The Philosophy of Television

[MysterionMuffles]

 

Anyone else get to listen to this yet? I found it quite enjoyable and eye opening. It's been a while since I've listened to a solo cast, especially one that hit me with some revelations. I've been noticing in almost every super hero movie, an audience just HAS to be present for some part of the battle between hero vs villain. I always found it to be an insult to my senses to have to HAVE that audience there react to what's going on in the action. To that I just say "well thanks but I already know how to root for!" So it was cool for Stef to touch upon that aspect of TV where writer's can inject their views through attractive people and have ugly people contest their views.

 

I found that propaganda in the movie This is 40 where a middle aged, rich and attractive couple do all sorts of horrible things that they just get away with. They try to perform sexual acts with each other with the kids at home, and get all angry when the kids interrupt with their problems. They yell at their kids, relinquish their privelages, even one scene the mother yells and threatens another kid who was teasing her kid on Facebook. Even though her kid already warded him off on her own. And the mother of the boy who got yelled at, she was this overweight woman who had a talk with the girl's parents and the principal--and my GOD was it full of disservice to the average looking parent. That woman loses her temper because the star couple act all non-chalant about their behaviour and gas light her to make it look like she made up the whole story about her son being threatened. AH I can go on and on. I just really hated that movie for it's complete disregard of true family ethics and for children. I might do a full review on it one day if I so chose.

 

In relation to the podcast Stef also talked about Two and a Half Men. I cannot believe I never noticed it before. All I ever noticed was that the brothers were dysfunctional due to having a narcissistic mother, but the whole idea of Charlie being the good looking, innocent about his flaws kinda guy is propaganda against his brother Alan who tries do the right thing for women, but relenquishes too much of his power in doing so, thus ends up getting shat on by everyone. Quite the eye opener for me how 98% of the time, entertainment is a disservice to the average looker as well as the averagely intelligent people. Much like in the brief talk about The Big Bang Theory.

 

I would argue that the characters have grown over the years only in so far as their relationships with each of their respective girlfriends. Save for Raj who only just now is able to talk with women without being drunk. I guess Stef hasn't watched the show in a while to know that the cast has added Amy and Bernadette into the mix, so the sexual deviant Howard is married to Bernadette, has moved out of his mother's place, and isn't the creepy nerd he once was. Despite of all the changes, he's still Howard and it's cool to see the sexual deviancy taken away, yet there's still more to him than that.

 

Though whether or not those changes have been in the personal aspects of the lives of the nerds, I can totally agree with the idea how they are inmeshed by the state in terms of their jobs. There was one episode where they DID try to do something with the free market, in which the nerds helped Penny in making stylish hair clips, and Leonard created a website for the business. He didn't put a capacity on orders or a reasonable shipping timeframe so they ended up having to make 1000 of those hair clips in one day, and they basically ended up bombing it when another 1000 was ordered as soon as they finished the first batch.

 

I always found it odd that they strived for tenure positions at the universities they work at, and even more odd that I didn't notice how scorned Penny and all the other average of intelligence characters are for being in non-tenure jobs. Even Stuart, who is an entrepeneur. He's not one of the main nerds, but a nerd nonetheless who owns his own comic book store. He's portrayed as completely lonely and insecure, as well as very desparate. Does anybody watch this show and know what happened with his character? I could've sworn he was suave before in being able to score a date with Penny before Leonard ever could. Then all of a sudden, each time they show him, they've made him more and more pathetic over time.

 

Anyways that's my $20 thoughts on that podcast. I have more, but you can already tell it gave me plenty to think about. I would say 2 cents but once again the walls of text never cease to escape me.

[ThomasDoubts]

With regards to Two and a Half Men;  it's only "funny" because it works this way.  Subconsciously, the audience should know Alan is the preferable man.  No woman watching should want to marry Charlie.  It's like if I make black white, and white black, and toss in a couple jokes, it'll be funny.  For people who are already color inverted, it's just a confirmation of what they think is true.  These members of the audience stick around for the one-liners and validation.  Probably before the show was ever on air, I would have really identified with Charlie's charactor, particularly the womanizing part, but today I would identify much more with Alan, minus being such a goofy wuss, I hope. 

 

I have to say, the more these kinds of things become apparent, the more disenfranchised I've become with TV.  It just becomes so bland...   The only TV series I watch with any regularity is the The Walking Dead.  I couldn't come close to naming half of the most popular shows, if that's any indication of how much I watch.  I'm all about the internet, I can watch a video about anything I want, rather than choose between a couple dozen primetime shows.  Especially if I hook up the laptop to the TV--   That's where it's at

 

As far as the audience being necessary to tell you how to think about the conflict; that was something new to me.  Of course it's so obvious, but something I never really consciously picked up on.  At least I wouldn't have been able to articulate it.  I see this as a kind of general evidence of a good idea.  I happened to catch V for Vendetta on TV last week, no doubt November 5th.  This might provide some new food for thought...

[JoaoPMatos]

This video is friggin brilliant, im gonna show it arround.Just yesterday i was having an argument for private management vs public management of schools with a lefty, arguing the principle that schools dont have to be state managed. He countered with 'you cant put privates running schools' for all the common things: they are mafioso/profit driven/corrupt with government and that state schools already function well, i.e., by a 'if its fine dont touch it' argument, while i was staying firmly on principle alone.At some point i got a "you are the same as many other people who have left the country, you just want to see this burning in flames".I am reading Atlas Shrugged (which is another example of this pretty person = good ideas, ugly person = bad ideas), so i got it instantly and ended the discussion. But this video of Stef saying that it is an attempt to drive the self-attack into action is a great, great way of making it clear, or at least it was for me, because i used to fall for this tricks.

 

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The part of the nerdy show is sooooo true. The current culture makes so many people who get infected kind of useless on the private sector. All you see on facebook is supposedly adult people whinning and complaining and blaming everything on everyone else. Even people who are not like that get infected by this hedonist culture, where everyday should be saturday, people should do whatever they wish, and somebody else should pay for everything.Dr.House was another example that as soon as it came to tv, many people started to get this "oh, so i can be a jerk to somewhone who gets less at a school test than me, cool". Treat people like shit and you are the hero.---

I really, really loved this video, well done Stef.CheersJoao

[MysterionMuffles]

I think laugh tracks are horrible. I think I would enjoy most of my sitcoms the same or even better without them. There was a scene in the Big Bang Theory where Leonard opens up to Sheldon about how invalidated he felt because his mom shamed on him for having a science project too similar from his brother's. He was very upset and intense about it and I didn't find it funny, yet the laugh track (actual audience no less) was so amused.

 

Look at what happens when you add an unneccessary laugh track to one of the saddest scenes in Fresh Prince. I'll admit I laughed at it because of how misplaced it was, to actually put the laughter where the most hard hitting lines were delivered.

 

[LovePrevails]

After listening that I mostly wish Stef would get a job to write for The Big Bang theory it sounds like it would be a very entertaining show