The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
What are you watching these days?
serious crayons:
We watched PBS now and then when I was a kid. I remember my parents watched the breakthrough documentary (or first reality show!) An American Family in its entirety. I was only vaguely aware of it, but around that time I was watching some things I would still think are good, like The Smothers Brothers, and some that wouldn't seem especially good by modern standards but at least culturally significant, like Laugh In and The Mod Squad, but also, as we've discussed, a lot of Gillian's Island, Petticoat Junction and the like.
Over the years I've known a lot of people who don't own TVs, or never watch TV. I did a story about them once years ago. I always felt like, sure, a lot of TV is schlocky, but it's also Ken Burns and ... well, Ken Burns anyway.
Now, though, I feel sorry for people who never watch TV because so much of it is really good -- better than most movies, IMO. Except now most movies are on TV, too! I love movie theaters and hope they don't die out, but I'd already been watching more movies on TV because a) Netflix, Amazon, etc., have been making some really good ones and b) it's so much cheaper to watch at home, even if you miss the big screen, dark theater, trailers and popcorn. Still, I hope COVID isn't the final nail in the coffin.
Now I rarely watch more than an hour of TV a night, and sometimes not even that. But it's pretty carefully curated because there are a lot of things genuinely worth watching -- more than I have time for, even. Especially since there's also the teetering stack of New Yorkers and books and the NYT and Washington Post and the paper I actually work for and the entire internet.
Last night my son made smashburgers and I like to watch TV while eating dinner, but I had nothing specific I wanted to watch. I'm kind of between shows, having just finished a good one (Fargo) and didn't have anything else ready to dive into, so I turned to my old reliable -- The American Experience. I record all episodes, so they're always there whenever I need something quick that I know will be good. So last night it was one segment of a multi-part series about the women's suffrage movement. Very interesting! I'd never studied it that closely. It's kind of mind-blowing to think of it now, and realize it was only about 100 years ago. And some things have changed so much, and other things so little. It was about 90 minutes long and I got through about 50, so have more awaiting me whenever the time comes. Maybe tonight!
Speaking of which, OT (but we'll get right back to TV! :)) but there's something I always wonder whenever I watch when of those documentaries. Jeff, maybe you know the answer. I hope I didn't already ask you this and forgot what you said. But why do the historian talking heads in documentaries always describe events in the present tense?
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on December 13, 2020, 11:50:45 am ---Speaking of which, OT (but we'll get right back to TV! :)) but there's something I always wonder whenever I watch when of those documentaries. Jeff, maybe you know the answer. I hope I didn't already ask you this and forgot what you said. But why do the historian talking heads in documentaries always describe events in the present tense?
--- End quote ---
Ya got me. Just like I wonder why people write fiction in the present tense.
I saw some--I'm sure not all--of the program on the Suffrage movement. I seem to remember something about the early advocates for women's suffrage had also been Abolitionists. And I remember the young member of the Tennessee legislature whose mother told him to "be a good boy" and vote to pass the suffrage amendment. ;D
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on December 13, 2020, 01:46:49 pm ---Ya got me. Just like I wonder why people write fiction in the present tense.
I saw some--I'm sure not all--of the program on the Suffrage movement. I seem to remember something about the early advocates for women's suffrage had also been Abolitionists. And I remember the young member of the Tennessee legislature whose mother told him to "be a good boy" and vote to pass the suffrage amendment. ;D
--- End quote ---
The reason for using it in fiction is to convey a sense of immediacy, of being in the moment. Some writers go back and forth with present and past when they're talking about two different eras or stories and want to distinguish them. But history is, by definition, in the past! And I wouldn't be surprised if one or two historians did it, but it seems to be de rigueur for all historians.
(Speaking of de rigueur, I saw someone on Twitter ask "Do you realize queue has four unnecessary letters?" :laugh:)
CellarDweller:
FX's "Pride": TV Review
By Daniel Fienberg - May 13, 2021
Like Hip Hop Uncovered before it, FX’s new documentary series Pride boasts a broad title, but plays as an intermediate text that assumes you’ve done all of your introductory coursework. (And before you start thinking this is the core idea behind FX’s newly evolving documentary brand, the network’s recent women-in-comedy docuseries Hysterical was definitely an introductory text.)
This is, as it was with Hip Hop Uncovered, less a criticism than an expectation-setter.
As much as Pride exposes how desperately the LGBTQ+ rights movement deserves and needs some kind of Eyes on the Prize-style wide-reaching treatment, it’s still a mainstream cable series offering exposure to figures like lesbian experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer, New York scene videographer Nelson Sullivan and marriage equality pioneer David Wilson. And it has been made with a scholar’s eye toward intersectionality and marginalized figures within already marginalized communities. I find that to be remarkable and entirely admirable, even if the series itself is very much, almost by design, hit-and-miss.
Hailing from Killer Films and Vice Studios, Pride takes a decade-by-decade look at LGBTQ+ life and the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights starting in the 1950s and carrying through to the 2000s, with each installment hailing from a different LGBTQ+ filmmaker.
It’s hard to exactly pinpoint the dictates passed along to each filmmaker, and the result is that each hour is maybe half personal reflection on a tumultuous moment and half Wikipedia summary just to make sure that somebody who accidentally stumbles upon Pride won’t be entirely flummoxed. It’s a recipe for wildly varying levels of aesthetic inspiration and baked-in unevenness both from episode to episode and within episodes.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/pride-2-1234952163/
Front-Ranger:
According to this New York Times article, comedy has shifted from High Irony to Sincerity. Have you noticed a change?
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