TV Equivocation

The long gap in blogging has been extremely busy in other ways, which is the
principal reason for the gap. One change I have noticed in that time is that
for one reason and another I have been watching more television.

Those with a clear recent connection to the brethren will appreciate that
this is more significant than even a person moderately familiar with the
group would think. Even now, with all the recent changes in the brethren's
attitude to technology, TV remains a convenient shorthand for all the things
of which the brethren disapprove. I can recall the key question about people
who had departed the fellowship: "have they got a television?" The answer,
yes or no, pretty much summed up whether or not there was hope for them. So
even now on the outside the medium feels as though it has more tangible
associations than most other things I do differently.

Yet, as I say, I am watching more of it.

I still have my own quibbles with TV in general and, if anything, they have
actually strengthened with time. I have no moral objection, naturally, but
having only come into contact with the whole television system as an adult
there are aspects of it that I find incredibly odd and borderline
disturbing. It seems to me to have an uncomfortable amount in common with
devices in science fiction dystopias, where something is dispensed
continually to keep the masses occupied, something innocuous enough to be
welcomed without worry and just engaging enough to dull the need for true
fulfilment. What I see of most TV brings that thought forcibly to mind
almost every time, just because of its sheer disposability. The programming
drifts by, filling time, with a complete lack of consequence whether it's
watched or not. What value there is often strikes me as extraordinarily thin
due to the constraints of the medium - for example, the news is restricted
by a time-sensitive format, which places great responsibility on the editors
who choose exactly what viewers get to learn, both by filtering important
information and filling gaps with trivia.

Parenthetically, that also highlights a long-standing concern I have that is
specific to the UK, which is that citizens pay for the right to watch
television by funding an organisation that I feel has too much power.

I also struggle to understand the idea of live broadcast, except in the case
of, say, sports where knowing what you're watching is taking place NOW is
important. I am told by some that there is a quality of community about
watching what is on while it's broadcast, and that that quality improves the
experience by adding the knowledge that others are also watching. However,
it seems to me bizarre to simply accept one of a small choice of options at
a particular time and, with it, the need to regulate other aspects of life
around the start and end times.

Personally, I still don't have a television set, and consequently I don't
watch live television. My watching of television is by means of the
now-excellent web services available (which means, I suppose, that I have a
moral obligation to buy a TV license, but fortunately not a legal one or I
would probably abandon watching entirely instead). I like to watch
television when I need to relax and not concentrate for a while, and while
doing something that needs doing but doesn't require my full attention
(typically ironing, but I also find the slight distraction helps to avoid
getting bogged down in the detail of some thinking-heavy projects). Yet,
with weeks of programming available at any one time, I frequently find it
very difficult to come up with anything that appears even worth watching for
these slight purposes. What, I often ask myself, would be the chances of
finding something I would want to watch just when I turn it on?

This all seems very negative, but it's really all preparatory ... what I'd
like to say is that when TV is good, it can be extremely good.

Over the last few days I have watched a documentary called "How to be a
Composer", and I found myself not only enjoying it but consciously enjoying
it. The subject was intriguing - a music critic with no formal knowledge
attends the Royal Academy of Music for a year to study composition - the
format suited to visuals and the spoken word, besides the music, and for me
the whole concept just worked very well. More than that, I admired the look
of the documentary viewing it as a photographer - the framing, the lighting
(including some techniques I like to use myself), the use of selective
focus. And I found the story-telling methods instructive too, particularly
the way simply cutting to a new scene can force the viewer to consider new
information in the light of the preceding information, leading to
conclusions without ever spelling them out. I think I got quite a lot from
my time watching this particular documentary, and it also left me with an
urge to have a go at composition myself (not that I expect to have time to
indulge that urge).

There's no particular conclusion to this other than that I wish the
possibilities of television as a medium were fulfilled more often. The
populist wastelands of the schedules seem to be such a waste in so many
ways, and leave me with no wish to defend this bete noire of the brethren to
them.