Drunken Pumpkin

I’ve been watching a lot of BBC shows on DVD lately. Actually, scratch that, I’ve watched a lot of BBC shows for a very long time. But I’ve noticed something about them; their half hour shows are usually pretty close to half an hour. Now, I know you’re thinking, “Of course they are. What else would they be?” But you would be wrong.

If you watch an American half hour program it usually clocks in at around twenty to twenty-five minutes. The rest of the half hour is made up of commercials, which isn’t really the case with BBC shows. The reason being is that the UK charges a TV license and most of the BBC’s capital comes from those licenses. Hence, no real need for lots of commercials. In the U.S. this isn’t the case and we get to watch a bunch of ads.

I don’t have a problem with that, per se. However, I recently got cable, and I’m still watching a lot of ads, even on programs made specifically for cable. I find that a little bit irritating. What it really comes down to is I paid for them to advertise something to me. I must admit, though, my favorite ads are those for my cable provider. I’m not sure why they feel the need to ask me to give them money, when I clearly already have.

I’m not sure what we could do about this cable menace, but it seems downright peculiar to pay for someone to tell us where to shop and what drugs to take. No wait, we do that all the time anyway. I guess it all makes sense now, cable helps us be less responsible for our own lives, and that makes it okay.

Tune in tomorrow, when my anger goes to satelite radio.