Dear ladies and gents,

as I mentioned a number of times before, we try not to discriminate at Couchslobs. But UK shows have been popular forever. And Scandinavian shows are the.hottest.thing. at the moment.

So why are we all of sudden turning our noses at… let’s call them mainstream shows?

That is not to say all of them are crap. Not at all (I watch plenty). And obvs there is an audience for it, otherwise their numbers wouldn’t be so great. I’ll be the first to admit I like tuning into CSI because you can do just that – tune in at random, get the gist of it fairly quickly and guess the killer about 10 minutes in. There is a kind of comfort in that, no?

And that is not to say you don’t get some duds coming out of UK either (see Mayday. Or rather – don’t see Mayday).

But yes, let’s take a look at some of the things that can be erm irksome when it comes to mainstream shows.

Let’s get the shallow out of the way, mmmkay? Because a) that’s how we roll and b) you know I can be a shallow bish sometimes.

- people look normal. Women, men, children. And by normal, you can see wrinkles, or crooked teeth (the horror!), regular boobs, faces move. You know, regular people. And I’m not saying these actors are ugly, far from it, Idris Elba for example, a hunk of a man. Lena Endre (Wallander) is gorgeous. David Tennant, Matt Smith, Suranne Jones, even Cabbagepatch (I know an acquired taste, but whatever), Martin Freeman, Olivia Colman, the list goes on. All shapes, sizes, ages, colors.

- the styling. For example – character A will go to a hair salon. With a fresh blow dry. And she goes out looking exactly the same. I don’t know how you roll, but by the time I do go to the hair salon, my hair usually looks like I’ve been dragged through the hedge. Backwards.

Or you have a character B. Who goes to walk the dog in some type of a get up that looks like something fresh off the runway. O RLY? Sweatpants, manky t-shirt, trainers. Moon boots in the winter and feel free to judge, there was half a meter of snow where I am at. Even if I feel adventurous and wear something oh I don’t know clean, chances are I will end up covered in muddy dog prints.

Or my favorite – CSI white pants. Which can be worn to the worst crime scenes imaginable and still they stay snow white and perfectly pressed. Great job of keeping it real!

Ok, on to the more serious reasons.

- good writing. See, the story is kind of important. That is not to say if the story is rubbish, people will not watch (how else can you explain Two and a Half Men). But yeah, give me a story I can sink my teeth into (see any given Scandinavian show).

- this ties to the above reason – I hate it that the producers think we are stupid. I’ll be the first to admit I have my slow days, but I mean, come on! Want to know how you can tell if they think we are stupid? Something will happen that is sorta important to the plot. 5 minutes later there will be a discussion of some sort and they will show you what happened 5 minutes previously (usually in black and white). As I said, I can be slow, but come on!

Ok dear ladies and gents tell me – what are the things that annoy you as a viewer?

Image: stock.xchng

Dear ladies and gents,

a week or so ago, I watched three episodes of Criminal Minds three nights in a row. One episode was about a serial killer who kills his own wife to cover his track. Second episode was about children being abducted by a pedophile to be exchanged for drugs with another pedophile. Third episode was about a couple who went on a killing spree because they could.

By third night I found myself feeling antsy and horrible for no obvious reason. I also had really unpleasant dreams. I was like – WTF is wrong with me? Did I eat something that didn’t agree with me? (from experience and you don’t have to thank me but unless you are 18, heavy food, especially quesadillas with loads of beans, might not be a good idea at 10 in the evening).

And then in a moment of (sometimes) elusive clarity (and with a dash of facepalm) I realized – it was Criminal Minds that didn’t agree with me, not anything I ate. Surprising since usually I don’t mind blood and gore at all.

I watch Supernatural, I watched Fringe regularly, I can tune in and out of any CSI at random. Why did this particular show bother me so much? To be honest I am not clear on that, but I think the violence and the atrocity of the crimes was too much. Even for me.

So. Have we become desensitized? Does watching gore on TV makes us bad people? Less empathic? Less immune to everyday struggles of others? Less likely to help out someone in need?

Being nosy that I am, I did a bit of digging. I have to admit the data is disturbing.

• A typical child in the U.S. watches 28 hours of TV weekly, seeing as many as 8,000 murders by the time he or she finishes elementary school at age 11, and worse, the killers are depicted as getting away with the murders 75% of the time while showing no remorse or accountability. (Source)
• By age 18 an American child will have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence. (Source)
• Violence, irrespective of gender, on television increased only 2% from 2004 to 2009, while incidents of violence against women increased 120% during that same period. (Source)
• Violence towards women or the graphic consequences of violence tends overwhelmingly to be depicted (92%) rather than implied (5%) or described (3%). (Source)*

Make no mistake, this is not just a US thing, it is a global thing. The stuff highlighted below was taken from UNESCO Global Study on Media Violence.

• 2,788 boys and 2,353 girls participated in this stage of the study; all were 12 years old. Terminator is a cross-cultural hero. About 88% of the world children population (if our sample is representative) know him.
• Audiovisual media in particular are more graphic in their depiction of violence than books or newspapers; they leave less freedom in the individual images which the viewers associate with the stories…Another crucial distinction is that between “context-rich” and “context-free” depiction of violence. Novels or sophisticated movies usually offer a story around the occurrence of violence. What is its background, what are its consequences. Violence as a pure entertainment product however often lacks any embedding in a context which is more than a cliché-ed image of good and bad. (Source)

And just to throw this out there:

CSI is the most watched show in the world.

Again, it’s not just an American thing: Homeland was adapted from Hatufim (Prisoners of War, an original Isreali series) and the Killing was adapted from the original Danish series Forbrydelsen. So it is a cross-cultural, cross-continental thing.

What this boils down to – they wouldn’t be making these shows, if we weren’t watching.

I don’t plan to stop watching Supernatural. Or Homeland. Or CSI. And I don’t think these shows make me more prone to violence (in my lifetime I have seen maybe 3 real life fights and found it extremely disturbing). And I don’t think it makes me less empathic. Far from it, in fact. And I’d like to think I would be on the right side of Derren Brown’s Gameshow experiment.

But… (and here is the contradiction) it did make me somewhat desensitized to depiction of violence on TV. I’m not immune to it (as the experiment with Criminal Minds has shown me), but my tolerance for it is definitely high. Here I am a grown ass adult and it took me 3 days to realize what was making me feel ick. It took me 3 days to make a conscious choice to switch the bloody thing off (I am blond after all).

So my question to you is – what is acceptable level of depiction of violence you are willing to digest on daily/weekly basis? How does it affect you, if at all? What makes you switch the channel? If you are a parent, how do you monitor what your kids are watching? Do you try to monitor what your kids are watching? And if so, how?

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*This is ok and acceptable. Meanwhile CBS issued a list of dress code rules and regulations re the accidental fupa exposure at the Grammys. Because heaven forbid any woman accidentally shows us her fupa. It is totes ok however to have a convicted felon and woman beater sitting in the first row. I’d prefer fupa,thankyouverymuch.