I really dislike Television – minor rant

[Xue Sheng]

I realize this is only my personal opinion and many others would very likely disagree but…


:soapbox: The Rant begins :angry:

I generally do not get a chance to watch much TV beyond what my kids watch and the occasional PBS show but this past weekend I got violently ill and for 48 straight hours I was unable to sleep or move much so all I did was watch TV, except of course for the 5 hours I spent in the ER getting IVs put into me due to severe dehydration. But from this high exposure TV experience I have pretty much come to the conclusion that other than Noggin, Nickelodeon and PBS that TV is pretty much awful. I did find on occasion that The Discovery Channel, The History Channel and the Science Channel had a few good shows but I have over 720 choices on my TV and that still leaves over 720 Channels that are simply not worth a damn… I absolutely despise reality shows :disgust: and just about every other sitcom or series I came across was equally as bad. I can’t take anymore blood, guts, gore, sex, whining, fighting stupidity or angst:barf:.. and don’t get me started on the repeat news from multiple angles with the overly perky, happy, emotion free, cosmetically enhanced, or serious news person:cuss:. And the commercials…. Will someone first explain to me why on earth ANYONE cares about Bret Michael, his rock of love and one of his cosmetically enhanced groupies breaking an implant and WHY on earth do I need to see that advertised Ad nauseam :tantrum:… I don’t know what channel he is even on… and I don’t want to know… but it seemed like every single time I started flipping channels in vain to find something interesting that I came across a commercial for that…EVERY…SINGLE….TIME…for TWO FRIGGING DAYS!!!!:flammad:

I have had enough of TV and previously I was kind of missing the days I could sit down and watch a show or two… but now… I am rather happy I don’t watch it much at all. I will happily stick with kid’s shows and PBS and the news ONCE a day.

Rant over :asian:

All total I it ended up as a total of 4 days of television viewing and I will say the one thing I did watch with great interest was the inauguration and it was the first time I ever watched and inauguration of any president actually and I am rather happy I did. And it was the only time I was happy there was greater than one station covering it…. 50 however was a bit of overkill but due to the historic nature of it I will let that one go...

 

[CoryKS]

Y'know, for someone who hates the product, you're paying pretty close attention. Just sayin'.

They got these other televisions that are a little smaller, a lot less flashy. In fact, the pictures don't even move! Lots of text, though. Some of them have upwards of 1000 channels to flip through.

 

[Nolerama]

A few years ago, I would suggest Tivo or some sort of DVR.

But now, I don't watch TV, unless it's some sort of news service or I'm watching a DVD.

There's not a whole lot out there in TV land. It's pretty much the same crapola. That's why we enrich our lives with stuff like martial arts... Or breakdancing.

 

[harlan]

Kinda know what you mean. I majored in TV/news production...and really came to despise the industry and the programming.

However, on occasion, there is good fare. I've discovered 'Boston Legal' and just saw 'Scrubs' for the first time. Never even heard of 'Scrubs' and happened to catch the season premiere...I was blown away...it was wonderful.

I have to remind myself as I get older, to remain mentally flexible, and not reject things out of hand.

 

[Kreth]

Most TV sucks, and most people are morons. Case in point, Worst Week is the current "#1 New Comedy."

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Hey Xue there are lots and lots of terrible shows. The skill is to weed through and around them and come to that one gem of a show. (my kid's and wife are great at this but I am stuck with bad taste

)

 

[Nolerama]

The History Channel and Discovery Channel are pretty cool.

 

[Zyaga]

I don't even have cable, or use the TV I do have.

If I want to watch a TV show, I just go to www.hulu.com

 

[Steve]

I love TV. Not every show, but I enjoy chillin' out and watching to boob tube.

Currently, one show I really look forward to is Bones. I try never to miss an episode. I also like a lot of the shows on the Food Network, particularly Good Eats with Alton Brown and Iron Chef America. Other shows I like are So You Think You Can Dance, and of course, lots of muay thai or other combat sports.

I also try to watch The Daily Show and the Colbert Report as often as I can, although I miss episodes. Others that I'll watch when I see them are Dirty Jobs and shows on History or Discovery. Cool stuff there from time to time.

TiVo helps a lot.

 

[Nolerama]

I don't even have cable, or use the TV I do have.

If I want to watch a TV show, I just go to www.hulu.com

surfthechannel.com

 

[Xue Sheng]

Y'know, for someone who hates the product, you're paying pretty close attention. Just sayin'.

They got these other televisions that are a little smaller, a lot less flashy. In fact, the pictures don't even move! Lots of text, though. Some of them have upwards of 1000 channels to flip through.

