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Talking TV… But Only for a Moment
Thoughts on T.V. show streaming, episode run-times, ad revenue infiltration and its impact on consumer culture.
If there’s one thing I’ve come to appreciate in the midst of this pandemic, it’s the value of the familiar, of the simple pleasures one can always rely on to keep sane when the world at large seems to be going out of its mind. As humans, we cling to the familiar as a hedge, or an ‘opiate’, against mental anguish when things get bad. For me, it’s better in this regard, in these days, to celebrate little things on a frequent basis than to honor huge things only a few times a year. As I’ve aged, however, I’ve found it true what others have said before (most notably John Cleese in the excellent Monty Python docu-series ‘Almost the Truth: The Lawyer’s Cut’) which is that as you get older, laughter becomes more rare because you’ve heard and seen it all before. And this has certainly been the case for me. I’ve watched so many hours of television over the years that I’ve ceased caring about the medium as a whole and only really pay attention when something novel comes along, which isn’t very often.
As I’ve come to appreciate the familiar, however, I’ve also had to contend with the fact that there is greater creative value in the novel, in the new, in experiencing things one has never…
