Am I the only self-aware tv viewer in America?

Post Reply New Topic

Most primetime TV does not appeal to me at all. Everytime I switch on the TV there’s always an abundance of crime/murder, legal, medical drams, sitcoms, and reality shows. Seriously how do Americans learn to enjoy these programs, it’s the same concept. I had little interest in those shows at all. Even the popular ones like Heroes, Desperate Housewives, 30 Rock, Dollhouse, Bones, Supernatural, Gossip Girl: Those shows have little appeal to me.

Even the science-fiction programs if good, get canceled. And when there’s something interesting that does not fit either of the mold it will get canceled within a season or two.

Oh yes, on the weekends broadcast and cable television is unwatchable unless you like sport, which is something I don’t like at all.

Oh and PBS, their primetime offerings either consists of imported mystery dramas from britian (out of the BBC, you could have imported more commercial and interesting shows), NOVA, Nature, antiques road show, and it seems once every week these pledge breaks. PBS do offer shows that truly define public broadcasting but they don’t get any advertising and shoved late at night. They think that every American had a DVR, well I don’t.

Cable has its bright spots, but most of the good stuff you have to pay more and have to subsidize more junk channels you have little interest in. So unless you like reruns, bowdlerized movies, and sport it’s a waste of money unless you have a bundle package. Even though my dorm has cable, it’s expended cable only, no digital cable available. I have a HDTV and there is no option to subscribe to it, even if I want to most of the HDTV channels are either unconverted or not in widescreen and the only ones in end to end widescreen are sport and movies.

Simply put most TV shows does not appeal to me.

I don't like most TV as well. Though I haven't had cable in over 4 yrs. so my opinion probably does not count. I like very few shows, & the ones I do may fit both in & outside of the category you like (Animal Planet/Discovery Channel, House, CSI Miami, Law & Order SVU, Will & Grace, & cartoons). Supposed reality TV (like "John & Kate + 8", etc.) make me wanna puke!

I agree. I don't like any of those shows you listed. I do like some reality shows, but very, very few. What I'm extremely sick of are all the singing, dancing, and modelling ones. As if there already wasn't enough of that stuff back in 2001! I'm more into the ones that focus more on houses and families, something I can actually relate to!

I will also admit that I do think cartoons have gotten better this decade. Everyone says they were all better in the 90s and before that even, but I'll have to disagree with them.

As for the DVR statement, we have two here, but neither one of us know how to get the one in the great room to work and the one in my room works on and off, depending on if we had a power outage or not recently. It's working right now for the first time in almost half a year...

I don't have cable, basically for the reasons you stated. I get the handful of shows and movies I want to see via the Web or DVD. And yes, the shows I like tend to get canceled very quickly.

Problem is that some shows, especially the documentary series "Lockup" has not been released on DVD at all. And possibly never. That is why I'm reluctant to cancel cable and at the same time I have to subscribe to cable because broadcast tv is unwatchable for the most part: There are shows so exclusive they don't offer any episodes on iTunes or on DVD.

if you reach a certain age, you can tell, because they find out what you like and cancel it...
18-35 is what they want watching...

What certain age?

You know, Jkid, it's possible that there are many "self-aware" viewers in America, but their tastes just differ sharply from yours. My wife, for instance, is addicted to those reality/procedural shows like "48 Hours", in which the show follows actual police detectives as they work actual cases, with little apparent scripting (although I personally detest the fact that the announcer on "48 Hours" feels compelled to recap the entire investigation so far every time the scene changes - I can remember what happened thirty frakking seconds ago, thank you!). I used to like the L&O shows, until the scriptwriters forgot to let Our Heroes screw up every so often. It used to be that sometimes the cops would follow a bad lead for a while, or the lawyers would commit some egregious violation that got the case tossed out of court, but now the prosecution is magic, and never wrong, and if the accused gets off it's not because the evidence was misleading or incomplete, it's because the villainous defense attorney (and they have no other kind, it would seem) cheated!

Currently, I'm hoping the new Doctor Who eps make it to BBC America soon (to the best of my knowledge, they haven't brought us the new Christmas Special yet, and my computer isn't reliable enough to watch internet downloads on). I missed the new season of Torchwood, because it aired over one week and that was a very busy week for me, but I hope to catch it from the On Demand service before it's eliminated. Other than that, I find that I mostly use the TV to watch old reruns of The Red Green Show on PBS, or play video games.

Amen to that.

There's a phrase from math class that school never told you applies to television as well:
"Lowest common denominator"

I am old enough to remember the early days of TV.

Yes it was "corny" by today's standards but all the shows had positive moral values.

They expressed the moral values of the 1950's and 60's. What happened to "Happy Days" or "Leave it to Beaver" or "The Waltons" or "Little House on the Prairie"?
"Daniel Boon" and "Davey Crockett"

Now we have "Californication" and endless shows about 30 somethings having endless sex partners looking for the mythical Mr/Ms Right?

Now we have the Bratz (Slutz) undermining the morals of 8 year olds.

When we see crime shows do we HAVE to see realistic burned corpses being cut up?

Answer me this!

Name me ONE show with positive moral values.

Name me ONE show where people are moral and noble.

THERE AREN'T ANY.

So we wonder why our kids are obese drug ridden violent perverts.

Gee, I wonder why.

I don't watch much television, but when I do it's usually PBS. If you go to their website you can watch full episodes of most of their programs, including those unadvertised late-night ones the OP was referring to.

the certain ages are 0-17 and 36-112..

TV is about selling things. They want the audience with the most expendable income for advertising. If you're 17, you don't have much, if you're over 35, you have most of what you need.

As an American, I hardly ever watch TV anymore... and when I do, it's usually of British origin anyway. You know your TV is bad when you prefer to watch another country's TV...

It certainly is in this country... that's why 99% of American shows are "unwatchable" for me.

You're right. Last year, I've actually discovered there's a website where I can download British television shows, it's called uknova. There you can practically watch documentarites, dramas, basically real television. I don't watch tv anymore unless its for background noise.

Even though I'm 21, only a few american shows truly appeal to me.

I wind up watching weird things like 'The Way Things Work', the Military/History/WWII channel, etc...

I use to be a self-aware TV viewer back in high school and early college. I'm pretty sure that "Lost" changed all of that for me. After college, living at home with nothing to do...I've been watching loads more TV. I watched shows like Grey's Anatomy, House, and Bones on sparing occasions. The only reality tv series I used to tune into frequently was "The Amazing Race" however I would forget about the show after 3-4 seasons. Most of the time, if it's a show I'm only semi-interested or sparingly interested in watching I tend to forget when it's on and miss an episode or two. Bleh. But I NEVER miss an episode of my must-watch shows: Fringe and Lost.

My family doesnt have cable TV but when I do have access to it, I like watching programs on stuff like travel, renovation, and family documentaries.

I have to agree it's all about people's varying tastes.