Obscene on TV

Posted by: on Feb 23, 2015 | No Comments

“Red alert, red alert” screams the first officer. The warning siren is blaring, the image on the screen is bouncing here, there and everywhere, and everyone on board the bridge of the USS Enterprise gets tossed about like lettuce in a salad spinner. I realize Captain Kirk is one tough earthling, but haven’t they heard of seat belts in the 24th century? And this is from a 60s TV series where we first saw DVDs, cell phones (or something close to that), video phones and lots more cool stuff yet to be invented, but which we actually have today. But something as simple as seat belts? I guess that’s part of the artificial gravity on board a starship.

It’s stuff like this that makes me laugh or scream “are you kidding” at the TV, depending on my mood. The crazy shit you see in movies and television that makes absolutely no sense. I know you are supposed to “suspend your belief in reality” when it come to watching this stuff…but come on. Some of this is just so obvious.

Here’s another one. You’re watching your favorite cop show, crime drama or anyone of a few dozen CSI/NCIS type shows. McGarrett or Dan-O or Gibbs or Callen or…well you get the picture…arrive at the pending crime scene with 20 guys in full SWAT gear right behind them. The back-ups have helmets, shields, Kevlar vests, semi-automatic weapons. The star of the show is wearing some sort of nylon, (slightly) bullet proof vest, maybe a baseball hat, and carrying what looks like a BB gun. I realize they’re the stars of the show, you need to see their faces and all their award winning expressions, but can’t we at least get something to protect their heads?  Everyone else has one and we don’t want our stars to get shot, do we? How far does this “suspend your belief in reality” thing go?

And how can we forget the “sure to die” scenario? Our hero faces a dire situation, totally out-manned and out-gunned (cue the dramatic music). Of course they are totally out-manned and out-gunned by the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. In the world of television, terrorists, gang members and other really bad guys carrying big ass guns, couldn’t hit the side of barn. But our hero? He or she is a pro marksman who wounds or kills the bad guy with one shot.

And why is it that they always kill the bad guy right after they say “remember, we need this guy alive”? If you are an actor and have a guest role on a TV show, those are the last words you want to read in the script because those are the last words your character is going to hear before your back in the casting line.

As I said, any time you sit down in a movie theater or in front of the TV, you have to take a lot of what you see with a grain of salt, but would a little reality kill a movie or a TV show every once-in-a-while? I’m all for proton torpedoes, warp speed, death stars and whatever else the science fiction and fantasy writers want to throw at us. But when the captain of the Enterprise and his crew are on the bridge, it should be click it or ticket.