On TV

I used to think that my roommates had terrible tastes in television. Back when they lived on Johnson Street, Wednesday was our big TV day. Then, there were a whole cornucopia of shows that appealed to anyone on 50 Cent Wings Wednesday at BW3’s. Smallville, the O.C., South Park, Chapelle’s Show, and the Daily Show created three and half hours of non-stop watching. Except, I didn’t care about the O.C. or Smallville then. And consequently, Justin and Chad wanted to kill me, as I kept talking through the show and there was no way to rewind the show. And lo, then there was TiVo and all was good. For then it didn’t matter how much I talked, because I could not ruin the show.

And then I got hooked on the O.C. I’m not really ashamed to admit it. There were hot lesbians, you would have done the same. And I don’t regret the decision now. I’ve found that show excels at doing some things, where other TV shows have no talent. The use of music is one of those aspects. Plus I thoroughly enjoyed how layered and complex today’s episode was.

Anyway, long story short – some shows I previously thought were crap, aren’t. However, Superman is still lame, no matter how many beautiful people you throw around him and no matter how hard the WB attempts to resurrect Dawson’s Creek. We all know Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the X-Men are far superior super heroes (and good movies too, save Daredevil).

With Fox’s cancellation of Reunion, a show that I had gotten hooked on because it was conceptually interesting, was a mystery, and followed the O.C, Fox had to reschedule their Thursday lineup, and thus changing our house’s television viewing habits, for about the fifth time over a the span of two short years. Enter Beauty and the Geek Two.

This show masquerades as a “social experiment.” Which is odd, because when I think of a social experiment I think of a controlled situation, with independent and dependent variables. Instead the term “experiment,” is a way to create buzz for the show. Anyone who is foolish to believe that Ashton Kucher is interested in knowledge, might as well be willing to buy my breakfast machine (it doesn’t work, much less exist). There is something odd about wanting to see what people will do for money. Most of us already know the answer: its called capitalism. All you have to do is look at our economy.

If this is an experiment at all, it is an “experiment” in terminology: how far can we go with normally insulting ideas, without being accused of being so. Yes, the men on this show are ridiculously socially inept. Yes, they are good people. Yes, we can all learn from good people. But to label them as “geeks” (while descriptively true), as a typology that needs learning and adjustment, is something that is utterly offensive. The show however makes a concession that the girls are beautiful and not that bright. This implies that beauty and intelligence are mutually exclusive. So not only do we have the idea that those who are smart need to change, but those who are beautiful cannot be intelligent. I can’t think of a show that has offended at a more intellectual level than this one.

Despite the fact that I dislike this show, I probably will continue to watch it because, we share a common TV and TiVo and I’m not one to single handedly over rule a group of my friends. (Not that I even could, if I wanted to.) On the good note, my roommate’s taste in TV redeems itself again: I’ve just finished watching (on TiVo) this week’s episodes of Scrubs, which has to be one of the better shows on network TV. The writing is clever, layered, and funny. Most of all, the humor is not without out bound – the show is grounded in the reality of the hospital and sometimes the moral consequences of living in a sitcom end the comedy. This seems to reflect the complexity of the real world in an appropriate way; employ humor, but not at the expense of helping others.