What are your simplest pleasures? Go beyond description and into showing the experience of each indulgence.
I would like to think all of my pleasures are simple, but this is most likely not true. I like reading, though that pleasure has its complexities. I like watching television, and I think that that is a simple pleasure, or at least a simple minded pleasure. So much of television is just fluff, or lacking substance. I'm not trying to sound like a grumpy old man, though maybe I will, or maybe I am, but a lot of what is on television now is devoid of substance. And I know this and still watch it.
I am nowhere near as bad as I used to be, or so I like to tell myself. I still watch a few shows that will make me seem like a hypocrite for the things I'm saying about television. I have watched Jersey Shore before, more than once. More than five times actually. I regularly watch judge shows on my days off, and sometimes even when I'm not off if I have the time. I watch Family Guy, American Dad, and Simpsons. Family Guy is a show that I watch that I think is funny, but every once in a while will have this moment that I wonder why I'm watching it. If you find yourself having opinions about people, places, and things that you didn't think up yourself, and that maybe don't make sense, you might be watching too much t.v.
I like watching certain mindless things because I would like to just shut off my brain for a half hour. Do I know that watching Wipeout is not enriching my mind? Sure, but maybe I just want to veg out like Cher from Clueless.
I've mentioned a few, but reality shows are all over the channels now. These shows have writers. Some of them are no more authentic than a night of professional wrestling. I watch Pawn Stars sometimes, and I've seen Storage Wars. These shows are successful because these people are good actors. I'm not necessarily questioning the authenticity of the experience, though I do think some things that happen seem a little too convenient to be true, but the shows are recreating an experience. It's pretty hard to capture every interesting moment in the everyday life of a pawn shop. One might think there are not many of these moments, yet people are watching this show. The characters are likable. However much you may watch and enjoy this show (and I'm including myself as a viewer), you are watching a production. I can't know that everything is authentic of course, but I do think that at least a touch of it is somewhat staged by the nature of the beast.
(Specifically, I find it hard to believe when the Pawn Star employees and owners let a customer know when something is worth more money than they are asking. Maybe I'm wrong, but most pawn shops I've ever been to would just keep quiet and buy it. Though perhaps a good reputation for honesty is what makes this particular pawn shop so successful perhaps. Repeat business is never bad.)
There is another type of reality show that's been around for longer than any other form is hardly ever attacked or criticized in the same way the others are: sports. Essentially, sporting events that are televised are reality shows. Are these games productions too? I think you have to conclude that they are, in a sense.
A sport that I watch is professional basketball, and the sport has certainly had its share of controversy in recent years. I get into watching basketball. I yell at the t.v. sometimes. I stand up for plays like I'm there. I believe that it is happening and the games have meaning. But it's true that popular players get preferential treatment in big games, referees have been caught gambling on games, and certain teams always catch the breaks (at least according to Mark Cuban, once upon a time). Who can say if the NBA is not as orchestrated an event as, say, the WWE? This is certainly not an original thought, as many have written books on this matter. Am I laughing at the people who watch "reality," when I should be wondering why I am so quick to swallow the pill, too?
Whatever the case, I think television viewers want to believe what they are watching, even if it isn't true. Wrestling fans seem to have a firm grasp on the reality of reality television. I've talked to fans of the previously mentioned WWE, and they will discuss with you the techniques that wrestlers use in the ring in a way that lets you know that they know that it's all a show. (Let me say, there is nothing fake about the dangers these athletes face. I wouldn't want to get in the ring with any of them either.) But a fan of wrestling is aware that this is a production and enjoys it anyway.
This post is part of The Scintilla Project.
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