I turned on the television last night and flipped through the channels: Crime, reality shows, saccharine sitcoms, infomercials. Nothing inspiring or remotely interesting—and all of it taken together vaguely unsettling. It brought to mind a standout op-ed piece in the Boston Globe from a few weeks ago by Joanna Weiss called, “Sheen gives us just what we want”. It’s a savvy, perceptive assessment of the current state of TV culture—and broadly, the current American cultural landscape.
Savor this keenly worded view of how it all fits together: “A big chunk of the TV landscape is built around gawking at the defeated and delusional, whether it’s the bad singers who audition for American Idol, the people who admit to hoarding handbags and cats, the women who demean themselves on VH1 dating shows. It’s a kind of social contract: We get to think we are better than them because we’re “normal,” and they get to think they’re better than us because they’re on TV.” Ouch.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/03/06/sheen
Originally published 3/26/11
Savor this keenly worded view of how it all fits together: “A big chunk of the TV landscape is built around gawking at the defeated and delusional, whether it’s the bad singers who audition for American Idol, the people who admit to hoarding handbags and cats, the women who demean themselves on VH1 dating shows. It’s a kind of social contract: We get to think we are better than them because we’re “normal,” and they get to think they’re better than us because they’re on TV.” Ouch.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/03/06/sheen
Originally published 3/26/11