Posted 6:38 PM by Gene

Buzz Bissinger, the author of Friday Night Lights, says TV entertainment (excepting HBO -- we presume he's some sort of TWXSTER) is "escapist garbage...because we want to escape from the grimmer and grimmer realities of American life" -- which made us think he has too much of the news hack in him -- and then he goes on:

But much of it is silly. [NBC's] Studio 60 is a silly show, nothing more than a paean to what a genius the creator Aaron Sorkin is, wrapped around the making of a television show that no one should care about. I know the making of prime-time television week in and week out is draining, but you are also paid zillions for it. There is nothing bold about this show--it's an insulated view of an insulated world without the fun of [HBO's] Entourage. I watched [CBS's] Shark, or as much of it as I could stomach--even worse. They will no doubt win an Emmy for overwrought writing. I watched the new Ted Danson show [ABC's Help Me Help You], and he needs to dye his hair brown.

And:

What worries me is how stupid the reality genre is, how popular it is and how many Americans seem to luxuriate in the mindlessness of it. We have become an age of disinformation and ignorance, and we almost seem to take pride in that. And, of course, these shows are not reality. The people in them are just amateur actors who cost a lot less than the real thing. I also think, and maybe it's just vain hope, that their time is coming and going.

Moreover:

And by the way, we are far more obsessed with sports now--every sport, whether it's lacrosse or fencing or high school football or high school basketball--than we ever were when Friday Night Lights was published. It has become an obsession at thousands of schools and colleges around the country, with dangerous ramifications. What should be a diversion has become the focal point of life.

Whew! People like the Doctor had me beginning to think common sense has been outlawed.