TV and the LCD

I like to watch "Dancing with the Stars." It's just about the only first-run network show I pay any attention to. LohMan does not like DWTS so he watches something on his laptop, probably streamed from Netflix. We only have one television, but we accommodate each other. It isn't hard.

DWTS is followed by "Castle." LohMan was involved in whatever he was watching so I let "Castle" play for a while. It follows the mold of crime shows these days, as far as I can tell.

• Close-ups. These are no longer used for effect. They seem more like a way to keep set costs down. A TV drama is an unending series of close-ups.
• Rotation. There is discussion about the crime, whether it's brainstorming by the team or asking questions of a witness or suspect. One team member says 15 words. The next team member says 15 words. Around the circle we go, rattling off observations in such a way as to make one person's line serve as the prompt for the next person's line. In no way does it resemble real interaction but it is efficient. Another way to keep costs down, turning actors into robots.
• Romance. The personal lives of the good guys intrude constantly. Maybe this is Frank Furillo's fault but at least his issues with his ex-wife and his true love were a way to make him human and did not trump everything else.

I was curious to see how Internet Movie Database voters rated "Castle." 8.2, overall. Unbelievable. "Hill Street Blues" gets 7.9.

From Life after Television, a compilation of essays by George Gilder in the 1990s, as quoted today by Ed Driscoll.

People have little in common except their prurient interests and morbid fears and anxieties. Necessarily aiming its fare at this lowest-common-denominator target, television gets worse and worse every year.

Once upon a time "television" meant the programs. Today the word properly refers to the hardware itself. Use it as you see fit.