fidgeting and flipping through the channels, and by the second I just got so frusterated, I just turned the TV off, skipping the rest of the episode.
*sigh*
Television programming may not be considered the highest art, but, something really ought to be done about the sledgehammer thaty is the commercial break.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2005 9:46 AM

RUXTON

It is most encouraging to see I'm not alone. I recently reread the entire Sherlock Holmes, illustrated edition from some years back, and then rediscovered the late Jeremy Brett's interpretations as DVDs. These are just brilliant, and follow the original Conan Doyle text and storyline extremely closely, which I find most gratifying. And there are somethink like 40 episodes, and they are so well done that rewatching them will be a joy for many years to come.

[TWO DOWN....]
Last night I added one to the list of NEVER AGAIN. That is "One Tree HIll." I slogged through it despite being able to predict what would happen. The show took up half its time backtracking the life of the guy driving to get his wife, who we knew would not come back with him. And the one brother got all angry at the other brother, predictably. This was after I'd been on the edge of my seat with the fast action and thoughtful presentation that is Veronica Mars. The Tree Hill show was, by contrast, so lame that -- despite Emmanuelle Vaugier and Hilarie Burton -- I won't be wasting another second on it. IMHO, the only good stuff was the pleasant interaction of the two folks who are actually engaged in real life.

Thanks for all your feedback. Much appreciated.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2005 10:18 AM

THEHAPPYTURTLE

yeah, commercials do keep getting worse and worse, especially McDonalds and Old Navy commercials- OMG...unfortunately, being a poor college student i cannot right now afford anything on any format, but someday i will load up on Buffy, Angel, Star Trek Voyager, etc. The only shows i really watch anymore are Smallville, Mythbusters and CSI. And even then i just mute the commercials and read a magazine or surf browncoated sites!

Roses are red
Violets are blue
You're ugly as a monkey
You should live in a zoo

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Wednesday, April 20, 2005 1:29 PM

GROUNDED

Quote:
Originally posted by Ruxton:
Last night I added one to the list of NEVER AGAIN. That is "One Tree HIll."

But it's just so funny! I crack up every time I hear the theme tune singer go 'Latelaaay'.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:21 PM

RUXTON

I have always hated the theme song of Tree Hill with a purple passion. I've made a point of turning the sound and picture off as soon as I hear "I don't want..." (Or whatever it is.)

Theme songs for TV shows are prolly a good subject for another thread. But there are mighty few good ones. Smallville's. Veronica Mars'. And that's about it.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:38 PM

RUXTON

The British TV system seems to be excellent, compared with ours. They produce a show like, say, "Foyle's War," in four episodes of two hours each. The run the four shows (without commercials) and see if there's any interest. In the case of Foyle, there was lots of interest, so four more long episodes were produced; and after a while, four more. That meant British viewers and we (via PBS) were offered 12 shows of two hours each, the equivalent of about 34 hours of U.S. TV, which is like 1-1/2 seasons. (I don't know if the original Brit run included any commercials, but doubt it.)

There was no fear of the series being cancelled along the way, like Firefly was. Instead, the only question was whether we'd get yet another series. Like our good U.S. series, the Foyle series had a story arc that traveled through all 12 long episodes.

The benefits were excellent production, zero commercial interruptions, appeal to higher intelligence, etc. etc.

If U.S. TV producers could start over, this is what they could do, and we the viewers would benefit greatly. But that would take a massive revolution of disgruntled TV viewers. And all the money currently pissed away on costly but useless TV advertising could be given to me. Or something like that.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2005 8:16 PM

REAVERINA1985RIVIERA

Whenever the commercials start, I turn on the picture-in-picture and have the tiny screen set to my show and channel surf with the big picture untill the commercials are over.

---------------------------------------------
The real-life box droppin', man-ape gone wrong thing, now without the pesky falling boxes

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Thursday, April 21, 2005 1:22 AM

MAJORCLOD

The only show I watch on TV now is Mythbusters, and thankfully thats on a channel that doesn't play commercials during shows.

I get my TV fix from mates at work. Being in Australia it takes us a good six months to get a new series, so I just end up watching it from nice quality AVI files. No commercials, no hassel. Buy the DVD's when they are released for the nice sound mix and better picture, and everyone is happy!

By that time it still probably hasn't been shown over here, has moved to a midnight timeslot, or postponed mid season for some lame reality TV show.

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Thursday, April 21, 2005 1:22 AM

MAJORCLOD

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Thursday, April 21, 2005 1:25 AM

MAJORCLOD

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Thursday, April 21, 2005 1:25 AM

MAJORCLOD

Umm.. User malfunction.. please ignore!

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Thursday, April 21, 2005 1:51 AM

GROUNDED

Quote:
Originally posted by Ruxton:
The British TV system seems to be excellent, compared with ours.

The trouble is we have sod all variety. All we get in the way of original programming are murder mysteries and period dramas. Sea of Souls is the only genre programme I can think of at the moment (haven't watched it though) except Doctor Who (which is rubbish unless you are a) a Who fan to begin with or b) under 10).

And Foyle's War is shown on ITV1, so it did have commericals. Of the five terrestrial channels, only the two BBC channels are free of ad breaks.

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