On-Demand: I demand good TV!

I confess that I don’t understand much of film and television anymore.

This is strange to people who know me, because they’ve always assumed that I want to make movies and television.  I’m not so sure anymore, really.

I don’t think I need to tell anyone out there that much of it is horrible.  But my, do we watch it anyway.  These media companies aren’t huge for nothing.  The reason that they’re so big is that there are so many of us watching these terrible shows, and they are in turn able to sell those large numbers of us to their advertisers.

But let me just get to the point and make an open, curmudgeonly and obvious declaration:  the state of narrative storytelling on film and television is abominable.

I’m on a airplane, and I can see “The Terminator” television show playing on a monitor in the row in front of me.  It’s your typical action/adventure sequence; we see someone shot, fall to the ground in a heap, cut to the deceased friend/partner/lover screaming “No!” and rushing over to the body to weep and wail, “Why?  Why?” and so forth and so on.  Then the assailant arrives, levels his gun at the survivor (the “level the gun” shot always from a low angle – it signifies “evil”) and FIRES and…

Cut to a woman waking up:  “Oh, no, it was a dream…”  Well, that makes it better.

Who acts like this?  Why must we perceive constant violence and death through the eyes of stylized cinematography and choreography?  Why must we be subjected to hackneyed storytelling that presents only plagiarized themes and imagery?

The real question is, why do we subject ourselves to it?

Which brings up another point, speaking of who is subjected to it.  This show is available on a video-on-demand monitor, one of which is installed in every seat back on the aircraft.  Not only could a child access this program with no difficulty, but a child could easily see the images displayed on a neighboring monitor.  Even without sound, it’s hard to argue that the imagery is not of a sufficiently exciting and fast-cut nature that it would suck most viewers in.

Without getting into an argument about censorship or whether these shows should be available in these types of situations, I believe we all share a responsibility to monitor what types of imagery our children see.  If you’re a passenger, be aware of kids around you.  If you’re a flight attendant, at least make sure that kids viewing is supervised.  If you’re an airline, use some common sense when it comes to your programming.  “But we have to offer the customers what they want,” an airline executive might protest.  No, you don’t, when it comes to the TV.  We can all wait a few hours until we get to the Days Inn to see the latest episode of “24.”  And if you really want to give customers what they want?  That thing is, of course, more leg room.

And no fees for checked baggage.  And free drinks.  And real food.  And… uh, oh, now it’s an airline blog.