Things That Don't Matter

Television is both awesome and annoying, depending on what you’re watching. Most of the topics I touch on here will probably get their own articles dedicated to them at some point, but I have to do this quick, I have homework. Here’s what’s awesome:

NBC: NBC is my favorite network at the moment for one reason, Thursday. Their Thursday lineup has My Name is Earl, Kath and Kim, The Office, and 30 Rock, all excellent sitcoms and well above what passes for quality television these days. The rest of the week I’m not so big on NBC, their reality shows are horrible, (what reality show isn’t?) and their dramas and or action shows are dull, or at least, they’ve never interested me enough to bother watching one. The only other NBC show I watch is Chuck, which was entertaining last season, but I don’t see how much longer they’re going to be able to drag the story out, it got repetitive halfway through last year.

The Daily Show/Colbert Report: I put these two together almost as one show, seeing as I watch them one after the other. I don’t get Comedy Central, but they’re nice enough to put the episodes online the next day, with fewer commercials too! This online full episodes thing is great for me and I hope it continues. The Daily Show often focuses on mocking other news networks rather than the news, especially FOX. FOX News has said some of the most ridiculous stuff I’ve ever seen, the Daily Show has a library of clips from them that could take you a lifetime to watch, although that much exposure to Republican propaganda can’t be good for your health. The Colbert Report moves at a much faster pace than the Daily Show, which I like, and Stephen does a great job of mocking conservatives by pretending to be one. It’s amazing how ridiculous some of the policies sound when he delivers them. Admittedly, he exaggerates a little, but I don’t think he’s that far off the mark.

South Park: This show is just hilarious. I love the way in a lot of their episodes how a plot is derived from a figure of speech taken literally. For instance, a recent episode was about the latest Indiana Jones movie, they asserted that Indiana had been, well, I’ll substitute what they actually said with slaughtered. Then they had the characters deal with the tragedy of seeing their beloved friend Indiana slaughtered like that, as if they had witnessed a real friend of theirs killed.

The Simpsons: The only show that makes the FOX network worth watching. And I don’t think they’ll be around too much longer, all the original writers have gone and episode plots have lost, well, I can’t put my finger on it, they’re just not the same anymore. The show is still decent, but it’s not what it used to be.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog: Dr. Horrible was a web exclusive produced last year during the writers strike. A bunch of writers and actors weren’t doing anything, so they came up with Dr. Horrible. I heard about this as one of those “anything’s possible on the internet” type things which always sound great but end up disappointing. This was not at all disappointing. The plot was great, the acting was professional, and it was a musical, but the songs were good. I watched it the other day and they’re all stuck in my head. I recommend everyone see it, here’s a link: http://www.hulu.com/hd/29272. A side note about Hulu: Hulu is awesome. They have all professionally done stuff, the ads are limited, and the ad volume is actually lower than the rest of the video, which is incredible. That may not sound like a big deal, but some places have the ad volume ridiculously loud.

Here’s what annoys me:

The CW: (Shudder) I don’t know where to begin with this network. Their claim to fame is shows like Gossip Girl and 90210. I tried watching Gossip Girl last night so I might have grounds to criticize it, but I just couldn’t do it. All the characters are so whiny, they complain about unimportant problems like their lives hang in the balance. What dress to wear to the dance could pass for the plot of an entire episode. I hate hearing all the stupid gossip when I’m in school, what on earth made them try to bring it into my home?

Reality TV: ALL reality TV sucks. Reality TV should go die in a hole somewhere. It’s ruining television. First off, reality TV is an oxymoron, the idea of TV is that it’s not real. Shows have writers for a reason, to come up with clever and entertaining plots. Writers are the very base of TV, I would class them as more important than all other groups involved in television production. When you take them out you have nothing. People are stupid, I watch TV to be away from all the stupid people, I don’t want all those stupid people on my TV.

That about covers TV for now, like I said, some of those sections will probably end up with their own articles at some point, especially the annoying ones.