Is there a more effed up/morbid/disturbing show on tv? Every once in a while, I'll accidentally leave the TV on NBC while surfing the net (such as after NFL Sunday nights), and my god. So many messed up deaths that are just swept under the rug after a quick 30 second snippet. Tonight's included an argument at a Texans watch party that ended in one dude murdering his relative, and a minor wreck on the North Loop that ended with a guy getting out of his car complaining of head trauma and promptly getting run over by an oncoming car. Does anybody watch the news religiously? It's gotta be the darkest show on TV. Life is ****ed up.
Where do you think television gets their ideas from? Hollywood ran out of original idea's a long time ago.
I'm happy to say that I do not watch the news... It's not only that it is depressing; it's inane. Even with a quality news production these stories have zero relevance to my life and are trivialized because no one is affected by them. The obsession with crime is a big reason that people are not trusting.
I don't know, but it's ironic as hell that fictional deaths like Gus Fring in Breaking Bad or Lemonhead in The Shield mind***** me permanently, but the 5+ real-life, equally-disturbing, close-to-home deaths that I just was exposed to on the local news will be out of my conscience by the time I wake up tomorrow morning.
Yeah, it's pure shock value. There's no "Jimmy Crabtree died today at 96 years old after his long battle with lung cancer". It's reporters and cameras rushing to the scene of the most disturbing scenes of crime and tragedy. The fact remains though that these things did happen, but it brings me back to my OP: there isn't a darker or more disturbing show on TV.
I agree with your point about Breaking Bad. The humor that is inserted into the news to lighten it is so short-lived. The newscasters have to switch from jovial to sorrowful within a second that it just doesn't have any meaning. I have switched from watching or listening to the news to podcasts. You really need to be able to focus on the particulars of a story or person in order to get anything out of it.
I don't think there's anything wrong with warning people about potential dangers in a local community or even highlighting the efforts of cops and prosecutors preventing or at least addressing them. I think sports and weather could be covered elsewhere in favor more economic and governmental news at all levels, that's enough for me to not watch.
I watch it every night. I don't know why I bother doing so. I feel the same way as you. I also saw the news last night with everything you mentioned. The North Loop thing just left me smh. It was a chain reaction thing. After it was over, one comes out and then gets hit. Just messed up.
Local news is terrible. I can't watch a minute of it before having to change the channel. The only person I've ever known who has championed local news was an English teacher in high school who would always talk about watching the news, and how if you're responsible you have to watch the local news and read the local newspaper. And if you didn't, well, you're not good people. He was a very bitter man in general. He on more than one occasion brought up that his brother was some kind of engineer and that really, y'know, when you think about it, teachers should be paid more than engineers. You know? (Understanding the way he sees the world, I wrote a paper about how students should not be allowed to take make up tests because it is a waste of the teacher's time. That got me a nice A that my friends and I laughed about afterward.) He also used to make snide remarks about students in the class I was in because it was a "regular" class and that he thought he should only be teaching advanced classes. So in summary, that one English teacher I had was an irredeamable idiot and an ass... and local news generally sucks.
