Dave over at DCRTV.com lets loose, and I say “amen!”
Speaking of HDTV, am I the only viewer who doesn’t care about the “clarity” of the pictures on my TV set? I don’t want better “reception” – I want better programming! Hell, I get 200-ish channels on my digital cable TV and I frequently find that there’s “nothing on.” There’s already way too much bad TV. I don’t need all that awful TV in high-def. Give me some new “good stuff.” Stuff with solid writing and decent acting. Stuff with the creativity of “Seinfeld,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Absolutely Fabulous,” “The Office,” or “The Sopranos.” Or how about a classic “Twilight Zone” or a half-decent “Star Trek – Next Generation” episode? Even an old “I Love Lucy”! I’ll gladly watch high-quality programming on a low-def old-fashioned set. In black-and-white, with the snow and ghosting of an analog signal, even. I don’t want all that high-def “reality show” shit, all those fancy digital public TV pledge breaks, or plasma-screened infomercials so I can see every crease in a Tempur-Pedic mattress. Next time I visit Best Buy, I’ll look for a set that gets only “high-quality” TV – HQTV.
I do have to chime in and say that from the outset, PBS provided some startlingly good programming in HD; albeit only once per month. They really used the medium well, making the incredible color and detail worthwhile.
But just watching another episode of some crass sitcom with a fat bald guy married to a svelte blond just doesn’t make the cost worth it.
