Television: ABC Likes You Better When You’re Stupid
Great TV on ABC? Yeah right! This summer it’s more like Dumb TV on DumbBC!
Doing their part for Big Brother (the shadowy figure, not the reality show), ABC is keeping the workingman stupid and sated with a Tuesday lineup of Wipeout and Downfall.
Wipeout is America’s un-hilarious version of Japan’s hilarious Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, mixed with Japan’s Ninja Warrior. It’s not awful because someone always gets hit in the face with something, but other than pratfalls the show’s not really good for anything and the hosts remind me of Ryan Stile’s two irritating slacker brothers. The real schlock, however, shows up next in the rotation in the form of Downfall.
In a callous display of wasteful decadence unseen in a failing empire since Caligula’s Rome, Downfall is the American game show equivalent of a vomitorium. Contestants perch on the top of a tall building and respond to clues about a specific topic, while in front of them on a conveyor belt are the prizes they seek to win. As the clock winds down, the prizes creep toward the edge of the building, and are one by one jettisoned to their ruin until the contestant answers enough questions right. Perfectly good electronics and automobiles, all smashed to pieces to the delighted squeals of audiences of post-Roman plebeians.
The host is a pretty good pick, in ex-WWE wrestler Chris Jericho. At least he doesn’t come off too smart for the show; in the premier episode, he mispronounces the name of one of President Obama’s daughters.
Now, I’m not one to whom hatred of ABC comes as a knee jerk. There was a time when I’d happily opt for a Friday in, catching Shark Tank (the BEST!), watching wives get swapped, and cheering for nannies to save the day. Not that these programs are the brain-food of Nobel laureates, but come on people! Throwing prospective prizes off a roof? Jeez!
Ultimately, it’s always up to you, and though there’s nothing morally wrong with tuning in to ABC on Tuesdays this summer, to those who do I ask this:
1) Aren’t we, as a culture, just BEGGING for it?
2) Why don’t you turn the television off, and download a nice podcast? Radiolab and This American Life aren’t inappropriately taxing on the ol’ noggin’, and I think you’ll find you feel better after being spoken to like a being capable of thought.
First time here? See what we're all about... Get involved... Send us a tip!...
The other day I was at a very popular Ethiopian restaurant in DC, waiting for my friend to show up for dinner. I took a seat at the bar to drink a beer. On the bar TV was another brainless game show, “Minute to Win It” – if you’re unfamiliar with the concept, contestants have 60 seconds to perform a trivial task (keep 3 balloons in the air, blow 3 ping pong balls from one water-filled cup to another, etc.), and they advance in presumed difficulty up to a million dollar challenge.
Of course, the absurdity of the tableau was not lost on me: here I was in an ethnic restaurant modeled after a country most known for its famine and poverty, where 3 out of every 4 patrons was a middle-class, gentrified Caucasian, while people at the bar sat around and watched a TV show which gave away thousands of dollars in cash for the most mindless and insignificant tasks imaginable. If only real Ethiopians had it so nice!
So, needless to say, I completely agree on your opinions on “Downfall”. An aptly-named reflection on our culture.
I have to disagree with you about Wipe Out. Yes, it is stupid, silly fun with snarky commentary. But after busting your hump with work and many other activities, it is nice to relax to a silly show that is geared to make you laugh. People are allowed to have some RnR.
If you are looking to TV for fulfillment in your life, you have bigger problems in your life. Yes, we do have to a lot of problems in our society that we do have to tackle. However, eliminating one hourlong show is not the answer. No one is hating on your forms of RnR.
Keep it in perspective.
[...] August 9th, my Monday evenings are spoken for. ABC must have heard how incensed I am over what they did to Tuesdays, and decided to atone – the Alphabet Net is bringing back Dating In The Dark for an encore [...]
Leave your response!
Recent Coments
Most Commented
Most Viewed - 30 Days