Saturday 26 November 2011

Dark side of TV

When my first husband died I found myself for almost the first time of my life in charge of the  television. This was a novelty because I was free to explore...to watch things I'd never seen before or even imagined existed,  and as I found myself wide wake most nights for the first year of widowhood my reach extended into some very unlikely territory.
Late night viewing included Jerry Springer, Oprah, Judge somebody or other....astonishing stuff for me..I  had no idea  that personal confrontation as entertainment existed!
I looked in on the shopping channels ..I even bought somethings late at night when no one else  was watching. ...I became very self indulgent and enjoyed the whole process.
Once I'd got  totally involved with the church then I slept like a log...there was no need to stay up half the night watching other peoples misery. I admit though that I occasionally trespassed into Big Brother and Jungle capers....all in the spirit of intellectual curiosity of course.
Once ordained I was just too busy and went to bed early most nights to have enough energy  to cope with the next day.
Marriage came next to the Church warden...and once again watching the TV became a  negotiating exercise.
It took quite a while before we sorted it all out amicably. Us old people are set in our ways!
He sleeps through anything of mine he doesn't understand....West Wing defeated him completely, there were too many characters and too many sub plots.  I still have the last two seasons untouched!
If he is watching sport or scientific programs I tweet....amongst other things but an amicable agreement has been reached....
Thank goodness we both like Emmerdale and Corrie! There is other common ground too but the darker, arcane side of the box is never visited these days....
Just as well I suppose.....when people are hurting as badly as they are right now I'd rather not be witness to misery  on the box.

2 comments:

Ray Barnes said...

Not an uncommon Phenomenon I think Jean. I too, after John's death found myself up at all hours of the night, and what a voyage of discovery that was!
I discovered a whole new world of misery, as though one's own were not enough.
One thing which never ceased to amaze me was the need/desire to share all their most personal problems and air them publicly by otherwise seemingly normal people.
I accidentally also discovered the world of sordid semi porn which did nothing to help my current misery.
The one good thing about it, I guess, is that most of this dross is broadcast too late in the evening for the vast bulk of the population.
I have to say though, that being in charge of the 'remote' is something I relish.

UKViewer said...

I find that a lot of the content on TV is just not worth watching, particularly the soaps and such.

Some of the Documentary, history and science stuff is OK, as is some of the entertainment, for example, we love Strictly Come Dancing (I'm a failed dancer and Jen is a former doyen of the Peggy Spencer Ballroom Set at Penge). So we have a shared, running commentary on it, sometimes I tweet it as well.

The thing that I dislike is the sort of show that has excessive and explicit violence and unnecessary bad language. I find there distasteful and just won't watch it. So called, modern comedy appears to be very much in the basement and seems to be trying to descend to even greater depths, as the public become even more un-shockable.

I put it down to plain bad manners and ignorance, until I hear similar things in the street, shops or on public transport. I can't understand what has happened to our language, which is beautiful, that we need to lower it to the level of a stream of obscenities to have a conversation?

Or, perhaps I'm just an old curmudgeon - I hope not, but If I am, so be it. I'm happy being me and don't intend to lower my personal standards in the interests of being 'cool'.