“Everybody thinks of themselves as being slightly above average” – Garrison Keillor
I heard that confession is good for the soul. And what little I have left at this point could probably use some. I think that I am a bit more critical and selective when it comes to the various forms of media I read, watch or listen to. My own internal radar when it comes to those medium has a better construction to it than many of the people I know. I may feel that way. However, the reality of it reveals that “sadly it is far from the truth”. Last night, I wanted to write for a bit and get back to finishing a book from To Be Read Pile. I know better but last night I did not do better. ME.TV just came on air in this area. 7:30 PM, M.A.S.H. rerun was on and I love that show. It was one of the first shows ever that did a good job mixing and balancing comedy against drama. This episode “Mulcahy’s War” from Season 5 features the scene where Father Mulcahy has to perform an emergency tracheotomy on a wounded soldier his bringing back from the front line.
Instead of turning the TV when the show was over I made the mistake of channel surfing. It was a moment of weakness. It was a moment of weakness that is probably the side of effect of my current state of physical and mental exhaustion. (And that is on me to work through and out.) It is also the by-product of “The Examined Life”. In my case, it comes with no referee and a shot clock. At this moment, I needed to engage and disengage at the same time. I then changed the channel and got stuck on a show. It is hard to admit to the fact that I cannot avert my eyes when it is on. It is the TV game show Wipeout.
It is the game show equivalent of a NASCAR race. I am just waiting to see how the contestants “crash” into water. It is amazing how their bodies can be contorted in their “Wipeout” and they don’t end up in traction because of it. And then afterwards listening to the hosts make wiseass snarky comments about them. This show is like Jackass for jackasses.
When that show was over I had to surrender to fact I was getting nothing done of significant for the night. I surfed into that cooking competition show. And I still wonder why I stayed with it. Why watch a show where people tell me how food tastes? These shows are kind of worthless when it comes to their final product. At least until the Star Trek Food Replicator and Smell-O-Vision are available via TV or the Internet so you can experience what has been cooked.
It was not a total waste of time. I was able to make an observation in regards to so called “reality competition” shows. They are more “staged” than most fictional shows. Watch for this the next time you watch one of them. The more camera angles and edits there are just how much it is staged. Every camera angle has the same perfect lighting. And all these angles should capture the other camera operators shooting the exact same action. The show may say there was 2 hour time limit (for a 60 minute show) for the competition. However, with all the camera angles used I am going to guess it probably took 6-10 hours to actually film it. Remember when watching this genre of shows that what you do not see is probably more important that what you do see. There is probably a “blooper reel” for this show. If this is true then there is a good chance it was all staged.
My final solution is that I may have to lose my TV Remote Controller for a bit.
And if I throw out my couch then I could lose it forever.
You might want to pull the cable also. You’ll get a little disconnected from the world, but it gets the job done. But you know. Television is not a problem in itself. It’s only a problem if it keeps you from doing what you want to do.