I’ll be honest. I am in no position to discuss television, the WGA strike, nor how I am personally impacted by what’s currently on TV. Afterall, even though I own a TV set, I’m too cheap to hook up cable, not to mention that the TV is safely packed away in a box in the living room. Hell, I’ll openly admit that I download certain TV shows from the intertubes, and I’m not ashamed of it. If the traditional media industry didn’t smarten up to new media or even the prospects of delivering programming in other ways, then I think they deserve to get burned, much like they are now.
That aside though, the WGA strike has definitely hurt more than it will relieve. For now, and for many months. The immediate impacts are real, and it speaks loads to the state of how we entertain ourselves in this brave new digital world that we’ve created. Reality TV and Game Shows rule the airwaves [or rather the fibre optics that line our streets], and while I may love to watch Howie Mandel as much as the next guy, the entertainment value provided by these shows is cheap and they sodden our already-mushy minds to more of this tripe.
Perhaps I am being a bit too harsh towards these quick-fix genres. Afterall, millions tune in each week to live vicariously through the lucky contestants in their quest for hundreds of thousands of dollars [post-tax]. Maybe that is the problem. Now, if you’ll bear with me for a moment, suppose I come home from a hard day’s work; what would you want to do? Have some food…pop open a beverage…hunker down and try to forget how hard my day has been so that I don’t have to remember that I’ll have to do it all over again the next day. Escapism in its finest hour. The problem isn’t so much that we crave Must See TV, it’s rather we need a way out, and TV is the cheapest and most mindless way to do so. Perhaps we need to re-examine the way we live and make adjustments so that we might need less of the mindless escapism, and more of the mindful escapism [reading, learning, thinking, to name a few]. However, I digress. Let’s hop back to the current state of things in TV-land.
The WGA strike is simply hurting everybody involved, including the general public. The studios are airing more crap than ever before, and with more viewers tuning out, the advertising money will inevitably go elsewhere. The actors are out of work [which I guess is a good thing for tabloid writers], and the directors are worrying themselves silly as their contract is up for negotiations. Let’s not even imagine the drought in the theaters when film production finally catches up. All of this adds up to one simple fact – viewers will get fed up and slowly migrate to other interests. [Remember when baseball went on strike over a decade ago? They've barely recovered since.] On the other hand, professional sports will probably see a dramatic rise in viewership in these months. Good news for the NHL and the NBA.
There are other winners as well, of course. DVD and CD sales/rentals are probably doing well, as the general public needs a find some way to kill time. College sports may get a bit of a boost [not that they need any as March Madness slowly crawls to our doorsteps]. The Video Game industry can leverage their fantastic holiday sales and keep riding their high, as long as they keep making decent games [signs, however, point to maybe; did you know that GameStop, the US video game retailer recently made it into the S&P 500?] Of course, you can also make this a winning situation for you by doing any of the following:
- Spend time with your family – Yes! They exist! They’re probably as bored as you are! Spend some quality time with them. Board games work, so do multiplayer video games.
- Grab a book – Any book will do! As long as they don’t have pictures in them.
- Go outside, get some exercise. The holiday season has come and gone, and how did your bathroom scale judge you? Naughty or Nice? I hear the skiing is nice out there.
- If you really need to get a dose of TV, try some Vintage TV shows, or maybe some Foreign Flicks. Watching old Sci-Fi shows like Babylon 5 is a good way to re-live your youth, and nothing says geekery like watching all of Star Trek in chronological order. The BBC [yup, the Brits strike again] isn’t on strike. Damn good TV from across the pond. Check out the following to kick start you: Hustle, Spooks, Dr. Who. In either case, the writing and story here will be better than anything that is currently on TV or any time in the near future.
It’s nice to see that the TV industry is getting a kick in their bloated pants. While we are suffering now, hopefully, TV will only improve after this setback for them. [My gut feeling, however, is telling me otherwise.] Perhaps, one day, TV will be able to inspire us once again. Until then…I’ll be happy to keep my TV in the box.
Along with the BBC, the CBC also isn’t on strike. Same with all the other Canadian-based shows. (Some of which aren’t too terribly awful – though if I see another ad for MVP, I may have to go throw up somewhere…). Really, any non-US-based show will still be performing fine. I hear there are some funky things coming out of Oz and NZ.
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