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Nostalgia while entering old shows   


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  3rd Dec 2015, 2:45 PM#1  REPORT  
23skidoo

Member since Jul 2014
4061 Points
I fully admit a lot of the shows I've been entering were no classics (though some were). But I can't help but feel nostalgic for a simpler time when you could turn on any TV show and not have to worry about the kids - or Grandma - seeing some explicit sex scene or a guy getting his head blown off in gory detail.

I actually hit the "once too often" point earlier this year when I was watching a perfectly good sci-fi show but because it was made for cable they were obligated to stop the narrative for a pointless sex scene. I ended up losing interest in the show thereafter. Today you've got people advocating for this to be the norm for programming, even family shows (I wish I could say I was exaggerating, but I'm afraid I'm not).

I miss the days when there was balance: if you wanted to see a show with sex and violence you could, but if you wanted something that didn't go to the extreme you weren't restricted to Caillou cartoons and Sesame Street. (Or reruns of old shows.) I know people who won't watch Doctor Who because it's "not adult enough" (codespeak for not enough sex and violence) even though on 3 occasions in the last month (out of 4 episodes - one was a dud) the show has done superior work to anything I've seen on Game of Thrones or Jessica Jones. And everyone kept their clothes on and except for a bit of blood no one's eyeballs got left on the pavement.

Sometimes I feel as if I'm the only person who feels this way. Others tell me to grow up or get with 2015. They seem to have missed the point. I'm 46 and have seen my fair share of adult shows. And if done well they're really good. But it's become rote now to have sex and extreme violence simply because cable and streaming have no rules and US and UK networks seem to have fewer rules with every passing day (if I was in the UK paying the licence fee I'd much rather my money go towards supporting Doctor Who than some of the X-rated stuff the BBC airs in the name of art). And it's being used as a substitute for good storytelling in 99% of cases which is my biggest beef. Though if you want a laugh, if you have any DVDs with commentaries on them and you watch episodes with such scenes in them at times it's hilarious hearing the actors and writers trying to justify the scenes. Seriously; try it. Even more telling are those cases where no one says anything ... "no comment" can sometimes mean a lot by itself.

Are there others who feel this way, especially as they revisit older shows in putting this index together?


  3rd Dec 2015, 6:32 PM#2  REPORT  
Magic Marmalade

If you're not lost... It's not an adventure!
Member since Jun 2014
3728 Points
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No, you're not alone in this.

I like a good bit of sex and violence myself :laugh:

...But the idea of there being a time and place appropriate for it is the key I think. I just like to know what I'm going to get when I watch a particular show at a particular time, so I can judge for myself, that's all.

And so would anyone else (not least parents).

And this is the problem these days, on the one hand there's a sexualisation in the broadest sense, not just in terms of physical relationships, but "beautification" and objectification as the major component of identity to be found in programmes aimed at younger audiences, but I can't watch a film aimed at an adult at midnight on tv anymore without those pitiful disclaimers, telling me there may be such content included beofre it starts.

So the problem seems to me that in our recent efforts to infantalise every aspect of life at all hours, we treat the adults like kids, and the kids like adults, as the innapropriate content "bleeds out" into areas it ought not be.... both ways ( :eek: )

Recently I've noticed Channel 5 here in the UK showing films they used to show later in the evening in the early afternoon... and nobody says a bloomin' thing!

Let's start treating kids as kids again, and once they've gone to bed, let the adults be adults.

(The word that seems to have slipped out of our modern vocabulary that we used to gauge the level of appropriateness of any given content was "gratuitous (-ness)"... is it relevant, in context, and appropriate to the particular audience at the given hour)

((Who are these people who complain when they settle down in the sofa to watch a film at one in the morning on Film 4 and see things there fragile sensibilities can't take... go to bed!))

rant over. :grin:


  4th Dec 2015, 4:28 PM#3  REPORT  
Jock_Girl

A girl who looks good in vinyl
Member since Dec 2012
1544 Points
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My partner Sparky and I watch very little television due to overly sexualised nature of most of the shows. We go for old film noir and things like that.

Sometimes it seems they just toss a sex scene in there just for the heck of it even though the plot could survive without it.

Amy




  4th Dec 2015, 8:38 PM#4  REPORT  
Magic Marmalade

If you're not lost... It's not an adventure!
Member since Jun 2014
3728 Points
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The worst example I can call to mind was when there was one of those Underwold films on (Highly over-produced film -grei vampire/werewolf fetish fest with Kate Beckinsale), It'd been on a couple of times before, but I always managed to find something else to watch...

On this occasion, there was nothing, and so I began to watch, and about half way through, there's an extensive soft focus sex scene which has precisely no story-telling value what so ever, and does nothing, and adds nothing for the film, except act as a kind of admission from the film makers that they themselves had so little faith in their own film, that the only way to get bums on seats was to chuck this completely ramdom scene in it.

