To be honest, when I first heard about the Writer’s Strike going on across the TV industry I was pretty irritated. Not because of a writer’s rights to see a piece of the money from putting shows on the internet (though they certainly deserve to receive value for the value they bring no matter where that value is found - that is pretty simple). I was irritated because all of my shows where going to be cut off and I hated the idea of the stories lines stopping mid-plot (like The Office) or having to be cheapened and shortened (Heros).
Before the strike ended all the new shows for the fall season, I had at least one show I watched a night if not two or three. Mondays = Prison Break, Heros and Chuck, Tuesdays = The Unit and NCIS, Wednesdays = The Bionic Woman and Private Practice, Thursdays = The Office, Grey’s Anatomy and My Name is Earl, Fridays = Las Vegas. That is ten hours of TV a week, not counting for any “casual” viewing, of which this was not - it was planned/recorded intentional TV watching. Some of the shows were even a part of my calendar.
So why am I writing thank you if TV was such a regular and enjoyable part of my life? Because stinking TV was such a part of my regular and brainless life! Leo Laporte said it best in his keynote at the Blog World and New Media Expo. He said that video appeals to the monkey brain, the instinctual, flesh response part of being human. He talked about how video has to show you everything, and make it more and more appealing - because your brain doesn’t have to think with video, it just needs to react appropriately with your instincts.
Watching TV doesn’t make you anymore intelligent. You don’t grow through the processing of the simple and “instinctual” story lines of a television show. The best tv shows either have guns and fighting (Heros, The Unit), Comedy (The Office), Romance (Grey’s Anatomy) or all three (Chuck). But only on a responsive level, there is never any requirement to figure anything out - just soak it in.
Since all the TV shows have ended their seasons I haven’t been watching TV at all (though I did have a little Magnum PI withdrawal issue for 2 weeks), I have been reading. I have been reading and thinking. It was actually a little frustrating at first to have to put in the mental effort to process the structure, new thoughts and learning when reading. I was using that reading / brain muscle for the first time in a while, I actually had to think and process to understand, not just passive soak and respond. It is like my brain is coming out an addictive fog of passive response, and it it quite refreshing!
Now, if any of those shows came back on I would watch two at the very most (Heroes and The Office). Or in the spring I will watch 24 and Lost. It is not bad to let the monkey brain have a break and enjoy being spoon feed through an entertaining story line. But I am much more excited at the lasting value and mental growth I can receive from consistently reading.
So, thank you Writer’s Strike. If it hadn’t been for your standoff I might have continued to be a brainless spoon feed monkey brain soaking in all your story lines and advertising at a clip of at least 10 hours a week. Now I can actually interact with material of a lasting and worthwhile substance. Thanks!
