About a decade ago, I complained to a TV station about content for the first, and so far only time. The TV channel was ABC. IE the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which is like PBS .
The show about which I complained was"Growing Up Gotti", about the family of John Gotti. My complaint was that show was not good television; it was about the louche existence of a boring family. Their only claim to public attention was being related to a notorious Mafia Don, the murderous John Gotti. I advised that in my opinion, the show fell well short of the standardI I expect from Channel Two. They replied, politely telling me to get stuffed.
Netflix is airing a movie about Ted Bundy. According to Huffpost, Netflix paid $12 million for the rights.
I won’t be watching it. Bundy was a psychotic serial killer. I have no interest in watching a movie about his deeds.Period. OF COURSE , Netflix has the right to show whatever it likes. Its audience has the right to watch what they like.
I don’t call for public censorship, I censor myself. I guess I should no longer be shocked/surprised at the things Hollywood will turn into entertainment or prurient interest.
It was PT Barnum who said “no one ever went broke underestimating public taste” . My corollary . “–or stupidity”
Netflix movies are usually pretty forgettable. I guess the big selling point is former teen star Zack Efron is playing Bundy, so millennial women might watch.
I’m surprised that “Growing Up Gotti” aired internationally, mainly because it wasn’t even that big a show in America, and also it’s about a subculture that only exists in a few parts of this country.
It took me a while to realise that the term ‘reality TV’ is an oxymoron.
Some are obvious, others not so much: EG Gordon Fracking Ramsey. What a wanker; apparently, his behaviour is not at all uncommon with Chefs in their own kitchen----
TV Talent shows really are the pits, with the ‘human interest’ crap the used to elicit sympathy for some nonentity of minimal talent. Plus, each contestant is obliged to sign an unconscionable contract with so Simon Cowell. Simon gets rich, not many others though. It’s a terrific idea, if you happen to be Simon Cowell, or some similar shower.
Problem is reality TV tends to make up the bulk of free to air programmes in my country. I Do understand the why of it, and at base, am not impressed thatI have to pay a service such as Netflix to find something I want to watch. Some good stuff, but a LOT of rubbish to wade through.
If a movie based on real life sensationalizes or distorts the truth, I’m out. But if it’s faithful to the truth and does it with respect for those involved, I think it can be a good idea. There are lots of stories that are unpleasant but should still be told (how many movies are about the atrocities of war, but worth watching?)
I have no idea what the Bundy movie is like, but if done well, it too can be worth watching. I may never watch it, but if I ever decide to, I always have the ability to turn it off at any time (I stop watching most movies within 10 minutes), so I won’t be wasting too much time if it turns out to be crap.
I can imagine that some individuals have a horrible desire to kill and even enjoy it. But that does not fascinate me in any way. I have no interest in it. For a long time, I was fascinated by situations like Jonestown, cult mass murder/suicide, because I couldn’t understand, at all, how groups of ppl could be so f’d up. So I watched related documentaries.
As far as “reality shows” they are absolutely unethical, imo. I remember studying social psychology, before certain kinds of experiments were banned. These would have made much better reality shows, because they were conducted with rigorous protocols, and they yielded results that gave us clues about ourselves. But the field of Psychology banned these because they were deemed to be unethical. Current day reality shows would similarly be considered to be grossly unethical, and they have no protocols, and can tell us nothing about ourselves, other than some of us enjoy seeing others humiliated or acting like asses, and some of us enjoy profiting from it all.
Believe me, I do not, and have never watched, a reality show (other than Survivorman with my son about a decade ago). They are neither interesting nor based on reality.
It’s documentaries and serious shows based on true events that I am interested in. I wouldn’t class the Bundy movie as a reality show- it is (hopefully) true and took place in the past, whereas reality shows are fake and filmed as it happens.
I also find cults and social psychology interesting, so I watched the Stanford Prison Experiment movie and another one about some guy doing experiments on volunteers (it’s a famous one, but I forget at the moment.)
You’re probably thinking of the one where the experimenter in a lab coat would stand by the experimental subject and tell them to continue the experiment (which was delivering a shock to a person in the next room, who was supposedly doing a written test). The Experimental subject was supposed to deliver a shock whenever the exam taker got an answer wrong. The strength of the shock was supposedly increased with mistakes. The confederate who was supposedly getting shocked would make increasingly distressed screams of pain and distress. If the subject kept shocking, the confederate would eventually become silent (as if unconscious). There were subjects who would continue the shocking, even when the confederate was supposedly unconscious, maybe even dead). And the only prompting was the person in the lab coat mildly saying to continue the experiment.
This showed how much some of us are prone to follow along with “authority” in spite of it being something grossly morally wrong. Some of the subjects experienced severe distress after learning what the experiment was about and what they were personally capable of.
Thus the field of Psychology banned these types of experiments.
As morally wrong as that one, the Stanford Prison one, and all the others I know nothing about, were, they are still fascinating and I’ll gladly watch any movie about them.
There is one experiment filmed which I found interesting, if predictable. The original experiment was done with children, and is called “A Class Divided”. It’s been done many times over the years with adults, where it is known as “Blue Eyes/Brown eyes”. When first saw it, I had my doubts about the ethics of such an experiment, as it seemed to have caused children distress. I still have my doubts.
In the 70’s, I did a diploma course in what called “Personnel Studies”. It was more fascinating after I’d finished: My government department was anything from 10 to 20 years behind Current American practices. That’s fine, if they learned, but nooo, they didn’t. Eg A nasty little practice called “sensitivity training”, a nasty little book called “The sixty minute Management”; an imagined response was called “The 59 Second Employee”, which began with the line “Your criticism is deeply felt. Frack you very much”, and many more.
ME? I stuck with Maslow, and a very good book called “TA For Managers” (only after I had been in a TA group, and had been reading TA journals for several years)
However, in my opinion, most if not all authors of self help books ,and TV ‘life coach’ presenters such as the shady ‘Dr’ Phil McGraw ,should be beaten to death with heavy mining equipment.
George Carlin was much better at listing people he could do without . (the "heavy mining equipment’'was his)
The prison experiment, I think predicted what happened in Abu Gharaid during the Iraq war. If the commanders in charge of that prison were educated enuf, they would have known to have had a better structure of supervision.
But that was just one of many, many, many stupid mistakes that went on in that invasion of Iraq, mistakes that went on, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. IMO, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and W should still be having their asses reamed daily for what they did there.
“But that was just one of many, many, many stupid mistakes that went on in that invasion of Iraq, mistakes that went on, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. IMO, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and W should still be having their asses reamed daily for what they did there.”
What about Colon Powell? (well, that’s how it sounds to Aussie ears)
I guess he’d have to get a lot worse to even approach William Westmoreland . I guess that depends how much you agree with revisionist historians
I use the term “soul” loosely, of course. I refer to one’s essential integrity of character. His got half et. You see this more commonly in the Trump administration, where Trump defiles the essential integrity of character of almost everyone who joins his administration. (Tho a lot of them don’t have much integrity to begin with.)
Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp” has manifested as “filling the cesspool” with human waste.
