March 2003

TV, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

OK, this is going to be short. Because there's not much to say. Basically, March sucks in terms of media. Every media. All of them. They are all a waste of my time. And I don't really have much to do, either.

It all starts with TV. Truer words have never been written. And in this case, it's especially true. The day that February sweeps ended, TV went straight to hell. All shows were reruns, I think. Now, there is a large percentage of TV that is unwatchable, like all those reality shows, so I can't be sure. I'm not watching Fear Factor enough times to determine if they are reruns or not. All I can say is that when TV becomes all reality shows, I might as well become a monk. I can't watch that shit.

So I found myself sitting in front of the TV flipping the channels at light speed for hours on end. This really isn't as fun as it sounds. And it's not really the high impact aerobic workout that it should be. Even cable is all reruns. How many times can I watch an episode of Trading Spaces or The Naked Chef? Answer: maybe twice.

MTV, it must be noted, has taken a very innovative approach to reruns. They show reruns all day. This month it's been all reality all the time. Worst of all, their new Fraternity and Sorority shows. Their programming strategy is to show the entire series every week until the next episode is on. Then the following week, they do it again. It's the fucking worst. So they only need to have one show on a night. They just fill the entire evening showing the previous episodes. It's fucking terrible!

But my first move in heavy rerun season is to hit PBS. So I flip over to PBS. PBS is in pledge drive mode. Now, some fucker at PBS needs to explain their logic on how they run this shit. I love PBS. I watch PBS all the time. So, if I had any money, I'd love to fork it over to them so I can get my Frontline fix. So one would think that PBS would show half an episode of Frontline, then interrupt and say "give us money or else". But they don't. They fill pledge drive time with crap like Yanni concerts, motivational seminars, and shit you couldn't pay me to watch. Net result: I don't watch PBS during their pledge drive and have no incentive to give them money. I'm not paying to see Yanni. I hope that their strategy is that they expect me to pay to NOT see Yanni.

NPR at the very least interrupts their usual high quality shows. I hate that, but at least I get to hear some "Morning Edition". I remember what it is that I am willing to pay to hear.

So, basically, everything this month has been rerun. I'm surprised that the newspapers haven't been reruns. Oh wait, isn't a president named Bush about to take us to war with Iraq again?