Tell you what, you get as sick as I was, stuck in a chair and try and read.. I dare you

Of the 2 days outside of the original 48 "sleepless" hours which were in front of the TV; 1 day was pretty much dedicated to the inauguration, walking and trying to stand upright for more than 5 minutes and the other was pretty much dedicated to walking around as much as possible, trying to eat again and.... looking at those other televisions... which by the way are called books.. and don’t get to shocked here…some are even called magazines.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I don't even have cable, or use the TV I do have.

If I want to watch a TV show, I just go to www.hulu.com

surfthechannel.com

I actually tried going to the web but simply could not handle looking at the screen and was stuck with the distraction of TV which ultimtely was a distraction...for all the wrong reasons.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Colbert Report

OK, I will admit I did catch the Colbert Report after the Inauguration and it was hilarious.

 

[Flying Crane]

I have never had cable of any kind as an adult, and I've had my old 19" TV since about 1995. My inlaws decided to give us a 37" HD TV and a year subscription to Cable as a Xmas gift. Actually, they had bought the TV for themselves and decided it wasn't big enough and so bought another one, and gave us the first one as a gift.

Before they handed this off to us, I had a long discussion with my mother-in-law about this, as she tried to get me excited about the idea. I was very clear in my position that I really DO NOT WANT THE TV, and I really DO NOT WANT THE CABLE. We joked and laughed about it, but really I was very clear and firm about it.

A couple days later, my wife can home and said, "OK, so they want to give us this TV for Xmas..."

So now we have it, and we have cable, but at least they are paying for the first year.

I've watched very little so far, and much of what my wife watches was already available on the limited number of broadcast channels we were getting before.

So now my in-laws are paying for us to have a few hundred or so channels of crap that has very little worth watching. Now we get the option of spending our time surfing all these channels in search of something, and wasting our lives that way instead of wasting it actually watching something stupid. Not sure which is the better way to waste time...

I suppose if I really tuned into it I would figure out a small number of channels and shows that I would like, but we are still stuck with this contract of hundreds of channels that are just a complete waste. ****ing weird, I don't get it. I can't even order up pay-for-porn because it would show up on the bill that my in-laws are receiving and paying for, talk about awkward...:erg::rofl:

anyway, I agree with you, it's mostly a complete waste of time and money, I really wish we didn't have it. Wouldn't mind having the big TV for watching DVD movies altho I didn't feel strongly enough to be willing to buy it myself, but the cable is just stupid. I notice my wife has a greater tendency to sit and surf the channels, and I wish I could get her to do ANYTHING else with her time instead. Not like she watches a whole lot, but I feel just about any time spent on this is a piece of your life that is lost.

preaching to the choir here, my friend.

 

[tellner]

That's why I don't have one. I can watch Colbert and The Daily Show online. The only TV show I follow, Bones, goes up a few weeks after the fact on Fox's website. And if I want to get stupid for a couple hours there's always cheap whiskey.

 

[JadecloudAlchemist]

I put my focus on cartoons. It is a great way to just forget about the cares and problems of adult world. I also see T.V. as a useful tool for knowledge so I do watch History channel,Travel channel,Discovery channel. I really can't get into sitcoms the joke writing is so dry and boring to me. I really like House M.D. because I like Sherlock Holmes and it reminds me of that.

But when I am watching T.V. I am always doing something else such as reading or exercising. I think using T.V. like a radio is up my alley.

Speaking of T.V. in the hospital. Once I was in the hospital and I fell asleep with HBO on well right when the Nurse came in the show Real Sex was on with 5 naked old men I remember I woke up and the nurse just smiled.

 

[Tames D]

That was a 'minor' rant?

:rofl:

 

[SFC JeffJ]

That was a 'minor' rant?

:rofl:

It is for Xue.

 

[Tames D]

My pet peeve when it comes to tv is how all scheduled programming MUST come to a halt when we have an earthquake. Even if it's a small quake it seems that they always cut into our show and overkill us with quake coverage for hours. Maybe it's just a Southern Calif thing.

 

[MA-Caver]

The History Channel and Discovery Channel are pretty cool.

AMEN! To me the only things worth watching... that and M*A*S*H re-runs but even then they're getting old having seen them uptowards a dozen times each...

The bad thing about Television is of course the commercials.
Endless they seem and repetitive. They also do something else... they feed into everyone's sense of inadequacy... the basic message is "...You're NOT okay until you buy... THIS!" The message is hammered repeatedly until it permeates our conscious next time we go to the store or walk out to our car and see how old it is or beat up and how nice new flashy and all the other bells and whistles the newer models have.
The marketing dept. hire psychologists they KNOW how to get past our buying defenses and how we have a deep need to make ourselves other than what we actually are.

I've stopped watching television roughly 20 years ago. I'll have a DVD player and put on a great movie WITHOUT worry about "we'll be right back after these messages" coming up every 5 minutes.