Why TV sucks

I don't watch TV.

Not much of it anyway, although my current rent includes full cable.

Every now and then, though, I do turn on the tube and it usually takes me less than 10 minutes (sometimes less than 5) to think to myself, "Ooooh. THAT'S why I don't watch tv!"

Why?

Because left, right and centre we have trash: from 'reality' tv about powertrips, mudslinging, catfights and/or stripper wannabees, to absolutely inane, brainless sitcoms without a single original thought, idea or joke; to soapy 'dramas' with plots as overdone as twice-heated canned refried beans.

Then, something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer comes along. A goofier name for a show there couldn't have been, yet even a TV-hating militant like me had to admit the concept was original, the characters were alive, and, most importantly, the cliches were kept to a minimum and the writing pretty much bordered on brilliant.

Funny thing: I never saw the show while it ran in real time. Then, some time in 2003 or 2004, I finally heeded the recommendations of three different PhD-holding friends of mine and caught the re-runs on the Canadian Space Channel (they happened to air when I got home from work)... I was almost-instantly hooked. So much so, that I bought the boxset with all 7 seasons and have enjoyed them all.

I naturally turned to the series's spin-off, Angel, and enjoyed its fresh dialogue and vibrant, 'real' characters (as in, with real flaws and real assets), although I missed the presence of a strong female lead.

Why were these shows cancelled, while imagination-less trash like American Idol and Survivor and America's Next Top Model increasingly take on the spotlight? It's beyond me.

And now, after a couple of years of consistently avoiding TV, a few months ago I happened upon Veronica Mars, Smallville and Supernatural, and I managed to avoid turning the TV off during all three.

Smallville and Supernatural both have their moments, although the one is nothing but the retelling of an old, old, OLD story, and the other is only a male Buffy wannabe... Come to think of it, they BOTH are... I mean, the only difference between the towns of Smallville and Sunnydale is that one gets periodically hit by meteor showers that leave behind 'meteor freaks', and the other is on a hellmouth that happens to attract demons and other, well... freaks... (And how about that episode when Clark Kent is attacked by an unseen force that makes him hallucinate he's a deluded patient in a psych ward? That was a total, absolutely SHAMELESS rip-off from the Buffy season 6 episode 'Normal Again'... ) But I digress...

My point is that, without question, the best-constructed, most cleverly-written, most ORIGINAL of all three shows is -- or should I say, 'was'? -- Veronica Mars. Not only that: it also portrays very real, very human characters who are still growing as people, making human mistakes and learning from them, and... it has a kick-ass, brave, no-nonsense female lead that challenges the establishment.

So I start watching this show, thinking to myself that maybe all this time I've been too hard on the TV industry, that there's hope yet for it... Then, without warning, I tune in one Tuesday night and, instead of a clever neo-noir little show portraying a strong, intelligent female rolemodel, I find a piece of absolute GARBAGE called Pussycat Dolls something-or-other! I don't need to watch more than ONE minute of this absolute trash to realize it is just another bunch of faeces -- another 'reality' show intent on perpetuating the objectification of women by showing a bunch of pseudo-prostitutes in S&M-like outfits badmouthing each other while they 'compete' to see which one of them can better hold the attention of over-sexed, male tv producers and equally oversexed, equally male audiences.

My hope not yet dead, I tuned in again Tuesday after Tuesday, only to turn the damn TV off in disappointment again and again... Until last night, when I pleasantly happened upon the two-hour 'season finale' of Veronica Mars. I was thrilled, really followed the plot and was left looking forward to the next season come September...

Then I happened to look the series up on the internet today and... what do I find? The clever little neo-noir with the strong female lead is being cancelled!!!!! Instead, the network is plugging all primetime slots with absolute crap of the same calibre as the Pussycat Dolls garbage! Sure, Smallville and Supernatural are still on, but... again: they may have their moments, but in truth they're just retelling old plots... And where are the female leads??? They have disappeared. Instead, young girls are once again left with nothing to look up to, but a future of perennial body-image issues, dieting and excercising, becoming bulimic or annorexic.... And depressed because they'll never, no matter what they do, look like the next pussycat whore, or whatever.

The message the next generation of girls is getting: you're nothing but a toy, so dress scantily, starve yourself and act like one.

Brains? Who needs them? Right? Veronica Mars had them and her show got cancelled; Buffy Summers had them and her show got cancelled... More? I'm told Gilmore Girls also got cancelled -- although I personally can't say much about this show because the one time I caught it, the dialogue seemed a bit on the contrived side for me... Still: strong female leads...

What is really depressing is to realize that these cancellations are pretty much in response to ratings, i.e. to what the MAJORITY of the public wants...

It's like the Roman circus... Why have culture and nurture your brain, when you can just sit down and watch people at each other's throats, either verbally, or literally? Why have story, originality, plot, characterization, acting, when you can have a bunch of regurgitated third or fourth hand excrement to fill in the voids your life wouldn't have if you didn't spend half of it in front of the tv in the first place? Why have talented actresses in strong leading roles when a bunch of pseudo strippers can parade and have catfights to give the male audiences a permanent hard-on?

After this, I don't think I'll be trying turning on my tv again in a very, very long time. At least now there are DVDs... Buffy, here I come again!