How F*cked up are TV Writers?
Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 12:08 pm
It is not news that network televisions is a cellpool of depravity, mindless, gutter "comedy," and faux news.
But I am particularly irritated by the distorted and amoral portrayal of supposedly intelligent and educated people on the "drama" shows.
Like most adults (I guess), my wife and I check out new television programs when they come out, and if they seem interesting or entertaining we will start to watch them regularly. As a result, there are always 5-7 weekly dramas that we watch pretty much every week.
We starting watching Gray's Anatomy when it first started, and it's sister program Private Practice, because they are on consecutively and there was generally nothing else on that interested us. Now, we end up taping two programs at the same time on another network and watching those four shows over the weekend, as we get time.
If you are familiar with the shows, consider the domestic situation of the main characters. You have:
Two surgeons (Old Gray and McDreamie) who are pretending to be married - as opposed to shacking up - and trying to finalize their adoption of an African baby with a medical problem.
Two surgeons are lesbians (sort of) who are also "married" and have a kid by a third surgeon who is an incurable skin hound in his 40's (time to grow up?).
Among the "kids" on the show, there is an interracial (of course) couple, and a senior resident (female) who was mocked over half the last season for not being a whore (like everyone else on the show).
The former chief resident had her marriage go south in a previous season, and is now a single mother.]
The only one on the program who has a "normal" marriage is married to a woman with Alzheimer's, but (of course) the love of his life was a white surgeon (mother of Old Gray), with whom he carried on a decades-long adulterous affair.
Private practice (created and written by the same crew) features a similar group of fucked up people. The "married" doctors hate their spouses, and the main character is living with (of course) a black doctor who is molded in the Sydney Poitier fashion. She is in her 40's but wants to have a baby (remember Murphy Brown?), so she is being artificially inseminated because Sydney Poitier allready has a fucked up daughter and is past his child-rearing years. So she presumably will have HER baby and raise it by herself, in the same house with Sydney.
There is an interesting portrayal of a drug addicted Doctor that is one of the main story lines this year, and I suppose there is some value in showing how a professional (other than House) can function reasonably well while addicted.
Again, I ask: How fucked up are these writers that they would write this garbage? Are their lives this fucked up, or is it purely for "entertainment"?
Does it occur to anyone that in portraying these glamorous individuals (each of whom is portrayed as at the highest levels of their respective specialties) as sluts and man-whores they might be sending an inappropriate message?
But I am particularly irritated by the distorted and amoral portrayal of supposedly intelligent and educated people on the "drama" shows.
Like most adults (I guess), my wife and I check out new television programs when they come out, and if they seem interesting or entertaining we will start to watch them regularly. As a result, there are always 5-7 weekly dramas that we watch pretty much every week.
We starting watching Gray's Anatomy when it first started, and it's sister program Private Practice, because they are on consecutively and there was generally nothing else on that interested us. Now, we end up taping two programs at the same time on another network and watching those four shows over the weekend, as we get time.
If you are familiar with the shows, consider the domestic situation of the main characters. You have:
Two surgeons (Old Gray and McDreamie) who are pretending to be married - as opposed to shacking up - and trying to finalize their adoption of an African baby with a medical problem.
Two surgeons are lesbians (sort of) who are also "married" and have a kid by a third surgeon who is an incurable skin hound in his 40's (time to grow up?).
Among the "kids" on the show, there is an interracial (of course) couple, and a senior resident (female) who was mocked over half the last season for not being a whore (like everyone else on the show).
The former chief resident had her marriage go south in a previous season, and is now a single mother.]
The only one on the program who has a "normal" marriage is married to a woman with Alzheimer's, but (of course) the love of his life was a white surgeon (mother of Old Gray), with whom he carried on a decades-long adulterous affair.
Private practice (created and written by the same crew) features a similar group of fucked up people. The "married" doctors hate their spouses, and the main character is living with (of course) a black doctor who is molded in the Sydney Poitier fashion. She is in her 40's but wants to have a baby (remember Murphy Brown?), so she is being artificially inseminated because Sydney Poitier allready has a fucked up daughter and is past his child-rearing years. So she presumably will have HER baby and raise it by herself, in the same house with Sydney.
There is an interesting portrayal of a drug addicted Doctor that is one of the main story lines this year, and I suppose there is some value in showing how a professional (other than House) can function reasonably well while addicted.
Again, I ask: How fucked up are these writers that they would write this garbage? Are their lives this fucked up, or is it purely for "entertainment"?
Does it occur to anyone that in portraying these glamorous individuals (each of whom is portrayed as at the highest levels of their respective specialties) as sluts and man-whores they might be sending an inappropriate message?
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