Television is a Bad Roommate that I want to love

I have come to realize I really love some television programs.. I’m an addict for 24, I wish Six Feet Under will never end, Studio 60 is fun and promising (hell its Aaron Sorkin’s work.), and of course my ongoing affinity for all things Star Trek..

I hate television. Or at least what it has become for most people…

I came home at seven, at that time my roommate had the television on, it stayed on, and she watched the same channel until she went to bed at 10PM.. I didn’t watch her every moment, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t move from the couch. (Okay, in her defense she’s got a cold, but she’s exhibited this behavior before.) This is of course while the dishwasher has needed emptied for at least two evenings. (its her responsibility to empty the dishwasher)

Count one, I despise what people allow themselves to become when they watch television.

Next, I had the pleasure(?) of watching live TV on the airplane when I was flying JetBlue to NYC. Now, I honestly don’t know when the last time I sat in front of a television screen for that long was, but I got bored. I’d be watching something interesting, and then they’d go to what seemed like 10 minutes of boring commercials. I’d flip around attempting to find something better than commercials to watch, it actually was tedious to get some continuous entertainment.

Count two, The commercials run for far too long, and are uninteresting, detracting from the audience’s attention to the main show.

While we were waiting to take off I found a fun show on the History Channel about the “Texas Roswell Incident.” It was alright, but it would’ve been better if the producers could’ve just turned in a twenty-five minute, well and succinctly told episode, instead of having to repeat themselves and find fluff to fill the extra twenty minutes of running time that the show had to fill to get up to its 45 minute requirement (which plus commercials equals an hour of television.)

One of the reasons I love movies is that the length is tailored to the story the filmmaker wants to tell. a filmmaker can make a movie thats a short and 12 minutes long, or a sixteen hour epic (or more!). Thus they do not have to write into the 22 minute blocks (30 with commercials) of television.

Any school teacher knows the way to bore themselves is to require their students to write papers well beyond the length that they’re capable of; sure, the student will turn in a paper of the appropriate length, but it’ll have too much fluff and crap that the paper could do without.

Count three, the scheduling structure of television networks distorts and makes it difficult to do good art.

So what is the positive to this? Well for one, Google bought YouTube.. Which in and of itself isn’t much to get all jumpy about. Ultimately, I services like YouTube will suppliant television. The thing is by forcing people to interact, to choose what to watch instead of having it forced at them people become better consumers of “television shows” instead of couch potatoes. By being a digital medium commercials can be more targeted, satisfying both viewers and advertisers. Direct digital distribution will become cheaper that the scatter shot distribution of broadcast, and even cable television. (No I haven’t read The Long Tail yet, but I’ve read Chris Anderson’s Wired articles on the same subject.) Finally, I think we’ll get better, more engaging entertainment and documentaries by freeing creators from the fixed constraints of the television schedule.

So, I can’t wait for this cruddy era of television to end, and a new engaging and artistically fulfilling one to begin.