I'm tired of most of your programming.
I'm tired of programs that rehash the same history/ science and pretend to be new. I'm tired of Penguins, Nazis, King Tut, Polar Bears, Aliens, Tigers, Mythical Monsters, 2012, Nostradamus, Dinosaurs, Black Holes, Whales, and UFOs. If I had to put a number on it - looks like I'm tired of 80% of your content! (Pareto - it gets everywhere, what can I say!)
I hate how your programs feature silken-voiced narrators who pose rhetorical questions about the most banal things before a commercial break to build "suspense". For example: Narrator says "Could the team on the verge of proving Einstein wrong?... fade to Kellogs Corn Flakes commercial. Seriously? Dude, wasn't it obvious from the past 40 minutes of jabber that the old master WAS in fact wrong about some things? Your whole program was predicated on that. For all I care, the program TITLE was "Einstein's Greatest Mistakes".
Example 2: Narrator says "Could the team have found Tutankhamun's mother?"... fade to Huggies Diapers. Sigh. NOBODY CARES! He wasn't even an important Pharaoh. Just the most over-hyped one. Also a quick jaunt on Google and Wikipedia reveals the team doing the research used questionable methods and dodgy logic...
OK, final peeve - your convenient remixes of science and pseudo-science, and history and speculation. Why? Why speak of the Loch Ness monster and Stegosaurus in the same breath? Why obsess over the Nazi's occult connection ten minutes after Churchill's bio? Why mention Xibulba and 2012 theories minutes after a show featuring a star's life cycle and super-galactic macro-structures.
Why are you guys extolled for good programming again? Remind me why... when eighty percent of your content is dross, stuff every 10 year old knows (or should/ would in an ideal world). Believe me, I know a 8 and 6 year old who will prove me right soon.
Sure, the 20% that is good is REALLY good. I loved Planet Earth, but not all its clones. I love that you encourage scientific thinking sometimes (Mythbusters) and inform people about events they wouldn't normally hear about (Neil Fergusson's Civilization: Is the West History?).
There's no one else like you, you have a mortal lock on "smart" television, especially with the kind of budget you have. That's to your credit... but with that comes responsibility... are you as good as you can be?
/rant
Concerned Viewer (who has had little else worthwhile to watch for the last three weeks)
1 comment:
Agreed. The Nat Geo magazine is vastly better in terms of originality of content.
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