An Englishman Complains About Too Much Television
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Quality and quantity can go hand in hand albeit increasingly rarely though when it comes to television. Oh for the days when Britain only had 4 TV channels. Is it just me? Probably.
There are far too many TV channels for my liking. The problem, in Britain, is that we have to pay a TV licence fee because of the BBC. Even if we never watch the BBC we still have to pay the licence fee and it rankles more and more due to the lack of quality and the endless repeats.
In defense of the BBC, it is absolutely fantastic that programs do not incessantly get interrupted by mind-numbing adverts. For that reason alone I suppose a licence fee is sort of worth it.
Quantity can also be defended – up to a point – as occasional gems still emerge from the mass of crap.
The problem is the mass of crap.
I’m led to believe it’s even worse in the States. Constant adverts?
Before Sky and satellite TV in general channel choices were limited. As a result, the few channels had to show enough quality to retain viewers.
That isn’t to say there wasn’t crap back then but, with fewer channels, most crap went off the air – or was so bad it was kind of good and acquired cult status.
It would be quite easy to list any number of gems amidst the quantity of crap. Hill Street Blues (of course) in America was never high in the ratings – which begs the question ‘have American viewers no taste? – 😜
Over Christmas, in Britain, we not only suffered repeats from 30 years ago but programmes shown Boxing Day repeated the following day. TV deja vu.
Of course, we had Doctor Who on Christmas Day but, albeit I’d intended to keep an open mind, the Doc underwent a bizarre regeneration sex change.
Mind you The Tardis was having none of it and, to my delight, threw the sex change Doc out into space.
No doubt political correctness will ensure her survival.
So. Is it great to have literally hundreds of TV channels churning out crap with occasional gems?
Would it be better to have no more than five or six channels vying for our viewing through either quality or, at least, crap that is so bad it’s good?
Too many channels, too many adverts, too much crap and we’re all watching it like a load of zombies.
Well, I’m not – generally. Watching crap that is.
I’m even considering getting rid of the TV aerial so I don’t have to pay a licence fee.
I’ll just sit here saying the lines before the actors do as I perpetually watch my 7 series box set of Hill Street Blues.
Now that would be perpetual quality.
Well, better than watching Doctor Who in a dress anyway.
That’s The Doctor in a dress by the way, not me. Me? A feminine side? On your bike!
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I really get annoyed when people use the phrase “begs the question” when they really mean “raises the question”. Begging the question is a logical fallacy which is a type of circular reasoning in which an arguer makes an argument that requires the desired conclusion to be true.
Here is an example of begging the question: “Booze makes you drunk because it is intoxicating.” (Note that it’s actually a statement, not an actual question).
Here is an example of raising a question: “Have American viewers no taste?”
Thanks E.A. for those enlightening bits of wisdom. You raise good points.
Anybody who spent an entire semester in Professor Eckman’s Advanced Syntax class (as I did) got regularly beat over the head with the problem of begging the question. The study of linguistics is full of opportunities to make the kinds of false assumptions that lead one into that fallacy. The more formal term is petitio principii, which means “putting the argument first”.
Women do seem to be better at parallel processing. I’m strictly serial and I’m best at not tasking at all.
I don’t remember the last time I was drunk ( I know, there are two ways to look at that) but seriously ESPN is a huge part of my monthly bill and it’s not offered as an option. I would pay more to keep Fox off the menu.
Well I know EXACTLY when I was last drunk. I am still drunk a little from the festivities last night and plan on being so again this evening, at my best friend’s annual NYE get together. Like I have told some other people offline, I have basically stayed drunk, or wasted in some fashion, the latter part of this year and have taken to just wearing my bedding, saves trouble 🙂 It’s not a good look I know but something I have to go through to get to the other side intact with my new normal. ESPN was my husband’s crack, it was on all the time for all sports no matter what they were, he was way into sports, where I am just a baseball fanatic.
I stopped drinking some time ago, primarily because I realized it was getting crazy, crazy. When I started forgetting what I was watching the night before was a sign from the Almighty Unicorn. So, that fun was past fun. Present fun is a bit boring, but at least I remember my boredom the next day.
