A Look at Popular Culture

Since my accident, I have been spending a lot of time watching television.  I don’t know why.   You would think I’d read.  Maybe I’ve been conditioned to only read on public transportation or in waiting rooms.  Anyway, to get something positive out of it, I decided to try some “literary criticism.”

Law and Order Special Victims Unit:  This a dark, dark show.  Nothing seems to happen in bright light.   The cops as tragic antiheroes, often alone, or if they have relationships they are about to lose them. The crimes are horrible and sometimes grotesque.  I can only ask, how could I have spent six hours at one sitting watching this?  But how about that campy episode with Ann Margret, Jacklyn Smith, and Morgan Fairchild?

 

 

Two and a Half Men:  This has turned out to be another dark show, in spite of the humor.  Charlie leads an empty, hedonistic life and enjoys it thoroughly.  At the beginning of the series, Alan is a hardworking chiropractor who has been thrown out of the house by his bitch of a wife.  He is bled dry by alimony and child support and deteriorates into a parasite living off his brother.  When Charlie is killed (thrown under a train by his stalker lover because she had caught him fooling around), Alan sponges off the billionaire who bought Charlie’s house.  Charlie and Alan’s mother is constantly criticizing her sons and grandson and then complains that nobody loves her.  It’s really the story of Alan’s fall, so far.  Maybe there will be some redemption during the final season.  I still love some of the episodes like the investigation of Evelyn’s new husband’s death.

 

Sex and the City:  I can’t help but wonder (as Carrie says – she should know better) what it must be like to be able to spend over $400.00 on a pair of shoes.  I like all the women, but sometimes I’d like to shake them.  (Particularly Carrie and Miranda.  Charlotte and, oddly enough, Samantha seem to be the best adjusted;  they know what they want.) When I asked some friends who they identified with, they looked sheepish and said “Charlotte.” (The one who wants to get married and have children.)  I identify with her, too.

 

Keeping Up with the Kardashians:  Another chance to vicariously wallow in money and stuff and to feel superior because you know what is more important.  And here are people who are better off materially than you are, so you don’t have to feel guilty about your life and sorry for them.  And what’s up with Bruce?

 

How I Met Your Mother: A group buddy show (but not at all like Seinfeld), it brings back memories of your old friends and your youthful craziness.  This is one of the most positive sitcoms.  Everyone is looking for not only love, but marriage.  Unlike the Sex and the City women, the characters have families.  Birth, death, marriage – it’s all there.

 

I’m sure there must be a doctoral dissertation on popular culture here.  Or at least a master’s thesis.