The Idiot Box

Just trying to add a bit more to this blog. I have been reading more of "The Marketing of Evil" and have quite a few opinions on it. I have been shouting my opinions at real people, of imaginary audience, so the Internet shall be free of my rants for a short while. To give a taste of the chapters I have read, Mr Kupelian has claimed that you cannot be a vegetarian and be pro-choice. As both a vegetarian and pro-choice, I take some serious offense at that, although I will go further into that later.


There is also a chapter of Sex, which I had to just skip over. I don't consider myself as one to possess a weak stomach, but some of the descriptions were just vile. I'm sure this will seem like a success to Mr Kupelian, but it is like arguing with a man with bad body odor. People not arguing with him does not mean he has won, it just means no-one really wants to deal with him. This chapter is disturbing, but I cannot fault him on accuracy (considering I don't want to have to read any of it).

Anyway, I have addressed two of the most important media to me, books and music, and it adds to the picture if I also include television. As I have been watching far too much of  a great reviewer named The Nostalgia Critic, I had the idea to present my favourite shows as a Top Ten list (not ripping of his Top Eleven lists). This list is not so much 10 is the worst of the ten, but five great shows, followed by the 5 greatest.

 10. Thank God You're Here
To start the list at position 10 is an Australian comedy which has spread overseas. This is Thank God You're Here, which is a show about comedians being placed in situations without a script, which is always amusing. It has run for 4 seasons and was supposed to run for 5, although they never made a fifth. To be fair, they were well and truly running out of ideas, but there are limits to how many completely unique situations someone could make up.

9. Weeds
Weeds is an American series which (as far as I'm aware) has never aired in Australia. I have watched 6 and a half seasons online, but currently I'm waiting for some episodes to accumulate before I continue. The premise of the show is that a woman with two children suddenly becomes a widow and must make a living, which sends her into the world of marijuana. This series has moved the plot from LA to San Diego to Seattle to Michigan to Copenahagen until currently residing in New York. Interesting characters and a decent plot, this show is very good.

8. The IT Crowd
The It Crowd is a fantastic British comedy (I like how evenly waited the list is so far) about two nerds working in the IT department of a large company and their new boss. Great characters and so many hilarious situations. The plot doesn't really move as the series goes along, but still fantastic.

7. How I Met Your Mother
This American sitcom is not what I would really find myself watching normally, but I am yet to find a show featuring Neil Patrick Harris that anyone can really call unenjoyable. The main plot of the show is about a group of friends in their 30's and their lives and relationships, but the best character is Barney Stinson (played by Harris), who is an over the top womanizer who is disturbingly entertaining in his many schemes to get laid.

6. Monk
Monk is a classic American detective show focusing of the exploits of detective Adrian Monk, who suffers from a good deal of phobias and disorders after the murder of his wife. He is entertaining to watch and the mysteries are reasonably complex, although this is a detective show, meaning there are a million and one shows that are just as satisfying to watch. Another great one is Psych, but Monk just has more heart.

5. The Gruen Transfer
I have actually mentioned this show before, but have not gone into details. The Gruen Transfer is a brilliant Australian panel show which analyses adds from both Australia and the rest of the world. Wil Anderson hosts the show well, and the panel regulars have enough chemistry to keep things watchable. The competitions to find the World's Worst Ad and the World's Worst Product are just legendary.

4. Lost
Lost. What to say about it? The most I can say without giving anything away is that it focuses on the survivors of a plane which crashes on an island while trvelling from Sydney to LA. My one major complaint is how in hell does only 1 Australian survive a crashed plane which originated from Australian? All the same, Lost is a great show which I was fortunate to discover only earlier 2011 and somehow managed to watch every episode in just 3 weeks.

3. The X-Files
Yet another show there is not much I can say about. The X-Files is an American show following FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully as they investigate supernatural happenings. The show has great characters, a great setting and very interesting plots. I only started watching this show in 2009 after digging up some DVD's in the library, so I don't really know how popular this show was during its original airing, but it deserved all the praise it received. I'm pretty sure I will (attempt) to name my firstborn son Fox after this show.

2. Daria
This show is possibly my actual favourite. It really depends on the mood I'm in, but being second shouldn't say it is any less a show than the one if first. Daria is the only animated show on this list, but this should not make any of you inexistant readers think this is just for kids. Also, when I say the main character ranges from 16-18 years old, you should not see it as just another kids show. When I was about 9 or 10, I used to watch this on the ABC's afternoon programming and found it entertaining. Recently, I kept thinking of some one-liners and kept wondering if I should see what the show was actually like, through the eyes of an older individual. Watching it was one of the best decisions I have made this year. Daria is a show focusing on a cynical, sarcastic and intelligent teenager named Daria Morgandorfer and how she reacts to family and school. Just writing it here isn't good enough. Dear imaginary readers, I beg you to look it up online. Daria ran for 5 seasons and had two movies. When I finished watching the second movie, I cried. I don't view myself as particularly emotional, but this show ending (9 years ago) just saddened me so very much. The fact that there would be no more of this fantastic show just truly hurt.

Anyway, Daria is actually a spin off of Beavis & Butthead (which I cannot comprehend the slightest entertainment from) and aired on MTV in the late 90's and early 00's. Beavis & Butthead has unfortunately returned to the small screen, but where is the legendary Daria?

1. Hungry Beast
In comparison to the last show, I am actually wondering which is my favourite of the two, but Hungry Beast is certainly the most educational. Hungry Beast is an Australian...erm...news(?) program which talks about news issues in an in depth manner. The real selling point for this show to me was the inclusion of Marc Fennell, one of my favourite movie reviewers, but the show itself is what kept bringing me back each week. This show has produced three series, and I have no idea if there will be a fourth, but I certainly hope so.

I somewhat feel that I have overused the word fantastic in this list, but if this bothers any of the masses of people who don't visit this blog, too bloody bad.