Ok, I like tacky/crappy/cheesy movies so I Tivo'd "Tornado!" off of USA (Bruce Campbell is a fine actor dammit). So I'm sitting here watching it, and all of a sudden, they shrink the screen vertically to two-thirds its original size, throw up an "Applebee's" logo and start spouting "great ideas for hanging out in the heartland of Kansas City" right beside it. A couple of days ago, I tried watching "Master Blasters" (hey, trying to make a field goal with cars looks fun). I am not exaggerating when I say that they restated the challenge (launching the car) more than a dozen times; once after every commercial break (an hour long show), and several times throughout. Do they really think that the viewers are so retarded that we cannot remember the main objective of the show for more than five minutes at a time? What the hell is wrong with these people?
The same thing i'd like to say to the creators of the Naruto anime (when episodes start having the same 'flashback' upwords of 5 times in a row, you know somethings wrong).
I agree....wait...what is this topic about again? Whew, I needed that refresher. TV really rots your brain. I blame it for my crappy short term memory.
I majored in Media Analysis (Communication Science) so I sort of know the theoretical reason behind this. And yes, it's cynical and twisted. I'm just gonna mix and match, so if you find any serious theoretical contradiction, let me know. Television panders to the lowest common denominator, the "unidimensional man" - because massive entertainment is a way of control, and a way to disseminate patterns of consumption and behaviour that suit the population so that the elite (Marx would call them the "Bourgueouisie", or "those in control of the means of production") can preserve the current social order. See, society, in our current globalised 2nd stage Capitalism, is still controlled through opression and exploitation. As we all know, Marx states that once the workers (that would be anyone without actual control of the means of production) get conscience of the class structure, the revolution won't be far away. Television, and other mass media, are the distractors and disseminators that 1) spread pro-elite messages, 2) distract the masses from class conscience, 3) dictate patterns of behaviour and consumption approved by the institutions, and 4) detract from intellectual activities that would quicken class conscience. By enforcing compartimentalization of time, routine, repetition, superficial and consumerist contents, slanted "news" and infotainment, and value structure controls, the TV becomes one of the chains the population has to the current social structure -as it distracts and makes their thought lazy, but also, makes them take several "official" truths as absolute common sense. The lack of quality programming, and the stupidization of contents, thus, aim to reduce intelligence, distract more, and accustom audiences to patterns that serve the elite's objectives. Also, in a completely unrelated note, pandering to the lowest common denominator ensures "good" business, by maximizing Return over Investment - if we take Time and Labour, as well as money, as said investment, and Ratings/ publicity, as said return. It takes less time, money, and effort, to make crap TV that underestimates the audiences - but they're still going to watch it and follow its orders - so innovation and improvement are not business-friendly in the "entertainment" (Latin American scholars also call it "American") Television model.
