It's been clear to me for some time that I'm a bit out of touch with contemporary popular culture, at least in terms of what's being presented on television. When I get home from work...usually around 10:30 at night...the only viable options for me are choices between live sports, satiric cartoon shows like Family Guy or South Park (if they are actually showing one of the few episodes I like), old movies, C-Span talk/documentaries, old-time TV on channels specializing therein...and the Music Choice channels appended to my Cox Cable service. None of the ongoing television series have any appeal for me...I know this because on my breaks at work some of them are shown on the break-room TV. It seems like whether it's comedy, drama, or comedy-drama as the format, they all seem to be highly pretentious, as if they're bucking for an Emmy with every episode. As for the late-night talk shows like Colbert, Kimmel, and Meyers, they seem to have substituted what could have been an opening comedic monologue showcase of their talents with hyper-political Trump-bashing...that doesn't take any special skill to do! I used to watch old Johnny Carson Tonight shows when one of the "retro" channels showed them at 11:30 and got a kick out of the opening monologues...he'd sometimes joke about whoever the current president was, but always in fun and without regard to whichever party was in power. And he joked about other topics as well...sometimes the gags went flat, which also was funny as ol' Johnny would react to the lack of audience appreciation. But now they've switched the showtime to 10 pm, too early for me to watch. And what about these horrid reality and talent shows infecting the programming? I could do without any of them, thank you...
An article like this wouldn't be complete without looking at the state of popular music today. I just watched the Grammys and had a hard time recognizing many of the names, all of whom it was assumed were extremely important superstars in their genres. For those I did know, like Katy Perry, Lady Ga-Ga, or Miley Cyrus, I could count the number of songs of theirs I'm familiar with all on one hand. And the year's "best" music performances were awful to my ears...there wasn't a song on the show that I could stand, not even when the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a band that I actually knew and liked a bit, got onstage with one of their tunes. I don't think that just standing there showing off one's vocal range qualifies their music as outstanding, and I also have never been able to figure out the appeal of hip-hop...but if you do then the more power to you, there's no shortage of it around...
Well, I guess that's enough of me going negative on TV for a while...
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