Hey! Let's Make A Show Out Of That!

Ah Summertime! That time of year when young love and summer love crop up in songs of every genre, floating like downy feathers across radio waves. A time of year when we discover that our Capri's and tanks from last summer are slightly snugger than last year! :) And it's a time...when horrid, poorly-rated and laughable television shows clog vacant space on every TV network like rotten installation failing to stop the chilling wind from permeating a house's walls.

I recently talked about these summer reality, game and contestant shows to several like minded individuals on Pandora Radio. All of them agreed on me that in the last year or so many new television shows - series and non-series - have cropped up on almost every TV network, only to collapse and fail within that same year like a crushed pop-up book. Why? I'll admit, whenever a new show comes on I'm instantly negative about it, frustrated that people keep trying to create these shows that obviously won't work out. For instance My Own Worst Enemy and Life On Mars. Granted I only watch shows on The CW with the exception of ABC's show Lost, I somehow had a gut feeling these shows wouldn't last. Perhaps it's because their entering a realm of seasoned shows that have established a plush cushion of fans and undeniable support and therefore inadvertently subject themselves to criticism and have to perform twice as good as the shows before them in order to earn their spot. Wow, I think I am delving too deep into it! :) But hopefully I have conveyed some sort of message by saying that. The writer is coming out in me. Like you can't tell already right? :)

But back to the trivial, pointless summer shows. Just a few hours ago while perusing the very much loved magazine This Old House I decided to watch America's Got Talent. As many of you probably already know the shows name should more realistically be America's Got Considerably Horrid Talent But Perhaps Some After all Talent. That's my cynical side coming out, but I think I can safely say that show rests somewhere on the rungs of the latter a few steps below American Idol. During the show I saw everything from energetic child dancers, people of varying ages playing musical instruments, magic acts and some very questionable and honestly repulsive acts as well. But I truly believe the two latter things I mentioned are thrown into the mix just to peak people's interest. Because, frankly, American Idol does the same thing in order to keep it interesting.

If that show isn't proof enough that I should write this blog post, while I was watching AGT an advertisement for yet another reality show came on. This time it was called The Great American Road Trip and it consists of families piling into ugly, outdated RV's and trucking it across America to supposedly make it to some designated destination while bonding as a family. I'm sorry but...during the five hours between Sheboygan my relatives in the U.P I am inevitably ready to spend at least an hour away from my family. You simply can't survive that long in the same vehicle. Unless of course your family happens to be the Brady Bunch. But seriously, was that show anywhere close to a stone's throw from reality? I don't think so! :).

So why would NBC make a show like this? Haven't they learned anything from the perilous and quite frankly embarrassing scandals and sagas of Jon & Kate Plus 8 to know that placing families on a reality TV series in close proximity to one another for hours on end while shooting it all live...is probably the worst idea since shows like that started coming out. If there's someone out there who's not as invariably judgmental and cynical towards shows like this I would love your feedback. I just cannot see them succeeding in any way. In my humble opinion they are simply fillers and flimsy toys for TV networks to play around with until the real shows come back on, and therefore automatically trivial in my book.

Perhaps my point of view on such shows is also biased because I'm not a fan of contestant or reality shows. My favorite shows happen to be: Supernatural, Smallville and Lost. Perhaps now my bias is more understood. But even if it isn't, I don't think I'll ever come around to believing that today's shows being created by everyone in their brother it seems like...will ever go anywhere. I think of each show as a shiny, new car atop a narrow, straight road. At first it's confident, cruising along at great speed. Then it hits the first speed up, perhaps a drop in ratings, then it hits another one, perhaps poor reviews from critics, then finally the car breaks down and the show comes to an end. And my favorite TV network - The CW - is just as guilty of churning out the new shows as any other. Melrose Place, The Beautiful Life and the one I have been dreading since writing my blog post "Something You Can Really Sink Your Teeth Into"...The Vampire Diaries. I'll admit, Supernatural has invariably become my favorite show because I have a strong interest in the paranormal and haunted houses but...I have my doubts about The Vampire Diaries. Hell, just go back to my afore mentioned blog post and you'll understand my bias against all things vampire.

But before I get of track, as I have an inadvertent way of causing all by myself :), let me close off this blog post by saying: I don't understand all of the new shows that are coming on TV these days. Whether that show be contestant, reality, drama, comedy, sitcom or anything in between...it seems that they don't make 'em like they used to. The shows I watch are deeply embedded in completely different worlds and so intricately entangled with smaller subplots, persona lites and inimitable, complex characters I feel like each time I watch I'm immersed in that world, their world. That is what I love about a show! :) When it's characters feel like family, like they're an old, familiar friend you see each week, eager to see their life unfold into something different, living each experience alongside them. Granted that a lot of TV shows that have sprung up and wilted away did have some of those qualities, something went awry along the way. Perhaps it's a lack of creativity, or the fact that so many people - like me - are attached to their favorite shows and don't want to make room for another.

Whatever may be the reason, I will try to give these new shows a try. Albeit I am quite perplexed and frustrated with The CW's inexplicable fixation with creating shows that revolve around the filthy rich. Now their shifting to vampires. It begs the question of...what's next?
With television, that question can't easily and readily be answered. All a person can do is sit and wait. But don't just sit on the couch and watch the tube people! :) Enjoy the summer weather! And tune into those summer songs on your radio. I've heard of 'em are pretty good!