Reality, The Death of Good TV

I am a huge fan of reality and the fact that one must have a firm grip on it from time to time; however, I am not a fan of it on my TV.

For those of you who know me, you know that I love GOOD TV and movies. I capitalized the GOOD for a reason. For I believe that GOOD TV has been lost. Now I am not talking about the morality issue of TV that is so often discussed, no, I am talking about TV that inspires thought and imagination. I blame this on reality. The TV watching public seems to have been over taken by reality on their TV. At first I thought it was just a fad that would go away, but it is still hanging on with such dear life.

I love nothing more then sitting down to a good program that inspires thought or imagination, or better yet, both! Shows that make you think about the “what ifs” or the “how comes”. Shows that make you ask questions or show you some hidden thing in society. Shows that make you wish you were there or doing what they were doing, even though you can't. Shows that make you imagine a better place or a happier time. Shows that just show you the good that can and/or does happen.

Reality TV does not do anything like that for me. For the most part with exceptions of shows like "Extreme Home Makeover", reality TV shows the worst of human nature and makes me angry and frustrated with the world I live in. It shows me how petty and selfish we can be as humans. Yea, for most of the shows, something "good", and I use that word loosely, comes out of the show; but for the rest of the show it is nothing but humans fighting and showing their worst to one another and the world. Why do we watch it and what does it do to the world's psyche?

I have always said that TV shows us a lot about the people who watch it. You can tell a lot about a person by the shows they watch and enjoy. I guess that is what scares me the most about reality TV.

Personally, I am a fan of any show that provokes thought, imagination, and feels of pride to be a human being, even if it is in their own special story line or character development. Take a classic like "M*A*S*H" for example. "M*A*S*H" said and says so much through its story lines and character development. It shows the horrors of war during a time when people needed to see what war is really like. People needed to see that war is not simple and should not be entered in to lightly and when even the government wants to make a political statement. Or shows like "NCIS" which shows you the good people that are fighting against evil everyday. Plus, it makes you imagine what the world would be like with more "Special Agent Gibbs" around or what it would be like to be him. It inspires people to be like "Gibbs" and do the right things and fight the fight for justice in their own way. And while these shows speak these things, they also entertain us, its really the only way that their messages can be showed to some people.

To close, Parents, limit your kids TV watching. Force them to go outside (even if it’s by them self in the backyard while you watch them) and let them use their imagination. This world has had too much TV and has lost its ability to use its imagination. There is nothing wrong with pretending you are a cop chasing a bad guy or a captain of ship, reality hits eventually, enjoy the imaginative world when you can! Some times parents could stand to join the imaginative world.