Posted on 07/17/2014 2:54:29 PM PDT by NYer
The TV critic at The New York Times is keeping an eye on the tube, so we don’t have to. Reading this, describing what’s coming into our living rooms this summer, I have to think that’s a very good thing:
In case you missed the news that traditional courtship is dead, naked people on VH1 stand ready to enlighten you. And in case you thought that television networks had evolved beyond trying to attract viewers with cheesy titillation — ditto.
Yes, it’s time for “Dating Naked,” a reality series beginning Thursday on VH1 in which just-introduced strangers looking for love are nude from the get-go. This comes nine days after the new FYI channel, an A&E offshoot, introduced “Married at First Sight,” in which strangers paired by supposed experts begin their relationship by marrying, then decide whether they like each other.
Both shows are probably inevitable next steps in television’s endless effort to capitalize on the human need to pair up, which stretches back to “The Dating Game” of the 1960s and runs through “The Bachelor,” “The Millionaire Matchmaker” and odd variations like “It Takes a Church.”
The two new entries are, of course, outrageous affronts to the style of courtship that has served humanity quite well for millenniums, if you don’t count the dismaying frequency of divorce and resulting psychological damage to all involved. The shows are taking what used to be the long-term goal — getting married or seeing someone naked or both — and making it the starting point. As Chrissy, one of the geniuses in the first episode of “Dating Naked,” notes: “It is awkward meeting someone naked. I mean, usually you wait till sex.”
…“Dating Naked” won’t seem all that scandalous to inhabitants of the texting generation, for whom sharing photos of their naughty bits is now routine. The series is just a continuation of a tawdry show-it-all TV trend that began a year or so ago when reality series involving nude castaways (“Naked and Afraid”), nude real estate transactions (“Buying Naked”) and nude body painting (“Naked Vegas”) began turning up.
Fox has apparently been developing its own naked-dating show, though The Wrap reported the other day that it has been postponed for reasons unknown; maybe to study ways to make it nakeder than “Dating Naked”? Showtime commissioned a video (title: “Undress Me”) of strangers stripping one another as a promotion — oh, sorry; according to the network, it’s a “social experiment” — for the new season of “Masters of Sex.” In August, GSN introduces a body painting show called “Skin Wars.”Clearly, there soon won’t be a clothed person left on television, reality or scripted.
Sure...........ok
Just like the Conservative rubes are always "finally" finished with the Republican party.
They always feel the need to tell us this after every betrayal.
It must be true? Right?
...Al is still sitting on the couch. His jacket is now off; his shirt and tie slightly disheveled. “The Facts Of Life” theme is heard from the television. Al looks disgusted. Bud comes downstairs.
BUD: Well Dad, [he sighs] you’ve been sitting there for 36 hours straight now.
AL: I will not give up. I am paying 60 dollars a month and I will be entertained, and I will be entertained if I never enjoy another day of my life. [he changes channels] Oh, now this is better. Yeah, here’s the Sally Struthers Whining Channel. Oh, look at the starving children. Boy, man, now we’re having fun!
Al changes channels.
TV: And stay tuned for Cagney & Lacey.
Al screams in horror, and quickly changes channels...
cut cable and get a Roku.
I have had cable for one year as an adult (it came with the rent). I bought a Roku about 2 years ago and I love it. One of my best friends just got the Apple TV box. Even with the baseball package her husband got, it is much cheaper than cable. She said (and then I realized it’s true) that TV becomes a purposeful activity and she has much less patience for what poses as entertainment.
indeed.
well, if they HAVE to advertise their wares (you’d think advertising wouldn’t be necessary for such things in today’s promiscious society?)
then they could at least make their ads entertaining...
such as some of these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqbcYbq13Ow
If I downgrade one more level, I love BBCA (Doctor Who and other goodness coming) and the sports channel that shows the PBR.
EWTN is on 24/7 - thank you, Lord.
-— 98 percent garbage programming nowadays. Find something better to do with your life. -—
Just like the internet. Just find the good stuff.
yes. very good point, Saint.
find the good stuff
(but on TV, its quite rare these days....just comparing the programming from the 50’s and 60’s with today’s -— there’s an obvious deterioration... and Vlad Zworkin was complaining about it back then!)
You’re right about that. The bad stuff is horrible and morally corrosive.
There is a method of brainwashing used by television producers. Mixing truth with lies.
The true parts camouflage the lies.
I was watching Dual Survival the other night.
Question.
Why do these guys have these nice survival knives but they don’t bring matches or a lighter? Interesting to watch, but is so staged.
All these “reality” shows are very much staged.
Not even any mosquito repellent?
And be sure not to miss the newest PBS series “Sex in the Wild” on Wednesday nights (in Philly at least), which last night told us all about the sex lives of elephants including gorgeous video of the male elephant’s penis bouncing around in trying to locate the female’s vulva, and a rather attractive female scientist masturbating a stunned male elephant to produce a semen sample to determine if her new male contraceptive medicine was working - and just when I thought the leftwing’s obsession with sex couldn’t get any worse (but then I did watch the program, didn’t I)......
I don't know, I haven't watched it. I've two clips on YouTube, and from those it looks like they're given literally nothing.
....If Israel does not hand ISIS their rearends first.
Thank you.
How did a troll like you make it here this long?
Shove it,
I correctly called you out for a being a sheep.
You aren't going to cancel your cable subscription, but you like to talk about it.
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