The "vast wasteland", revisited
May 5, 2014 11:57 AM   Subscribe

"It wasn’t the existence of new cult shows that left me befuddled, or even the tonnage of critical praise heaped on them. It was the hungry-hippo, remote-happy tone that continues to define this 'golden age of TV.' Kill Your Television has morphed into Love Your Television. I find this transformation deeply disorienting, but not in an old-person, out-of-touch kind of way. Because watching TV is an activity I associate with retirement homes, it feels more like the world around me has prematurely aged."

Stephen Colbert won’t save us, “Game of Thrones” is not that good: This “golden age” of TV is a big sham — Salon's Alexander Zaitchik brashly pisses on the third rail of popular media criticism
posted by Atom Eyes (20 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: People don't seem to like this much the second time either. -- cortex



 
For years I’ve dreaded writing this. There’s no way to do it without sounding like that stock villain of the postwar American dinner party, the tweedy bore and pretentious prick who makes a loud public show of not owning a TV. For the record, I’m not that guy

You say that and yet...
posted by Lutoslawski at 12:00 PM on May 5, 2014 [10 favorites]


Salon trolling us? Heavens to Betsy!
posted by jeff-o-matic at 12:02 PM on May 5, 2014 [8 favorites]


Is this something I'd have to own a Salon account to understand?

(I do have a bit of a problem with a lot of "golden age of TV" framing only because there has been very good TV for a very long time. The Sopranos or The Wire did not invent serialized TV.)
posted by kmz at 12:03 PM on May 5, 2014


Salon's [author] brashly pisses on the third rail of [literally anything], you say? Good heavens.
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:04 PM on May 5, 2014 [2 favorites]


I thought it was a good column. I have to admit that I'm not familiar with most of the source material that he references, but I appreciate his point that, for all the artfulness of current TV, its structural role in society hasn't really changed.

I'd be more interested if Zaitchik actually took us through the ways that Mad Men, The Wire, etc, still haven't escaped the criticisms of 20 years ago (or if any show could escape those), but I'm at least interested in learning more.
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 12:05 PM on May 5, 2014


Well that was incoherent. Global warming is because people like House of Cards. Or something.
posted by octothorpe at 12:07 PM on May 5, 2014 [3 favorites]


That was totally incoherent. We should stop glorifying the golden age of television because we should be focusing on climate change?

Also No, Carr, you’re not a bad person for missing “Top of the Lake,” whatever that is.

He just had to toss in a "I don't even know what this thing even is," didn't he? Like those people who are like "What's a Snooki?"
posted by sweetkid at 12:09 PM on May 5, 2014 [1 favorite]


If you read that entire article in Taran Killam's Jebidiah Atkinson voice, it's pretty fun.

Otherwise, not so much.
posted by MoxieProxy at 12:09 PM on May 5, 2014 [2 favorites]


ha, on lack of preview, looks like octothorpe and I are on the same page.
posted by sweetkid at 12:09 PM on May 5, 2014


Step 1: Some people like Thing.
Step 2: Writers begin to praise Thing. More and more articles are written about Thing. Thing develops fan sites and Tumblrs.
Step 3: Thing is acknowledged as pretty awesome.
Step 4: Self-appointed contrarian appears to tell us all why we are stupid for liking Thing. Instead we should be thinking about Other Thing.

Repeat every time new Thing appears.
posted by emjaybee at 12:11 PM on May 5, 2014 [9 favorites]


"What you are is an exceptionally shallow media critic..."

We have here a Home Shopping Network exclusive; this beautiful pot and kettle set, in black cast iron. A wondeful and classy addition to any kitchen or bloviating contrarian.
posted by griphus at 12:12 PM on May 5, 2014 [3 favorites]


We are in a golden age of Thing not-liking.
posted by bondcliff at 12:13 PM on May 5, 2014 [7 favorites]


Maybe I ascribe more generous intent than you guys (or maybe I'm just less familiar with Salon), but I didn't get a "you should feel bad for liking good TV" vibe. I just got: a culture based around TV Shows produced by Networks is still problematic, let's not pretend otherwise.
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 12:13 PM on May 5, 2014 [5 favorites]


I not only own a TV, I sometimes watch it! That said, I must confess that I've been experiencing Excellent Serial Fatigue of late. There are at least a dozen shows that people are recommending I watch and/or that I would probably enjoy, but they're all at least a few seasons into their run (or completely finished) and to commit yourself to one of them means committing yourself to dozens of hours spent on the couch. That is a lot of time, and every day I have less of it to spend.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:14 PM on May 5, 2014 [1 favorite]


We are in a golden age of Thing not-liking.

No we're not.
posted by Etrigan at 12:14 PM on May 5, 2014 [6 favorites]


The closest Colbert has ever come to real politics, as opposed to making satirical points, was his mushy cool-in on the Washington Mall. He had nothing to do with the biggest blip of real street politics since the televisionification of the U.S. left. That was Occupy, which was loud, aggressive, smelly and under no illusions about Comedy Central’s interest in televising the revolution.

This is where the author is the most wrong. For ten years now, Colbert has been stealthily educating college-age kids about very real issues that fly WAY under the conventional media radar. Just look at the episodes a few years ago when he set up his superPAC (which won him a Peabody, and rightfully so), and showed in withering detail just how awful Citizens United is. He's been doing things like that for ten years.

I say that in a very real and credible sense, Colbert gets some credit for Occupy having happened at all.

Also, the author is a killjoy who is trolling for pageviews, and his mother most likely dresses him funny.
posted by jbickers at 12:15 PM on May 5, 2014 [6 favorites]


his "i've dreaded writing this" is "i'm not saying this to hurt your feelings, but" or "i don't mean to come off like an asshole, but" and so on.

forever and always lies meant to absolve a jerk of jerky behavior.
posted by nadawi at 12:15 PM on May 5, 2014


God, Salon is so fucking bad these days. Barely readable.
posted by Ironmouth at 12:16 PM on May 5, 2014 [4 favorites]


Okay, all else aside: the average American watches five hours a day of TV? Really? Where do they find the time? Who are these people? Is it skewed really high by retired people? Even in my most miserable depressed period (student teaching!) when I'd come home, overeat, cry and watch TV until I could fall asleep, I never topped three hours per weeknight, and I thought I was watching a huge amount of TV.
posted by Frowner at 12:17 PM on May 5, 2014 [2 favorites]


Something happened in the past few years: all the sudden everyone is trying to convince me TV is legit now. Where I break with the author however is I see a conspiracy of media companies. TV is big business and there is a lot of movement in the space. Big companies like Comcast are merging and trying to stem subscription losses. New entrants like Netflix and Amazon are competing for their own subscription dollars. Now far off companies and divisions are entering: Xbox for some reason (to sell hardware and subscriptions). Yahoo for some reason (to sell... ads?). It's top down in other words.
posted by 2bucksplus at 12:17 PM on May 5, 2014 [1 favorite]


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