This blog was originally posted 4/1/2013 in The Viewpoint.
by Bill
Holmes
Last month (March 2013) I wrote about
TV
Sweeps and News. In keeping with that TV theme, this month I'd
like to discuss how our lives influence our consumption of
entertainment. The spark for this blog occurred a few days ago when a
friend, Rick, posted a
blog
about Downton
Abbey. Rick is a lawyer and he brought up points about
Downton Abbey that would never have occurred to me. The
article was done tongue in cheek but he had to know the law and view
the show through a legal mind to make the comments. Even if I did
notice some of the issues he exposed, I would not have seen the
situations in the same details he did. This friend and I converse on
Google+, Facebook, Twitter or our blogs several times each week. We
have many things in common going back a couple of million years but
also many differences. That makes our exchanges familiar and
comfortable on one level but stimulating and challenging on another
level. I'm hoping he doesn't mind that I've expanded on an idea he
inspired. If he does he can sue me, he probably knows a good lawyer.
We are greatly influenced by our life
and experiences in how we view, perceive, consume and enjoy (or not)
media. Depending on where we grew up, age, family, education,
career/profession, marital status and a myriad of other factors all
influence our perception. It is extremely difficult to suspend all
reality and knowledge when watching a movie or TV program. My lawyer
friend pointed out how inept the Crawley's of Downton Abbey
were in their legal dealings, civil, criminal and fiduciary. I hardly
ever notice the legal ramifications of a TV show I'm watching but
sometimes the legal stuff is so ludicrous even I know it is wrong. I
bet lawyers cringe about a lot of our TV shows and movies. Downton
Abbey is not a show about the law or lawyers and yet a real life
lawyer saw that aspect in the program. I'm sure cops and firefighters
have trouble with many of the procedural shows about their
professions. I have problems with our crime shows too but not so much
the legal or law enforcement stuff. Those in the medical fields must
be particularly troubled. It seems wonderful, caring, brilliant
doctors and nurses regularly make stupid decisions and lose patients
all while having sex in the janitor's closet. Of course next week Dr.
Stupid will perform the first ever successful left earlobe
transplant. Nurse Lovey will power the patient through the earlobe
therapy to a full recovery.
 |
| IBM 082 Card Sorter |
My particular peccadillo is the depiction of technology and
computers in movies and TV. I started working in Information
Technology (IT) around 1970. We didn't call it IT back then. I've
worked in the Computer Room, Computer Department, Electronic Data
Processing, Data Processing, Remote Data Center, Information
Management and a couple of other names over the years. The media has
distorted what we do and how we do it for as long as I can remember.
In the 1960's, 70's and 80's, before the age of the personal computer
(PC), all the media did was show a card sorter, spinning tape drive
or flashing lights whenever depicting a computer. There was never any
mention of the software and programming. Somehow IBM or UNIVAC or NCR
or DEC or Honeywell just manufactured machines that could solve your
specific problem. If you were a police department then just order one
of those Crime Fighter 2000 computers and all your problems will be
solved. Same for a bank but you'd need the $hylock 3000 model.
Computers were depicted like other manufactured goods. A model for
every need, just like cars or TVs. The worst cases I can remember
were in the 1960's and 70's when programs like
Dragnet would
show a card sorter. Several punch cards would fall into multiple
pockets but a single card would fall into one slot (pocket) with the
name of the bad guy. Well, card sorters are dumb, mechanical
machines, not computers. They read one column of information at a
time and drop it into one of 13 pockets, 0 through 9, two zone
punches and a reject (unreadable or no punch) pocket. They were for
sorting a stack of punch cards into numerical or alphabetic order,
not identifying a criminal for Sgt. Joe Friday. The other standard
computer props were a whirling tape drive going backward and forward,
a printer spitting out reams of paper or a bank of blinking lights.
Often the whole “computer” consisted of a single tape drive. We
don't see spinning tapes or card sorters much anymore but the
unrealistic depiction hasn't change all that much over the years. Now
everyone on
NCIS,
Criminal Minds,
CSI or any
other TV show or movie can hack into anything, anywhere in 30 seconds
or less. They guess the password on the third try or dramatically
only one second before the PC goes into self-destruct mode. The
“computer experts” can do a query of every computer on earth in
seconds and find the exact information needed. Thankfully it's a
little more difficult than that. I'm sure whenever your profession is
depicted on the screen you laugh or cry. I bet carpenters, plumbers
and electricians hate some of the renovation shows on HGTV and DIY.
If you're a sports fan and/or
ex-athlete you will notice the actors who can't pull off the jock
parts. A girly baseball throw, a terrible swing, a 150 pound football
star linebacker and so on. Very few pull it off. I'm always amazed
how many unathletic actors have portrayed hall of fame athletes. A
couple of klutzy actors can ruin an otherwise good sports movie.
Age and upbringing figure into the
equation too. Catholics found mistakes in the recent papal election
reporting. Jews and Muslims have heartburn with how their beliefs are
reported. Those of us brought up with the Beach Boys and Beatles find
fault with retrospectives about those groups and times. That 30 year
old who produces a show about the Vietnam war will probably get a lot
of stuff wrong or interpret things inaccurately or at least
differently than those who lived through it. If it's a show about
stuff you know you'll notice what is depicted incorrectly and what is
left out. It will probably bother you.
Have you ever seen a supposedly true
story that takes place in a location you are familiar with? Was there
a mountain in Florida? Maybe a palm tree in a Chicago suburb? Did the
actors walk into the library and wind up in a courtroom? Did two
places that are 30 miles apart suddenly become part of the same
neighborhood? How about that beach that's a block from a city 20
miles inland. I once saw a
Criminal Minds episode that
supposedly took place in the city I grew up in. The FBI team was
helping the local police department and police chief who had PD
insignias on their uniforms and cars. That city doesn't have a police
department or police chief, it has a sheriff and sheriff's
department. There were several other faux pas.
I guess if you have little or no
knowledge about what's on screen you're OK. If I were to watch a show
about rap culture in New York City I'd probably accept most of what I
saw. You got a show about architecture and engineering? I'll go along
with that. That documentary about the sex life of honey bees may be
99% crap but I'll never notice. Set your show in Wyoming and odds are
I won't notice any geographical mistakes unless maybe there are palm
trees and beaches.
Unless it is a compelling, well
written, well produced, brilliantly acted presentation it is
impossible to suspend all our history and accept everything we see on
screen. In my personal experience it becomes harder and harder. I
find myself watching much less prime time TV fiction. There are only
one or two TV shows each season that I begin to watch. Even those
fade from my viewing schedule after a few episodes. I don't have much
interest in most movies either.
My problem is that I am now old enough
to have seen stupid, inaccurate, distorted and slanted depictions of
so many things that I have at least a passing knowledge about that I
hardly believe anything I see from the entertainment industry. The
news folks fall short too. Intellectually I realize that TV
entertainment shows and most movies are not documentaries but I often
wish that the writers and producers would do at least a few minutes
of research.
No one but a lawyer would consider the
legal aspects of Downton Abbey. No one but a geek would notice
the depiction of computers on Dragnet or actually read and
critique the database SQL queries on Criminal Minds. Only an
electrician would worry about the wiring in a DIY or HGTV remodeled
kitchen. What drives you a little crazy when you're watching TV or a
movie?
wjh
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