Arts and Entertainment.
Discovery.
History Channel.
The Learning Channel.
Animal Planet.
Previously educational channels all.
Now, realities shows. Not the old realities shows about fake competitions and bitchy rich people. Now its about rednecks with shitty jobs and fabricated drama.
Picking trash. Digging gold. Pawning ****. Catching pigs and gators. Bikers and gunsmiths and ****ing duck call makers.
My husband thought the Duck Call one was kinda funny
The inner Machinations of my mind are an Enigma - Patrick Star
A steel fist in a Velvet glove, the force is there but it's concealed just below the surface.
I don't mind the emphasis on blue collar stuff. They're as interesting as any *******, self-obsessed reality show star. At least they're actual people.
My gripe is with how DeBeers turns everything into ****ing drama. He'll frame anything that happens in terms of life or death. Throw in some dramatic music, edit the **** out of the shaky cam so you have dramatic cuts....that gets old after a while. All those shows also have a problem with restating the same dilemma from every week. Particularly during Gold Rush. ("If they don't get at least x gold in the weeks remaining...the mine will shut down FOREVER.") Yeah, no ****, that's what's been said for the last 20 episodes.
I was just glancing at some new show, Mountain Men, about people who choose to live in BFE through the worst parts of the winter. 2 guys and a dog go hunting and of course, the dog wanders off. Cue dramatic music. What really got me was when the announcer said "Guy 1 and 2 mount a search party....." and it's just the two guys looking for the dog. THAT'S NOT MOUNTING A ****ING SEARCH PARTY YOU GODDAMN HACKS, THAT'S TWO HILLBILLIES CALLING FOR THEIR ****ING DOG.
I do miss old school TLC. Great Castles of Europe, Connections with Burke, and all that really high-brow history. When I want to learn something these days, I watch Nat Geo. (Or History before 5pm.) When I want to watch people in their day to day life, I'll watch History/Discovery. But even Nat Geo is starting to succumb to super schlocky reality TV. Doomsday Preppers. Guh.
I just wish the reality TV industry didn't glom on to a successful format like flies to ****. Once Sons of Guns took off, it took their competitors only a few months before they'd produced another family of gunsmiths in Colorado, complete with two ditzy blond bombshells and a trophy wife. Seeing the people from Gunsmoke on TV makes me want to fire a ****ing cruise missile into their shop. And now there's another gold mining show (with an awful freaking name) with another guy who has three made-for-tv hot daughters shoveling dirt, when it's clear they didn't give a **** about their dad's prospecting until there was a chance they could be on TV.
chmod said:
I don't want to live in a world where there are no consequences for being stupid. A few thousand years ago these users would have been eaten by lions.
Ah yes, the overblown drama of people who have "THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS JOB!!!"... bleh. I barely watch TV anymore but watching my mom flip through channels some of this crap is amazing. Do people honestly watch this crap? It's just all so... boring. And more fake than most soap operas, and with worse acting. The worst part is that the remaining non-reality TV shows are getting the same hyper drama crap. People trying to make animals, history, space, heck anything that genuinely is interesting but generally has no bitchy blondes or xtreme intense danger action to capture ADD moron attention - more interesting by yelling it how TOTALLY DANGEROUS AND WICKED INTENSE this AWESOME SPECTACLE is.
I really wish we still had the BBC channels in our package, I remember a night when it was all DANGEROUS trucking, DANGEROUS fishing, DANGEROUS veterinarian work, DANGEROUS diving, DANGEROUS dog grooming - ok, that last one was maybe less than deadly... and so on, BBC History ended up coming to the rescue with one of their wonderfully restrained documentaries on slave rebellions and war in ancient Rome. It was so refreshing, finally a show where the announcer didn't practically scream in your ear "AS TIME GROWS SHORT FOR THE RESCUERS THE POODLE IS IN DEADLY DANGER FROM THE VICIOUS FELINE ATTACK" 6 ****ing times, with commercial breaks, until we find out during this 5 min video someone ran at the cat screaming 'shoo' and averted the STUNNINGLY GRAPHIC ANIMAL ATTACK. Seriously, even when you do hit on a rare show where the content is quite watchable the narrator hyperbole ends up ruining it.
I do like Swamp People. Not so much for the DANGEROUS GATOR HUNTIN', but more because I've kinda become attached to the people as characters. Lots of reality shows are rehearsed and read straight from cue cards, but these guys are so back country that they don't really do that. Sure they may read something that's obviously framed by the producer once in a while, but in general they're just honest folks who do a job that is feast or famine. And it's interesting to watch their ups and downs.
Although now that they're bringing in new blood to the show, it seems kind of clear to me that they're coaching them more to make them more like other reality show characters.
The only downside to the show is that it's like History Channel's wet dream for DRAMATIC MUSIC, VIOLIN STRING TENSING, UNDERWATER GATOR CAM!
I have to admit, I do enjoy watching Deadliest Catch, My Cat From Hell, Restaurant Impossible, and Tanked. I avoid most other "reality shows", and don't watch any talent competitions except for Iron Chef and Chopped - and that's just because I'm intrigued to see what sorts of flavor combinations and weird ingredients people come up with.
World of Warcraft: Delissandra - Blood Elf Rogue (retired) - Feathermoon
EverQuest: Delissandra Splitshadow - 75 Rogue (retired) - The Rathe
City of Heroes: Splitshadow - Scrapper (retired) - Victory
The few times I've caught that, I kept screaming at the TV "of course your cat is doing that, don't you see how it's telling you it's pissed at you for (grabbing tail, chasing it, whatever stupid human trick you are doing)!"