I’m using it as an escape for now. I don’t want to continually depend on anti depressants so drink and weed are getting me over the hump temporarily. Xmas was very hard and to top it off, my husband did some PS I Love You (cheesiest movie ever made) things, to help me make it through the “firsts” with the aid of my best friend. Basically, I have been avoiding some things I need to confront grief wise and I’m not ready to do that right at this second.
I’m not a sports guy, so no ESPN for me, but I am a Netflix, Amazon Video, BritBox, PBS, and the list goes on and on fan. I would get rid of regular TV and just stream except I would lose MSNBC and I’m hooked on them even when they piss me off.
I don’t have to remember being drunk…the wifey lets me know in the morning 😀
I used to be amused by antique “crystal” radios from the UK that had license tags on them. Americans prided themselves on free and open air waves, but of course, Capitalism always finds a way to grab your own stuff and sell it back to you. Nothing is free. The choice is endless commercial harangues or pay a fee.
In answer to your question – no we don’t have good taste. Most of us I’m tempted to assume just get drunk and watch Football and Fox. I subscribe to DirecTV, a satellite company unfortunately now owned by the Pirates at AT&T, and it costs quite a bit and that’s because I have to pay for all the sporting crap I never ever ever watch (unless it’s auto racing)
The amount of advertising makes watching the “free” channels prohibitive unless I use the DVR and watch it in arrears, fast forwarding through the commercials. I get most of the pay channels and some of that however, is pretty good.
I’ve resisted the streaming thing, because it’s television of which there is far too much already. It takes up time I might otherwise waste on the internet.
Hey now, I get drunk often and I have never watched Fox and football rules escape me so I don’t watch that either. As a woman, I multitask I stream things and waste time on the internet too 😉
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
You know that is rather profound Bobbie, and very, very true. I’ll feel better about continuing to binge on Peaky Blinders this evening.
Spot on!!!
You win the internetz for the day.
hey now. I watched the Doctor Who episode and being a fan loved LOVED it and it was NOT a sex change it was a regeneration which is an entirely different thing don’t get it twisted there. I pay a subscription to a site that has all British all the time shows, BritBox and have been watching some of them. Just found Waking the Dead and it is a really well done show. Acting could be a bit better but the writing for their shows keeps me guessing who is the doer of the bad things. I get Acorn TV too and that has some really good shows on it for I think 7 buck a month. I still have cable because I want to watch Game of Thrones, Ourlander and a few other things on regular tv like NCIS(all of them Katie) Lucifer, Vikings etc. I think all together, I pay over 300 bucks per month for all the different ways to watch tv shows, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon along with the sites I mentioned up there and I won’t be giving it up any time soon because it has been a lifeline for me at certain times in my life when I want to just hide away and do nothing 🙂
My daughters partner just set me up with Netflix via Jacqui’s Wii box.
I have no idea 😀
Peaky Blinders, you NEED to binge watch that right now before anything else. Go NOW, we can wait. I will give you ideas for watching on Netflix if you want me to because there is so much good stuff if you stay away from the crap they have.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaky_Blinders_(TV_series)
Just because I can, here are a few more I have found really entertaining. Frontier is about a half Irish, half Native American dude fighting the Hudson Bay Company back in the day. Any of the Marvel shows, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Daredevil, The Defenders, The Punisher, Black Mirror. I could go on and on but I think you have a start 🙂
I LOVE Peaky Blinders and just started watching Season 4 last night. I had to watch the last episode of Season 3 to catch up first, however 🙂 I’m trying to get into Black Mirror, and have yet to watch The Punishers.
Have you seen Frontier? It really is good and bonus… Jason Momoa is the lead in it. Black Mirror hits way too close to home at times.
Watch it love it….another gem amongst the crap!
I left you some ideas of shows to watch but you have to wait till Mike releases it from moderation purgatory.
Ha! Released from “pending,” and ready for voracious reading 🙂
Love the Marvel shows!!!