Television: Our Worst Enemy

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CNF2002 · #1 Unread post by **CNF2002** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 2:45 am

I was watching television last night. An unusual thing, but I am interested in the show "Lost". I ended up hooked on it with the DVDs. Of course, now I start season 3 and the show is ruined. There are too many commercials, which breaks up the mood of the story. And what is with the onscreen ads? TV stations used to just have their call-sign in the bottom corner on a light fade, so you could barely read it. Now every 10 minutes and huge flashing banner comes across the screen advertising some other show. Are you kidding me?? At this point I'm just going to stop watching it and wait until the DVD comes out so I can actually enjoy the program.

I ended up watching part of a show before it on another channel (because the channel my show was on had some dancing-voting-garbage on it that made me sick within 20 seconds) and it was about a nuclear attack or something. All the people were sitting around drinking beer and watching TV when the star came in and asked everyone to help go rescue some survivors of a city of a nuclear strike. None of them wanted to help.

Thats the image of America I want MY kids to see! Americans in the middle of an attack on their homeland, sitting around drinking beer and watching TV. Then the other stars have the GALL to actually commend this guy for helping people "he didn't know". HELLO? Why should it be so amazing this guy would help people he doesn't know? The values of these shows are just rock bottom.

I hate TV.

sharpmagna · Thu Oct 12, 2006 3:15 am

Your TV service sucks. I didn't have the onscreen ads when I was watching lost.

It does suck to have the commercials though. If you have TIVO, just TIVO the show and wait after it finishes. Then watch the TIVOed version and fast forward on the commercials. Still doesn't solve your onscreen ad problem though...

CNF2002 · #3 Unread post by **CNF2002** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 3:24 am

sharpmagna wrote:Your TV service sucks. I didn't have the onscreen ads when I was watching lost.

It does suck to have the commercials though. If you have TIVO, just TIVO the show and wait after it finishes. Then watch the TIVOed version and fast forward on the commercials. Still doesn't solve your onscreen ad problem though...

I wonder why I pay $15/mo for basic cable, let alone have any interest in TiVo. 1 hour of television per week is enough for me. The season premiere I did videotape and watch later and fast forward through the commercials, but the other symbols and just dealing with the ads takes away the enjoyment for me.

sharpmagna · Thu Oct 12, 2006 3:29 am

Holy crap, I pay a lot more than that!!!

CNF2002 · #5 Unread post by **CNF2002** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 3:42 am

I have basic service. No digital. Just local stations plus the standard cable stations (SciFi, History Channel, etc). The only reason I'd like to keep cable in fact is because the History Channel sometimes has interesting shows (Discovery used to be good, but now its all trendy pop junk)...although History channel is starting to flake out as well with shows that are more 'entertainment' than documentary and educational. There's just very little reason to watch TV anymore, especially since its quite obvious they no longer pretend that their shows are designed for your enjoyment. They used to entice you to watch TV to expose you to ads, but now that most Americans are glued to their sets no matter what is on, TV has become one long ad.

camthepyro · Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:03 am

Modern Marvels is the best show on TV. '80s tech was on last night, that was good.

Anywho, I hate those ads at the bottom during the show as well. They wouldn't be so bad if they didn't make noise. You'll be sitting there watching the show, and all of the sudden you hear a car revving on your tv, completely drowning out the sound from the show you're watching, and you think "there's no way that car revving sound can be coming from the tv, the show I'm watching is about settlers in the 18th century!" Then you look down and realize some stupid ad is drowning out your show. It's annoying.

CNF2002 · #7 Unread post by **CNF2002** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:06 am

Yes, worse is that now shows spend nothing on their production, but pay out millions to the regular people (non-actors) they put on the screen. So we end up with shows about a bunch of amateurs dancing/singing/answering trivia. And for some reason people watch it.

Nalian · #8 Unread post by **Nalian** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:13 am

Basic cable costs $40 here - I'm not even sure you'd get the History channel with that!

Tivo was probably the worst thing I could have done for my home productivity - I watch a lot more TV with it than I ever would have without it.

Candy750 · #9 Unread post by **Candy750** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:48 am

Love TV. Just turn it on and it goes - I don't even have to move my eyes! It's like "junk food" for your brain - I totally recognize it's a waste of time, yes, I could be doing much better things, and who cares if I have seen this re-run 100 times. Love anything to do with The Mob, Serial Killers, Nazis...lately we are into UFC...I probably log about 50 hours a week. I barely ever read anymore!! And I am not ashamed to admit it!

(I am more ashamed to admit I don't understanf The Dukes of Hazard - which I never saw in the 80's).

TV Junkies Unite!

#10 Unread post by **t_bonee** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:01 am

Love TV myself.

Anywho, I am a Lost fanatic and I never see any ads or anything during it other than regular commercials. Maybe it some weird 'speerment that the gubments doing on citizens in certain parts of the country.

The nuclear show you refer to is called Jericho, and to be fair you have to have watched it from the first episode to get the plot. It is like Lost in that it isn't resolved at the end of each episode and keeps building on each previous one. So you've missed stuff that was previously laid out, especially catching the last 10 minutes of the 4th episode.