Kelly

If you want to lose some brain cells or simply mortify the ones that are too stubborn to be ruined, there are a few shows on Foxtel I highly recommend. The sheer superficiality of some of the television that we’re subjected to is ridiculous. And the worse part is, nobody seems to care!

Let’s start with is America’s Next Top Model. Why people want to watch a bunch of girls who are lacking in higher thinking prance up and down a catwalk, burst into random bouts of tears and make the average person feel like their life just doesn’t add up to theirs is beyond me. But the most ridiculous and superficial aspect of this show is the fact that Tyra Banks helped one contestant raise thousands of dollars for her “cause” – a much needed sex change. Oh the poor thing! Hold on, let’s rush to this poor girl/boy’s aid! Never mind famine - ridden countries, prisoners of war and victims of rape and cancer. Help the confused loser instead!!!

How about that show, The Bachelorette? The latest series is based around the dilemma Trista Ryan faces at having a mere 4 million dollars to spend on her wedding and not knowing what to do with it! Oh, I really fear for her. Maybe Tyra and Trista should get together and bang their heads against a wall. But what scares me most is that this show apparently drew 26 millions viewers. Um, why?

And don’t even get me started on Rachel Zoe. If the most important thing in your life is what outfit you’re wearing that day, and Foxtel wants to make a whole TV series about it, I weep for the future.

Take these ridiculous excuses for “entertainment” off our paid-for TV and give some real writers, who are struggling to get their brilliant scripts read by the top guns of the industry, a chance.

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CAN MOVIES MOVE US TOO MUCH?

March 12th 2008 05:14

Movies. They're a big part of Western society. They are an activity, a place to take your date, a way to relax, but always, an escape from reality. It is so satisfying to get lost in the idealistic notions created by emotional screenwriters.

But is it possible to escape and never come back? Are some people so impressionable that they are influenced by the themes and ideas in movies and begin to act them out in their own lives? Wanting perfect romances that flourish in a "sweep me off my feet, become my world" kind of way (The Notebook). Staying thin despite being a junk food junkie? (In Her Shoes). Power and authority seemingly earnt by good looks and a handgun? (Any Bruce WIllis film?!?)

How do separate what we see in the movies from what is actually realistic? Maybe we shouldn't. Maybe, if we did, movies wouldn't be fun anymore. If you find yourself watching movies and saying, "yeah, right, as if that would happen," then maybe you have lost the ability to watch a movie and escape into its whimsical notions.

So, maybe movies aren't entirely realistic, but the writers are humans just like us, and all humans technically function in the same way, so they must have a touch of reality in them.

I suppose it's a fine line between wishful thinking created by movies and cynicism created by the harsh realities of our world. What we need to do is find a balance, so we can enjoy a film, imagining for two hours that we really are chocolate trees in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory or running from dinosaurs at Jurassic Park.

But when the house lights come on and the credits roll up the screen, we need to know ho to come back to a world where that much chocolate is potentially deadly and those dinosaurs will kill you!

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