The dude is cool, but the cat owners are all idiots.
...don't watch any talent competitions except for Iron Chef and Chopped - and that's just because I'm intrigued to see what sorts of flavor combinations and weird ingredients people come up with.
I haven't watched it in years but I'm fine with Survivor and the fact that it's still going. It's a game. It's not real life. It doesn't try to be anything other than what it is.
If you watch ANY of these shows, you are part of the ****ing problem.
It's not entertainment, it's pablum. It's waste of bandwidth. The fact it is so cheap to produce compared to something that might, possibly, have entertainment value and people watch it about as much, means that more and more "quality" (term used loosely) shows are being replaced by "Reality" TV. This has been happening for over a decade, of course, and there's no sign it's going to slow down. In fact, with the networks being in such dire straights these days, it may get worse -- except, there's a pretty strong believe that they are near the tipping point already.
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day.
"Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it."
It's not entertainment, it's pablum. It's waste of bandwidth.
Funny, though, `cause it entertains me.
Pickers and American Restoration kept me sane last week in the hospital (not enough wifi or cell reception to watch netflix, crap on TCM/AMC). It is easy enough on the brain that I didn't have to work at watching it, like art movies and good sci-fi, and it's calm enough that my fevered, septic brain could just absorb morphine and stare. Maybe that's not the best endorsement for a tv show, but damn it, I enjoyed watching that Rick guy restore that rocket slide. Used to be one of those down on the river at the state park.
Could not agree more. Many once-respectable channels have given up on their niche and succumbed to producing mostly stupid and cheap "reality" shows that all follow the same generic formula: 1) Find slightly eccentric person, 2) Follow them around with cameras as they do their job, 3) Air the results endlessly. The sad part is this actually works.
Anyone remember when A&E used to be a channel for highbrow movies and biographies? The worst has got to be Bravo. Every single time (no exaggeration, EVERY time) I pass by that channel on the dial, all I see is some botoxed housewife yelling about something. I don't even think they produce any other show, at all.
...
And yes, I do like Dog the Bounty Hunter, Storage Wars, and Tanked.
Theoretically, it's just supposed to be a show about the daily lives of a company of Rednecks that happened to make a hugely successful company and have a lot of money now.
But every episode, they fabricate some new "activity" that these misfits have to try and overcome.
Ponzi said:
I wouldn't mind the stupid shows if they weren't replacing everything that was smart or interesting.
Yeah, it would be tolerable if they made a new channel or two for these shows instead of ruining what used to be the educational channels.
I remember going out in the late 90s to a few storage unit places where the owners were auctioning off the contents. I remember there were crowds of people (the activity was listed in the classified ads in the local paper). mostly of the screw their sister, homeschool their 8 yr old variety. (as opposed to the holiday in hawaii, homeschool their 8 yr old variety)
My friend who was describing the show was in a sort of awe that I had done that sort of thing.
Is that really what it is? people buying unknown **** in storage units for resale/use?
I remember going out in the late 90s to a few storage unit places where the owners were auctioning off the contents. I remember there were crowds of people (the activity was listed in the classified ads in the local paper). mostly of the screw their sister, homeschool their 8 yr old variety. (as opposed to the holiday in hawaii, homeschool their 8 yr old variety)
My friend who was describing the show was in a sort of awe that I had done that sort of thing.
Is that really what it is? people buying unknown **** in storage units for resale/use?
I think on the show (although I've never watched it - just what i've gathered from the commercials) they auction the entire unit but the bidders don't get to see what's in it.
They get 5 minutes to look inside but can't touch anything.
Every single person on there has a second-hand goods business they run, and they go to the storage auctions so they can buy up inventory for their store.
They get 5 minutes to look inside but can't touch anything.
Every single person on there has a second-hand goods business they run, and they go to the storage auctions so they can buy up inventory for their store.
Jerrod and Dave have stores. I don't think Darrell does but I think I remember him saying he sells stuff at swap meets. I have no idea how Barry sells his stuff. (Barry FTW BTW )
ok then, yeah that's how it was back when I went and did it. Bizarre premise for a show though. It must be character driven reality. Vanity ego boost tv shows are all the rage.
ok then, yeah that's how it was back when I went and did it. Bizarre premise for a show though. It must be character driven reality. Vanity ego boost tv shows are all the rage.
They picked 4 groups who are real 'characters'. The insane old man with too much money, the second-hand-store mogul, the married couple trying to make money with a second-hand store, and the father/son team who know all the local collectors.
There is also the voyeuristic aspect of the show. Through the people buying, you get a look into some unknown person's life via what they abandoned in a storage locker. Plus, you sometimes see stuff in those lockers that you go, "Holy crap, my parents have one of those in the garage. We need to sell that now!"
I think on the show (although I've never watched it - just what i've gathered from the commercials) they auction the entire unit but the bidders don't get to see what's in it.
Having worked at a storage facility during an auction, all the people (and anyone else including the property managers) sees before it's sold is what is there while standing in front of it. No touching or going inside till you win.
Last edited by DoonBackfighter; 06-16-12 at 02:13 PM.
Im pretty sure Darrell has a store as well. Barry is retired from... I think it was the entertainment industry? Thats where he met all the people he knows and got the money for his crazy cars. You know who needs a show of her own... Brandy... Mmmmm
But back on topic-ish. Id like to see a show where the people have to live as close to a set era as possible. I remember one channel did something like it back when Survivor was big, I wanna say it was called Colonial House, or something like that. Its a bit reality TV and a bit history, right?
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