KTS
1st August 2003, 04:26 PM
I was reminded recently of the absolute direness of American T.V. while reading Bill Bryson's wonderful (it's very funny, witty, insightful and thought-provoking - I highly recommend it!) book "Notes From a Big Country".
The last time I was in the US (in November last year, in Florida) I remember trying to watch TV was a really frustrating endeavour! The commercials... god, they never stopped, every two bloody minutes there was a commerical.
A typical episode of "Friends" for example, would start with the opening scene - then a commerical - then the opening music - then another commerical - then about 6 (exaggerate I do not) commericals throughout the rest of the 20-minute show.
Anyone else agree with me here? We can take the piss out of TV3 and TG4, but we're really lucky - we could have American TV. It seems the more choice they have, the worse it is.
As Bryson said, to paraphrase "No-one watches TV in America to see what's on ... they watch it to see what isn't on."
The last time I was in the US (in November last year, in Florida) I remember trying to watch TV was a really frustrating endeavour! The commercials... god, they never stopped, every two bloody minutes there was a commerical.
A typical episode of "Friends" for example, would start with the opening scene - then a commerical - then the opening music - then another commerical - then about 6 (exaggerate I do not) commericals throughout the rest of the 20-minute show.
Anyone else agree with me here? We can take the piss out of TV3 and TG4, but we're really lucky - we could have American TV. It seems the more choice they have, the worse it is.
As Bryson said, to paraphrase "No-one watches TV in America to see what's on ... they watch it to see what isn't on."