TV, the Predictable Art Form
I wonder if TV is so popular because you pretty much always know what’s going to happen next.
I recently started watching TV again after a nine year hiatus. At first I was pretty entertained by some of the new detective/science shows like the CSI and Law and Order franchises. But lately, with all the marathons of these shows I’m remembering why I didn’t really miss TV all that much.
If you watch the clock you can always tell when the investigators are following a good lead versus a bad one. I found the House was particularly bad about this. If it’s ten minutes to the hour I can tell you if the patient is going to live or die. The same holds true for Law and Order, but they slice it a little thinner and will have the resolution in the last two minutes or so.
I like trying to figure out who the guilty party is before they announce it, and I think that’s the general idea behind a lot of detective programming. However, the challenge is missing when I can sort out that some lead is bogus, not from logical thought or intuition, even, but by virtue of the time stamp. If I was in charge of these types of programs I’d have tons of multi episode storylines and cases that resolved themselves in half an hour, just to mess with people like me.
Maybe I’d enjoy the chase more if I turned the clock around while watching CSI next time, but I’m pretty sure the ex-wife is guilty, anyway.
The “Introductory Period” on our cable is running thin, and soon we may need to decide on whether or not to keep it. I’ve recently discovered On Demand, and that put the TV back in the running, but it was looking pretty grim there for a while. I’m still not convinced it’s a worthy expense, but only time will tell.
Tune in next time when I rant about the coming of Christmas, and why shopping online is probably the way to go.
