Weather People. They make a big deal of all the heat
in July and the rain in February. I'm sorry, but 102 degrees F in July is NOT a heat wave,
it's normal. Now, if it was in March...Here we find my Media peeves. Be it about movies, critics, news people, or anything Media connected, you'll find it here. So sit back and read, because there's a lot here to be peeved about.
Weather People. They make a big deal of all the heat
in July and the rain in February. I'm sorry, but 102 degrees F in July is NOT a heat wave,
it's normal. Now, if it was in March...
Titanic. That billion dollar movie got
more hype than it deserved. The fourth or fifth in a long line of films about
the doomed boat, the only reasons it did so good, was the December it came out the
only other film at the theater was An American Werewolf In London, and then
nothing after that for several months; read as, no competition. Then the last
couple of months people began seeing it to see why everyone else was seeing it.
But the minute another film of any worth came out (Lost In Space, of all things)
it was out of the theaters. I was pretty neutral about the film until everyone began
over-glorifying it. It was just another boat movie.
Televised car chases. How many times can
they televise the police chacing some brain-dead thrill seeker in a car going
forty miles per hour down a freeway before they realize two things. 1) that
speed doesn't constitute a chase, and 2) the only ones ever interested in these
chases are the guys with the cameras in the fly-swarm of helicopters that follow
them around. All these chases do in interrupt much better program (like the
paint-peeling program) and proove how inept the police are at running some guy
down. If the news choppers are so good at keeping track of them then just
deputise the news crews and have them help chase the guy down. And while they
do that, just give the rest of us a brief summary during regular news hours and
leave our other programing alone.
Movie sound tracks with music NOT from the
movie. A recent trend, some so-called movie sound tracks from big movies come
out with songs on them that didn't appear in the movie, have nothing to do with
the film, and are from some annoying small-time group that can't get an album
of it's own. Apparently it's never occured to the marketing people that anyone
that goes in to buy a sound track wants to hear something from the MOVIE
on it and not the other trash, and anyone that goes for the other trash won't be
looking on any movie sound tracks to find it. Why, there was even one album from
a certain large lizard summer hit that didn't have one single piece from the
film on it. Makes it harder to find just the right thing to listen to.
TV movie critics. These guys have been
missing the mark more and more lately. It seems like the last thing they like
are movies that entertain, and god forbid if something should be science fiction
or fantasy.
People that insist the upcoming Star Wars
prequel WON'T overtake Titanic's box office records. Who do you think
invented the term Blockbuster?
Media Over-Hype. It seems there isn't
anything the tabloids won't over hype just for a few extra bucks, and the
televized media isn't much better. Take any minor problem and they'll have it
as the sign of the Apocalipse in no time. A perfect example is Y2K; an annoying
computer glitch suddenly has people stockpiling food and water for the end of
society. These media vultures need to get a life.
Poparazzi. Let's be blunt; yes it was the
gubby little photographers that caused Lady Diana's death and not a drunken
limmo driver (especially considering that France's legal limit for intoxication
is 1/3 ours, so by S.U. standards he wasn't drunk). Those photo hounds
have no cosideration for even basic personal rights or privacy in their greedy
little quest and then they wonder why the stars they're after want to hit
them.
Movie Reviewers. On the one hand, they
always complain about movies not being well thought out or not challenging the
intellect, but on the other hand the minute a movie comes out that is
thought provoking and challenges the brain, they complain about not being able
to understand it and that the movie is incomprehensible and hence trash. Good
examples would be Dark City or The Matrix; well thought out brain benders that
the critics didn't want to admit they couldn't understand so they give them
under-rated reviews. They miss the point; if they themselves had the
intellect to understand these types of films they say they crave, they'd be
writing these films instead of reviewing them.
Increasingly Shorter TV Seasons. Remember
when Television seasons were long enough that reruns actually referred to summer
reruns? Now it's start the season in October, show 6 weeks, take off a month
and a half for the holidays, 2 more weeks of new stuff, then take off until the
March sweeps, a single month of new episodes, then off again until May sweeps at
which point they show the season finale and then off for 5 more months. Season
finale fromwhat? I don't call 10 episodes a season! It's gone beyond
ridiculous to the why-bother category. Either give us at least 30 new episodes
a season or stop filming anything new and just put on 24 hours of
commercials. We know that's what you want to do anyway.
