Television: watching the aliens

Replying to someone who said that 99% of science fiction was crap, Theodore Sturgeon famously responded with “99% of anything was crap”. I don’t agree with the sweeping generalization but it certainly applies to television. When you watch a little TV, a few choice shows, you get the impression that things are pretty good but when you end up stuck in hotel rooms with nothing else to do but turn to the tube you realize what a wasteland it really is. The conference I just attended left me with spaces inbetween presentations and other diversions and I was once again confronted with flipping through channels featuring Kevin Trudeau’s moronic health advice, reruns of incredibly bad old TV that should never have seen the light of day in the first place, the emotionally overwrought meanderings of various reality shows (Extreme Makeover), the hopelessly talentless Idols, the endless infomercials, the simpering wimpers of sentimentality that underlie most sitcoms. Its probably why the good shows seem so good; the contrast with that 99% of utter shit. So much effort and so many resources devoted to filling space.

I had the same thing happen when I was in Kawai this summer. After days of snorkeling and wandering the beaches, I ended up in front of the tube again stupefied by this enormous waste and yet I found myself entranced by something called the Trinity Broadcasting Network. A Pentecostal mostly production, it threw a born again spin on every type of show out there; for example Christian extreme sports. One one show I watched a Jim Morrison type exhorted believers in a truly inspired free associative Kerouac rant that had me watching in awe. It was kind of like watching Martians but worrying just a little that they might one day be invading my country. And they are not quite the harmless minority you like to think they might be. My friend Todd was in Washington at about the same time and ended up intrigued by the same network. Watching the aliens.

My new computer has the capacity to record television shows so that I can watch them later whenever I want. And though I thought it was so cool when I got it, I am now at a loss as to what to record. As the Boss said “99 channels and nothing on”.