stuff i think

Things I'm pretty honkin' sure of, part 2

Must-See TV is a misnomer.
In the past few years, one of the networks has come up with a catchy phrase to articulate what most of us already thought...that there were certain tv shows or other forms of entertainment that were must-see, as if our life would somehow be incomplete if we were not glued to the tube for that specific evening. I have to explain my paradigm here...I think most tv is junk. Not to say that I don't see any art in it - the West Wing is filmed beautifully, as are a few other shows, but nothing goes under what I'd call 'must-see'. I think the must-see catagory speaks to our insecurity...that somehow, somewhere, a friend or someone we know might be having a good time and we've missed out. Recently I was in a meeting where most of the attendees were raving about a new show...when it was obvious I'd never seen it, they looked at me as if they had pity on me. "Poor little Amish boy...doesn't know what he's missing." Let me rephrase it for you - doesn't know, doesn't care. I'll confess exactly how out of touch I am. I haven't seen the Matrix. I refuse to, actually, ever since someone told me I'd never be relevant to our culture if I didn't. My theory is that if you don't get postmodernism intuitively, then perhaps you do need a movie...but that the time they were telling me how out of touch I was, we were cavorting around at Burning Man. Some folks go to Burning Man. Others watch movies. Yea, I know, I know...movies and television are our generations' Aesops Fables. I think I get it pretty well without taking two hours a pop to sit down and watch something. Maybe if I didn't have children, work, a life...Must-see my hind end.