Dead TV pants
It struck me: What's on TV these days isn't even good enough as background noise. A plea for more courage in offering contrasting programming.
Column What's on TV today is no longer even good as background noise. A plea for more courage to watch contrasting programs.Do you still enjoy watching TV? When was the last time you talked or even argued with a friend or colleague about a TV program from the previous evening? Has it been a while? I feel the same way. At the moment, I only switch on the box when I'm paid to do so and a TV review is required, and the strictly formatted broadcasting schedule makes a look at a program guide superfluous and ensures that surprises are ruled out from the outset. From the morning (the daily "Kochshow" or the "Volle Kanne-Service" at 7.55 a.m.) to the hard-to-digest lunchtime talk shows and the various criminal, family and youth programs, it's always the same routine into the evening. Dreary B-crime dramas and the self-portrayal of broken guys in "reality" formats are followed by more series junk, folk music and the occasional football.
Only masochists endure the "comedy" misery at the weekend or tune into one of the political palaver programs in which the same characters have been saying the same thing for years, while the hosts try to make up the return of the same old thing as an outrageously bold idea. Harald Schmidt has gone, Anke Engelke has been worn out in the wrong place - no, there is no longer a blessing on the screen, and there is hardly any consolation to be found.
Of course, there is the occasional well-made TV movie, an exciting "Tatort" and the odd informative documentary in this program wasteland. But these are islands, in the public service swamp as well as in the flood of commercial channels. The great media bonfire has died out completely; now windmakers are blowing the ashes through the countryside and dragging dead dogs in front of the camera again and again because there is obviously still money to be made.
What is particularly depressing about the private broadcasters is their complete lack of imagination, which makes one doubt the often-cited creativity of the market. The complete economization of TV seems to capture the imagination. Just because a certain milieu still follows "Big Brother", both RTL and Pro 7-Sat 1 are constantly producing new variations of this scheme. Although ratings are falling and people don't even want such nonsense as background noise, it is heaved into the program and the residual reputation is further ruined.
Things hardly look any better for the public broadcasters: Instead of focusing on contrast, they are continually closing in on the competition. What do the foreign correspondents from ARD and ZDF actually do all day? There are a few dozen of them, but what they deliver in the main programs in terms of background information and explanations about our world, which is truly coming apart at the seams, is more than poor.
Instead of convincing people with their productions, the ARD and ZDF chiefs rant and rave about their special program mandate. In their biotope, which is protected by politics and the law, no one puts a stop to them. On the contrary: in Germany, the state premiers have just pulled off yet another laughing stock in the endless revue "Battle over broadcasting fees". Instead of effectively changing the structures, the increase was only a few cents lower than demanded after months of theatrical thunder.
And everything remains as it is. This is how a medium abolishes itself and makes itself superfluous. If the box is still on in many places, then this is merely a late reflex to a memory of times when there was still something to see.
> Heribert Seifert is a media
and cultural correspondent for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Germany.
Only masochists endure the "comedy" misery at the weekend or tune into one of the political palaver programs in which the same characters have been saying the same thing for years, while the hosts try to make up the return of the same old thing as an outrageously bold idea. Harald Schmidt has gone, Anke Engelke has been worn out in the wrong place - no, there is no longer a blessing on the screen, and there is hardly any consolation to be found.
Of course, there is the occasional well-made TV movie, an exciting "Tatort" and the odd informative documentary in this program wasteland. But these are islands, in the public service swamp as well as in the flood of commercial channels. The great media bonfire has died out completely; now windmakers are blowing the ashes through the countryside and dragging dead dogs in front of the camera again and again because there is obviously still money to be made.
What is particularly depressing about the private broadcasters is their complete lack of imagination, which makes one doubt the often-cited creativity of the market. The complete economization of TV seems to capture the imagination. Just because a certain milieu still follows "Big Brother", both RTL and Pro 7-Sat 1 are constantly producing new variations of this scheme. Although ratings are falling and people don't even want such nonsense as background noise, it is heaved into the program and the residual reputation is further ruined.
Things hardly look any better for the public broadcasters: Instead of focusing on contrast, they are continually closing in on the competition. What do the foreign correspondents from ARD and ZDF actually do all day? There are a few dozen of them, but what they deliver in the main programs in terms of background information and explanations about our world, which is truly coming apart at the seams, is more than poor.
Instead of convincing people with their productions, the ARD and ZDF chiefs rant and rave about their special program mandate. In their biotope, which is protected by politics and the law, no one puts a stop to them. On the contrary: in Germany, the state premiers have just pulled off yet another laughing stock in the endless revue "Battle over broadcasting fees". Instead of effectively changing the structures, the increase was only a few cents lower than demanded after months of theatrical thunder.
And everything remains as it is. This is how a medium abolishes itself and makes itself superfluous. If the box is still on in many places, then this is merely a late reflex to a memory of times when there was still something to see.
> Heribert Seifert is a media
and cultural correspondent for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Germany.