Rather than think, ""Ooh,that's nice", or anything like it, it only made me sit there in my own thoughts for the rest of the film (not like that!), not paying any attention to the rest of the "story" wondering why it was there, what possible process resulted in it's inclusion, such as the conversation with the studio, money people, and not least the actors themselves, who must have felt kind of cheap because of it.

I hardly noticed the film had ended when I concluded I didn't really care, and if any were on in future, I'd better just read a book or go to sleep instead, as a better use of my time.


  7th Dec 2015, 9:45 PM#5  REPORT  
23skidoo

Member since Jul 2014
4061 Points
And it gets really annoying when people refuse to take shows seriously because they don't have sex or violence in them. Doctor Who just aired its three-part season finale and while fans can agree to disagree on certain aspects of the storytelling, that trilogy blew away everything I've seen on TV this year, including Game of Thrones. And wonder of wonders, it accomplished it by having the leading lady wearing the most conservative outfit possible for most of it (even her wrists are covered), the strongest words uttered are "hell", "bloody" and "arse" (and the last two are only considered curse words in the UK anyway), and while there is violence there is only one moment where we see blood and it's absolutely essential to the story and not gratuitous. Yet people turn their noses up at this. The interactions between Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi in the final episode make Jessica Jones look like amateur hour. Yet Jessica Jones gets all the press because everyone is going "look how cool it is - superheroes having sex and personal problems, oooo..."

To echo Magic Marmalade, I'm not against sex and violence in film and TV as a whole. There are times where it's necessary for the story. And certainly if one is intending to make erotica, then fine (I mean Masters of Sex, Fifty Shades of Grey and The Affair are only about sex so it would render them pointless without it - though that still is no excuse for being hyper explicit about it). But it's gotten to the point where any new SF series that isn't directly aimed at children is going to have sex scenes in it (see The Expanse for one recent example, Orphan Black is another). Doctor Who is seriously an oasis in all this. And much as I love Doctor Who I wish there were more examples out there. (There are some more examples on regular network ... The Flash and Supergirl manage to stay clean though Supergirl has gotten more violent then I would have liked to see; Once Upon a Time is great but many see it as a soap opera; Agents of SHIELD went over the top with violence this year. But my argument is more related to the cable and streaming examples).


  17th Dec 2015, 1:34 AM#6  REPORT  
Pridesale

Member since Mar 2013
793 Points
I rather like Charmed but even that has the (OTT Cartoon Type) violence. But it tells a good story. Doctor Who puts me through emotional wrangles, the underlying comment on the political directions of the present time is so well done.

But whenever anyone says it was more 'innocent' world back whenever, from my Drama /English lessons at school it was always obvious writers were pushing boundaries wherever they could. 'To Kill a Mockingbird' on 14 yr old syllabus for example, yes we were grown up and could rationally critique the writing but its still not for innocents (neither is half/two thirds of the Bible). And George Dixon of Paddington Green got his head shot off in The Blue Lamp, before miraculously coming back to life as Jack Warner reprised the role for the Saturday Night TV Series. All those 70s american cop shows with guns going off everywhere too.


  18th Dec 2015, 1:03 AM#7  REPORT  
RadoxTheGreen

Wait, I have to scan what now?
Member since Jan 2013
772 Points
Moderator
There was actually quite a row in the UK about Clara using the word "Arse" in Doctor Who. Too early in the evening apparently.


  18th Dec 2015, 12:40 PM#8  REPORT  
getalife

So many questions, so few answers
Member since Nov 2010
876 Points
Moderator
I’m no prude, and agree with all above, my issue is with programmes like Neighbours, Home and away, which in the old days would not have been shown before the watershed time 9pm onwards, as for Neighbours and the ever promoting Apple products, whilst on a roll, Michael Parkinson lost all respect when he started swearing on his shows and all the other idiots who F this F that thinking they are cool.
Drives me F****** mad. :angry:


  19th Dec 2015, 12:00 PM#9  REPORT  
nboldock

Lend me ten pounds and I'll buy you a drink.
Member since Feb 2012
7148 Points
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getalife wrote:
I’m no prude, and agree with all above, my issue is with programmes like Neighbours, Home and away, which in the old days would not have been shown before the watershed time 9pm onwards, as for Neighbours and the ever promoting Apple products, whilst on a roll, Michael Parkinson lost all respect when he started swearing on his shows and all the other idiots who F this F that thinking they are cool.
Drives me F****** mad. :angry:

Michael Parkinson swore?


  20th Dec 2015, 11:16 PM#10  REPORT  
getalife

So many questions, so few answers
Member since Nov 2010
876 Points
Moderator
nboldock wrote:
getalife wrote:
:

Michael Parkinson swore?

Afraid so, B-----ks was use during one of his last shows, memory is not so good these days but remember thinking what that all about. Lost respect after that.
Swearing to me is alright in the right context but swearing for the sake of swearing, No.






Edited by getalife on 21st Dec 2015, 8:18 AM

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