I’m not going to affect the opinion that television is universally wonderful and we should all watch as much as possible. Clearly nights are wasted in front of the set, the schedules are full of rubbish and it wouldn’t do any of us any harm to skip much of what we normally watch when we can’t be bothered thinking of anything better to do. However, I just can’t get that worked up with the “television is bad in and of itself” argument.
What exactly is wrong with the way we experience television? That it is in one’s own home? You can listen to the radio in your bedroom, and no one seems to have a problem with that. Is it because it is a visual medium, allowing less room for the brain to conjure up its own images? It seems to me that argument could be just as easily used against the cinema, plays and even art galleries. In this case, maybe paintings are the worst of all, not even having words to play with in one’s head.
Is television mindless? Well, yes, a lot of it is. Lifestyle shows are probably the worst offenders. This is moving wall paper, and similar knowledge could probably be gained through magasines. I’m no fan of game shows and light entertainment, but I would never look down on people for watching them. Why should everyone’s leisure time be spent in a way I consider “profitable”. If you’ve had a shitty day at work, the five hundredth one in a row, I’m not going to say you should spend your precious evenings at organ recitals. You sit back and let yourself relax, you deserve it. Watch a soap opera, enjoy that football game, not as good as going to the ground perhaps, but at least you get replays. (That people shouldn’t be so exhausted all the time is a completely different issue, and one which I won’t be dealing with here.)
There is thought provoking programming out there though, and more to the point, there are works which suit the medium more than any other. The World at War is remarkable, and although the field of Second World War history books is hardly barren, and a lot of the information could be gained from reading, the combination of historical analysis, Laurence Olivier’s sonorous narration and archive footage makes for an immediate and powerful experience. All the imagining in the world would not shake me as much as the first time I saw bulldozers piling bodies into mass graves. It is this immediacy which is TV’s great strength. Idling in one’s house, images can prove more shocking, invading as they do one’s living space. Current affairs programming provides shared information with everyone at once. Without television, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Tiannamen Square massacre would have left a much smaller dent on the collective consciousness. Had it not been for Michael Buerk’s Ethiopian reports there would have been no Live Aid.
The drama serial is also a valid art form. Dismissing Dennis Potter, Alan Clark or the Sopranos seems snobbery of the highest order. A writer may choose to work in television because of the opportunities the medium offers, not due to the lack of chances elsewhere. A story can be told over nine hours, allowing a depth that the theatre cannot afford, as well as reaching an enormous audience. Personally, I dislike costume dramas. I find that the words of an Austin or Dickens summons up the atmosphere of a time better than does the BBC costume department. However, if they lead people into reading the originals then I fail to see a problem. There need not be an either/or choice here.
I was going to reference one of Julie Burchill’s recent articles, but I don’t think it’s necessary. She claimed that “he who hates reality TV hates the human race, hates freedom, hates life.” I think there might be something in that, but it’s for another post, if at all. Reality TV is pure television, and can’t work in any other format. But once again, that’s for another time.
Television does some things very well, but fails utterly at others. To some extent this is due to the restrictions of the medium, but there is also no doubt that broadcasting executives are amongst the laziest and most unimaginative human beings in existence. If you want to make a difference to your life, just turn off the pap they’re spoon-feeding you. We’re talking here about a way of expressing ideas: don’t shoot the messenger, shoot the feckless Oxbridge arsehole who holds us in such contempt.
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