Is This The World We Created ?
I started watching “Orange Is The New Black” last night. Yep – that’s right – I just started with the hugely successful TV show that’s headed towards it’s sixth season – and here I am, starting with season 1. I’m SO good at keeping up with all the cool kids.
The first couple of minutes of the first episode made me think about something. Almost without exception, every US made TV show I have watched over the last few years has started with some scene or other filled with sex or nudity. I began wondering if I’m subliminally seeking these shows out, or if it really is just every damn show.
I have a theory.
I think the fat-cat commercial guys that sign off on the production of TV shows are pretty similar to Donald Trump. To get them interested in a show, it has to show boobs, bums, or bits within the first few minutes – otherwise they lose interest. They probably lose concentration after a few minutes anyway – so the director knows he or she has to hit it straight away with some sort of frantic scene – just enough to get the signature for the first season.
Maybe I’m wrong. I hope I’m wrong.
Whatever happened to good stories though ? Who remembers “You’ve Got Mail”, where the two central characters dance around each other for the entire movie ? What about “The Office”, where the relationships between the characters slowly built throughout the entire first season – leaving everybody crossing their fingers and toes ? Remember those scenes in “The Truman Show”, where the audience are rooting for Truman to escape the colossal TV studio he has been imprisoned in for his entire life…
I don’t know. Maybe it takes all sorts of people to make the world work. Maybe some of us tend towards blunt, graphic, shallow stories, whereas others tend towards gentle, thoughtful, complex stories. I really don’t know.
Anyway. I’m two episodes in with “Orange Is The New Black”, and liking it a lot so far. Maybe I should stop over-thinking TV shows, and just enjoy them for what they are.