Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Yuck

What is the point of all the dead bodies on TV? I am not talking about the news, which tends NOT to show dead bodies (although if you happen to have TV in Spanish, you can see they don't hide as much). I am talking about Bones, CSI, Criminal MInds, Numb3rs, and all these shows that show people walking into rooms of dead people, pulling bodies out of drawers, having bodies in any kind of shape, burned, beaten, buried, crispy, muddy, bloody, etc. laid out on metal tables. We are all about slicing their bones, pulling out hairs, getting instant speed-zooms down their throats and into their bowels where the bullet sits, or the fork, or the poison, or what ever. It seems like they almost always have to combine these shows with cool music, women who dress up a lot and wear pumps and nylons to crime scenes, can switch over their degrees in forensic science with cop badges and never seem to emote unless their is a romantic interest in the story. The computers in these stories always work, always have some one manning them, always have the obscure information available immediately and usually end up solving the crimes. Can you imagine that every single energy plant and what the pressure levels are on each section of the plant are available in seconds on these magical computers? There is never the money to hire people to enter REGULAR information, let alone these umpteen details.

BUT I digress! My point is that there is too much skin all over the place. Dead skin! I don't have cable, so when I change the station I get: Murder on 3, News on 4, Murder investigation on 5, Murder in progress on 6, news on 8, creepy alien types on 43, public tv on 25, preaching on 55, and Spanish on 61. (If I DID have cable, all that would be different is that you add 12 infomercials, 6 shopping networks, 2 cooking shows, 12 political or news shows, 2 shows where people throw out things or put them in garage sales, 15 sports channels, sci-fi (more creepy aliens), history (more murder), travel (yay!), 3 guides to tell you what to watch, 2 religious stations, and a few very strange cartoons. So who needs it?) But since I only have a few stations, I channel surf in a small, tight circle. Tonight, I saw 2 dead bodies in chairs, 2 dead bodies in beds, stabbings, suicide, 2 women being kidnapped, 3 women drowned, one man shot, one beat up and thrown in a trunk, several dead bodies on tables and 2 women in expensive sexywear in bed (different scenes, not with each other). I saw one of those women stabbing a dead pig with various knives. I saw a "scientist" slicing out a square out of a dead man's back and microwaving it! A BIG square! EEEEWWWW!!! And NO, I did not watch these shows for long! I was constantly switching the channel, perhaps hoping something good would be on, and constantly sickened to see NOTHING was getting better.
Why is this entertainment to our country? Are we studying so hard to be desensitized? I just don't get it. It does not leave me with a good feeling, nor does it "make me think" or teach me anything to view these things. It just makes me sick.

1 comment:

Kimberly Cangelosi said...

Great post! Bill Hybels made an amusing understatement a couple weeks ago, "I'm not one of those anti-tv people, but rarely do I turn off the tv feeling spiritually replenished." He recommended spending an hour or two reading before bed instead of watching tv. Before I started painting reading was compulsive for me, now I often forget to do it for weeks at a time.