For my group of friends back in 9th grade, we all stayed home the night NIRVANA played Saturday Night Live. I had to go look it up, but it was January 11th, 1992 – I was fifteen with a bad haircut. I remember thinking that I needed to see this because it was what all of my friends would be talking about on Monday morning. I also remember thinking how edgy and dangerous they looked. Not sure why I thought that, maybe it was the red hair.
Category: Television
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Missed Out on all the Stuff
I don’t know what happened to me this weekend, but all the stuff I normally pay attention to, I completely spaced out on.
It started on Saturday, when Tottenham played Arsenal. You know, their top rival, the team they hate. These matches even have their own title, “North London Derby.” Since I started follow Tottenham, these games have been a big deal, usually both teams are in a “need to win” position, and the games are exciting and dramatic. This Saturday, totally spaced on it. Just forgot.
Same thing happen on Sunday, when I spaced on the Cowboy game against the Saints. But to be honest, the Cowboys played so bad, it was better that I missed it.
And because comedy and drama both follow the rule of three…
Then Sunday night, I forgot about the Emmy’s. When my wife pointed out that they were on, even my kid was surprised that I wasn’t watching them. (I am a sucker for an awards show.) It was like the Emmy’s snuck up on me and then I ignored them. (Though I did get to see that very weird Johnny Walker backstage bar moment.) Oddly, I had watched most of the shows that were nominated this year, so I sort of did know what was happening.
Not that any of this really matters in the big scheme of things, yet I still found it odd that I whiffed on three events that normally are rather important to me. Such as I make plans to watch them. But for some reason, I missed all the ads for these things, or I missed the conversations about these things. It left me feeling like I was running behind everybody else.
Just odd is all.
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Debate Thought
I should have made snacks last night. The wine was good, but I needed something to eat. If only I had some popcorn…
The spin has begun from what happened last night between Harris and Trump. Consensus is that Harris won the debate, and I have to agree with that. I won’t waste your time, as there are plenty of news outlets you can go to find out why and how this happened. I do find it odd that you would come here first, though I am flattered, as I do not believe that I am a solid or creditable news source.
The one thing that I noticed last night with the spinning and analyst, and even in the paper this morning, is that the criticism, for both Harris and Trump, concerns that they didn’t go into detail about their plans. They didn’t give enough information.
I’m sorry, but that’s not what televised political debates are about, and it has never been about information. Look, the first one, Nixon and Kennedy, what does everyone remember about it? Nixon sweating under the lights and Kennedy looking calm and in control. Does anyone remember the tax policy they discussed?
What do people remember about these debates? Reagan’s “Four Years” line, or the “Not exploiting his opponents youth and inexperience.” How about, “You’re no Jack Kennedy,” or Bush looking at his watch, Gore loudly sighing, binders full of woman… I think you get the point.
These debates are about creating and capturing emotional reactions. Logic has no place here; it’s window dressing. Besides, everyone is sitting at home with a smartphone in their hand, so when they want to find something out, like is that how tariffs work, or how does the child tax credit get paid for, they just look it up. Why would a candidate waste valuable screen time, getting all wonky on policy, when they can work to get voters comfortable with the idea of them being President? I believe Trump and Harris are of this thought.
So please, political talking heads and hacks, please drop this crap about not learning about policy in these debates. You should know better.
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Debate Night in America
Are you throwing a Debate Night Party?
I bought a bottle of wine which I plan on splitting with my wife, as we watch the debate and yell at our TV. But not too loud, as our kid will be sleeping in the next room.
I thought about buying snack foods that are orange, but that seemed a little too silly.
No, I will celebrate Debate Night, the way my forefather’s celebrated all the way back in 1960; slightly tipsy.
To be honest, not looking forward to the debate. I didn’t watch the last one between Trump and Biden, as something told me it would be a train wreck. I mean, it was a train wreck, but not the way I thought it would be. There isn’t anything that will happen tonight that will make me change how I am planning on voting. I guess something could happen, it’s not impossible, but not probable either. No, Trump will try to act all normal, but will slip into “Trump” mode and say some weird shit. Harris has a bunch of canned one-liners, some focus group zingers, that she’ll try to land, but will come across as wooden. You know, like Chris Christie’s Donald Duck line…
Sadly, these things, these “debates,” aren’t informative, just entertainment. It’s a tightrope walk, and we are only here to see who will fall off. There are such things as debate contests, which have rules, and allow people to stake positions, and have the other person question them, and rebuttals, and so forth. I mean, if we really wanted to know where these candidates stand, we could ask them to, you know, really debate.
But we don’t.
We like this form of competition. It gives both sides the ability to claim that they won. We’ll get a bunch of memes out of tonight. I will have Twitter on and follow the outcry/outrage, or general hilarity of people commenting on what is happening.
It does make me wonder if any of this really matters?
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Good, Old Fashion, Mindless TV
I don’t know if you’re like me, but there is a good chance that you might be. And in that case, do you also have trouble finding something to watch on one of the many streaming services that you subscribe to? Honestly, I remember having this same problem when I had 200 channels on my cable service. It’s not a new problem, I guess is what I’m saying.
Yet, when I am searching for something to watch, I need whatever it is that I am looking for to be really good. Like, really, really good. Like brag to my friends good, and be the first one to talk about it good. I need whatever the new show is to be a Ted Lasso, or Breaking Bad, or Mad Men. Also, it would help if it was weird and quirky, like Severance, or really epic like Game of Thrones or that Lord of the Rings show…
And that’s when I found myself yearning for different kind of show, a different style of show, like a good old fashion mindless scripted tv show. Something with a little action, fun characters, maybe a little silly but defiantly a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Not to get all retro, but like classic Magnum P.I., or Hunter, Remington Steel, or Matt Houston. Hell, I’d even take Rip Tide or a Scarecrow and Mrs. King at this point.
What those shows also had in common was a commitment to the status quo of a morally correct world. You know, bad guys get caught, wrongs get righted, the heroes make sacrifices to ensure justice is served. (Also, these shows had heroes that had no problem killing people who were bad guys. Taking a life cause never caused them to lose sleep at night.) Every episode was a tightly contained story, solved in 22 to 44 minutes, wherein our heroes were never challenged to the point to where they needed to learn or grow in any way. And next week it would start all over again. It was pure entertainment that only taught the lesson that bad guys lose, and good guys win.
That’s what I am looking for, and I don’t want to retread classic tv, because ventures into nostalgia always leave me disappointed, as those shows were way better in my memory. No, I’m looking for a modern mindless, morally status quo show.
