Yelling at the TV
Jul. 18th, 2009 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsidheWatching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Yes, I could be watching it from DVD, but I'm frankly not paying that much attention to it. It's background noise.
And, yes, I know full well that this extended Harry Marathon is in aid of drumming up people to see Half-blood Prince, or for the audiences thereof to grace Channel 9 with some ratings, but Channel 9 cannot resist the opportunity to kowtow to their true customers: the advertisers. We got used to such frequent ad breaks during movies. We got used to the final credits being played at double speed. We go used to the final credits being played at double speed or more, squeezed into two thirds of the screen, half the screen, a third, a quarter of the screen, to make room for more ads over the top. We got used to scrolling ads and such like during sitcoms.
But when half the screen is taken, for a good twenty seconds or more (an eternity in broadcasting time), for an ad over the top of the movie, then there can be no clearer way for Channel 9 to say to its audience: “you are a commodity. You will sit there and take whatever we give you, because you don't matter. We aren't providing a service for you — you are the service we provide. Oh, and by the way: fuck you. Fuck you with a baseball bat, because we don't like you. We have your fix, and we know it, and we don't like junkies.”
... and by the way, you fuckers, when the credits are squeezed until each line is about two pixels high, then no-one will be able to read it, even if they were to framestep over the HD version. SO STOP PRETENDING LIKE YOU GIVE A FUCK. The lipservice you give to playing the credits is more insulting that simply not bothering.
Oh, and shredding all the action scenes, all the scenes of emotional import? It's not to protect the children or save your pg rating, and it never has been; these cuts are done, with jagged rusty scissors, so you can fit more damned ads in, you're not fooling anyone.
No, I'm not surprised at any of this. Nor is it anything new. I just had a brainsnap. It's the continual, incessant, unmitigated contempt the networks show their putative reasons for existing, every. Fucking. Day.
Yes, I could be watching it from DVD, but I'm frankly not paying that much attention to it. It's background noise.
And, yes, I know full well that this extended Harry Marathon is in aid of drumming up people to see Half-blood Prince, or for the audiences thereof to grace Channel 9 with some ratings, but Channel 9 cannot resist the opportunity to kowtow to their true customers: the advertisers. We got used to such frequent ad breaks during movies. We got used to the final credits being played at double speed. We go used to the final credits being played at double speed or more, squeezed into two thirds of the screen, half the screen, a third, a quarter of the screen, to make room for more ads over the top. We got used to scrolling ads and such like during sitcoms.
But when half the screen is taken, for a good twenty seconds or more (an eternity in broadcasting time), for an ad over the top of the movie, then there can be no clearer way for Channel 9 to say to its audience: “you are a commodity. You will sit there and take whatever we give you, because you don't matter. We aren't providing a service for you — you are the service we provide. Oh, and by the way: fuck you. Fuck you with a baseball bat, because we don't like you. We have your fix, and we know it, and we don't like junkies.”
... and by the way, you fuckers, when the credits are squeezed until each line is about two pixels high, then no-one will be able to read it, even if they were to framestep over the HD version. SO STOP PRETENDING LIKE YOU GIVE A FUCK. The lipservice you give to playing the credits is more insulting that simply not bothering.
Oh, and shredding all the action scenes, all the scenes of emotional import? It's not to protect the children or save your pg rating, and it never has been; these cuts are done, with jagged rusty scissors, so you can fit more damned ads in, you're not fooling anyone.
No, I'm not surprised at any of this. Nor is it anything new. I just had a brainsnap. It's the continual, incessant, unmitigated contempt the networks show their putative reasons for existing, every. Fucking. Day.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-18 12:52 pm (UTC)Being treated like a captive commodity is offensive and painful.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-18 11:05 pm (UTC)Furthermore, for the price of pay TV, I can buy one box set of DVDs a month. If I am interested in a particular show that is only shown on pay TV, that means that five or six months' subscription will pay for the DVDs, and I then need not pay a single cent more.
Commercial TV can rot in hell, for all that I care.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-18 04:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-19 01:55 am (UTC)(I didn't get it either.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-18 11:01 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl0eBeelRPw&feature=PlayList&p=755E812769EEE862&index=1 - pissed-off lefty TV reviewer Charlie Brooker has a rant about it at 7:43.
He follows up with a further piss-take/analysis in the next video.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-19 04:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-22 04:01 am (UTC)But yes, Yelling at the TV would be an awesome blog.