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HAVING CHOICES IS
NOT ALWAYS A PLUS |
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I know this space gets nauseatingly nostalgic
sometimes, so I apologize in advance for doing it again. I'll just come
right out and say it---I miss Flipper.
Anyone older than 60 knows what I'm talking about. "They
call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lighting, no one you see, is
smarter than he!"
That was the theme song to the 1964-1967 television show
"Flipper," about a dolphin who regularly saved a cute little
Florida family from weekly disasters. We need Flipper these days, but not
for the reasons you think.
While I'm sure he would make a fine President, the real
reason I miss Flipper is for the same reasons I miss The Man From
U.N.C.L.E, Lost in Space, Laugh-In, The Wonderful World of Disney, Bonanza
and a myriad of other programs that ran on television before cable took
over.
We had few choices. There was NBC, CBS and ABC, fighting for
our attention with all the best talent they could muster. We chose between
the three networks and were generally satisfied with our decisions. We
were starved for entertainment and Flipper did just fine.
Not anymore. We now have approximately 189 channels to choose
from, and there are almost 500 brand new scripted series produced every
year. And I pretty much dislike almost every one of them.
I think I'm suffering from television fatigue, or maybe
television anxiety. It's not that I watch a ton of television, because I
don't. But when I do watch, the choices are overwhelming. Netflix, Hulu,
Amazon Prime, HBO, Showtime---all of them have original series that are
begging for viewer attention. Netflix will spend $8 billion alone on their
original programming in 2018.
All of this production naturally has to drain the talent
pool. And I'm convinced it's showing. I've tried to get hooked on multiple
series, some recommended by friends, only to be bored to sleep, or
disgusted by the writing, or confused and/or irritated by the plot line.
This is not to say there aren't great series on television. I
loved "The Crown," especially after I realized you can use
closed captioning and actually understand what those British accents are
saying. And "Ozark," about to start its second season, kept me
awake.
There were other series I enjoyed in the beginning, only to
lose interest as they dragged on for season after season.
"Homeland" and "House of Cards" were at the top of
that list. The characters were interesting at first, irritating at last.
Obviously, everyone has their own preferences. People rave
about "Westworld" (hated it), can't get enough of the
Emmy-winning "The Handmaid's Tale (most depressing show I've ever
seen), and are mesmerized by "Billions" (fell asleep on both
tries to watch it).
Then there's the proven winners. I've never heard anything
except praise for "Breaking Bad" and "Game of
Thrones." I was a little late to the game, though, and I wanted to
start at the beginning. With 62 episodes for "Breaking Bad" and
67 episodes for "Game of Thrones" I figured I could get through
them all soon enough, assuming they'd show them in my future nursing home.
So I didn't bother to start.
There's just too much content, and I don't think that's
necessarily a good thing. Mediocrity has become the norm. We watched
"Roots" because there was nothing else, and loved it. We watched
"The Sopranos" because there was little else, and we loved it.
Now we have hundreds of choices, and 95% of them are unworthy of our time,
in my opinion.
I understand that it's a nice problem to have. The gems are
out there---they just have to be found. Sometimes, though, I long for the
days when we had almost no choices, and any entertainment was a blessing.
Now we watch one show and know there's another one out there that is
probably much better, if we could only find it. And it's on demand.
That's why I miss Flipper. And Mister Ed (a horse is a horse,
of course, of course), and The Rockford Files, and Gunsmoke, and even
Miami Vice. We watched those shows and appreciated them for at least
attempting to entertain us.
Now the appreciation is gone. Instead, we castigate the
programs for wasting our time, because we have so many more choices that
would most likely be an improvement. I'm not sure that's such a good
thing.
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