Stupid Shit on TV
When my family goes out of town for the weekend, I always look forward to having a couple of days of quiet and relaxation. But I’m always bored to distraction by the end of it and totally anxious for them to get back.
This weekend I’ve watched about 6 episodes of House, a couple of episodes of Joan of Arcadia which, not being a 13 year old girl I am rather embarrassed about, a bit of the History Channel but they do get oh, so repetitive (How many shows can you watch on the Untold Story of Jesus? How many different ways can they find to say “we really don’t know doodly squat about this”?) and a couple of million cop shows.
I enjoy watching cop shows. They are exciting, dramatic and interesting. There is something viscerally satisfying about watching the evil, evil criminal getting slapped around or shot in the head.
However, I think cop shows are a symptom of a truly perverted society. Almost every single one, with perhaps a couple of exceptions like Barney Miller and Mayberry RFD, are advertisements for a police state. All drug users are evil pushers, selling heroin to children, whereas in reality the vast majority of drug users are pretty normal people who just like to smoke a little doober now and again. The heroes violate suspect’s rights as freely as the crew of the Star Ship Enterprise violates the non-interference rule. They break down doors. They lie. They break their word. They beat the crap out of people and force confessions.
There was one I was watching yesterday that I found particularly offensive. First, the detective who is the hero of the show is blind, which I find to be bizarrely unrealistic. Then, four cops in one room seriously debated deliberately losing a piece of evidence that would exonerate the suspect of murder, because they were pretty sure he was guilty of buggering little boys. They didn’t actually do that, but they let the blind cop beat the hell out of him in a locked room until he confessed.
Call me crazy, but I really don’t think cops should be allowed to beat up prisoners, and any confession obtained in that way should not be admissible. Beyond that, though, the whole blind thing just made it silly.
Anyway, once the family gets back I will have to watch cartoons or some horrible Czech soap opera. Still, if I have to complain about what’s on TV, it’s probably better that it’s not something I chose myself.
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