I have issues. Many are age-related as in there’s no way I can be as old as I am. I was telling someone yesterday about my best friend who is about a year-and-a-half older than me but easily a good 10 years more mature. I’m sure my ridiculous TV addiction is in some way attributable to my desire to move no further into my 30s. I mean, I’m soon going to be as old as Jesus was when he died, and do I have a whole group of followers ready to devote themselves to me? No. So obviously, I have not accomplished nearly enough.
I only bring this up because I’ve recently discovered that my adolescent television tastes seem to be waning. I emphasize “waning” as opposed to “waned,” but I still find it troubling. I’ve long been a fan of WB shows and most reality TV. I’ve usually received some sort of pleasure (at least a degree of schadenfreude) from even the worst shows — from both content and production standpoints — like Mr. Personality and Paradise Hotel. But recently, I discovered I just can’t take it anymore.
As reported yesterday in The Hollywood Reporter, Fox is switching around some of its programming. I’ve heard conflicting things, but this morning I read via Cynopsis (verified by the schedule grid on the Fox website) that the network has pulled Playing It Straight from the schedule (to air the series in its entirety probably this summer, like it did with either the second Joe Millionaire or Temptation Island … I forget) and moved Forever Eden into an even worse timeslot than its held previously, Fridays at 9 PM. In part, this was to open up a Thursday 9 PM (similarly death-knell) slot for Wonderfalls. Basically, Fox is looking to kill all there underperforming shows, but that’s never stopped me from watching before.
This time was different. I tried watching Forever Eden, and I really just could’t take it. This weekend, I tried watching Playing It Straight; I had all three episode DiVoed. But 20 minutes in to the first one, I was in agony. The show is such a ridiculously poor production, so poorly pieced together with yet another annoying announcer from hell guiding us, I just couldn’t take it. Aside from the fact that I don’t really need yet another TV series to follow, it was just so god-awful that the idea of actually “having better things to do” overcame my usual prediliction to giddily enjoying the humiliation of others. This didn’t happen with the original Paradise Hotel. I had no problem complaining about as I watched every minute of the Lewinsky-hosted Mr. Personality. I’m sure I’ve blocked out at least 3 other horrendous reality-series that I stuck with religiously from beginning to end. I relished both the first Surreal Life and High School Reunion; why have I not been able to watch/stomach the sequels?
So what’s going on? Has the “quality” of these series themselves really gone downhill? Have they simply become too repetitive? Or … please no, please no, please no … has TV started to release it’s dear sweet hold on me? Hell, I stuck with Dawson until the end, but I can’t take 5 minutes of its obvious replacement, slowly becoming an unfathomable hit in its own right.
Oh no … I’m scared.
Out of Focus 