Submitted by Dave Wootson regarding Titanic:
The boat sank (get over it)!
Spin Doctors. Those people who can make
success sound like defeat and bring undeserved glory to defeat. Case in point:
Star Wars Phantom Menace had a whopping 5-day opening weekend take of $100 million, yet
they said it didn't break the opening weekend record because they didn't count
it's opening day take because it just happened to fall on a Wednesday. Yet when
something like Independance Day had a 5-day weekend they counted the entire five
days (I guess because Hollywood likes Will Smith). It all depends on what
they decide you should like. These vultures take all the fun out of
honest enjoyment.
Side-Bar credits on Television. This
annoying habit the major networks have of reducing a movie's perfectly crafted
set of ending credits reduced to some scanned text, in a lot of cases chopping
off the ending scene that went with it. It's bad enough with the increasing
insidence of commercials, why rush things by speeding the last part of the movie
on by. We know those nastty movies are getting in the way of your goal of 24
hours of non-stop commercials, but...
Movie Credits With Off-Character Credit Music.
You've seen them; an entire film of great instrumental mood music, making for a
dramatic sound track, and then the last 3 minutes of ending credits start blaring
out with bad rap (or whatever) music that has nothing to do with the movie's
mood, but is there for the express purpose of giving enough of a three-minute
montage to justify expanding into a one hour CD that they can call a sound track
when it has none of the music from the actual movie. Nothing more than a blatant
attempt to push music groups that can't make it on their own.
TV Series Ending In Incomplete Cliffhangers.
You've been watching a good show, it's plot finally climaxing to some momentus
point. Part one of the season ender comes, it's terrific with a cliffhanger
that leaves you biting at the bit for part 2. Then, they cancel the series; you
will never know how it comes out. If some brain-dead Network Suit wants
to cancel a good show then at least wait until the big conclusion is shown!
The Media Hates Good News. If there isn't
some explosive crises happening for the media to report on, they'll
invent one. Example: someone responding to a reporter's question of, say, "Is
there arsenic in your bread?" with a standard answer of "Of course not, what
makes you ask such a thing?", would have the reporter slanting it with "You
heard it here folks, they say there's no arsenic in their bread", thus
infering a crisis that never existed. Without any bad news these people would
be out of business.
Over use of the word "hip" by
entertainment magazines. If you have to go through that much trouble
to call something hip and change your mind that often to keep up on
what's hip versus what's past, then obviously it is NOT
hip.
The attaching of the letter "e"
to the beginning of any new product or service name. IE: e-banking,
e-shopping, e-cars, e-OhMyGodGetAwayFromHere...
Reality TV: If I wanted reality I
wouldn't be watching television!
I subscribe to TVGuide primarily
for program listings, of which have been increasingly lacking. Well,
the new full-sized format is out and has finally done it. Amongst the
many things wrong...
Daytime listings are limted to cable channels only; there are no daytime
listings AT ALL for broadcast channels.
The grid is back to that format that everyone hated; alphabetical by
Network name as opposed to channel number (NO ONE looks up a channel by
"What's on NBC", it's always "What's on channel 4")
Weekend listings now start at 8PM?!? What, nothing's showing at 2
in the afternoon for some of us to set our VCRs for?
Another bad thing or two about listing channels by network name only: first,
we have a local channel 9 (KCal) which is now no longer listed at all! Then there's
the PBS listing- Local channels 28 and 50 are BOTH PBS but they both have their
OWN different programming schedules. I can get both channels so which one does my Guide refer to?
TVGuide seems to be distancing themselves from their primary function of programming
listings and evolving into another entertainment mag. If I'd WANTED
Entertainment Weekly I'd still be subscribing to it. Obviously
they've never heard of the old saw "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
If TV Guide doesn't return to being something useful SOON then I
probably won't be the only one thinking seriously of canceling my
subscription. Glitz at the expense of content results in useless phlegm that people soon abandon.
I guess it's back to the local newspaper for THEIR programming listings.