festivus

“There’s a pole. It requires no decoration. I find tinsel distracting.”
-Frank Costanza

Happy Festivus friends. As is custom on this most hallowed of days, it is important that we engage in the airing of grievances. I’ve restricted my list to three, in keeping with the minimalist nature of the holiday. My complaints are personal issues about television that just rankle me. They’re not broad problems with TV in general, but boy do they piss me off.

1) So few foreign language scripted series on SBS. I’ve been trying to broaden my TV horizons this year and would love to be able to watch more foreign content. While I’ve seen some great shows like The Killing, Anna Pihl, and Spiral, surely there should be a heck of a lot more viewing options across their two channels.

2) No more Wipeout in the mornings on Go! I’m lucky enough to have a television near my desk at work and it was always a pleasure/much-needed distraction every morning to look up at the TV and watch Wipeout on Go! With them taking the show off their daytime schedule, my productivity has increased tenfold. I’m meeting targets and quotas. Clients are satisfied.  Obviously, this is unacceptable.

3) The series finale of Lost. I was with that show for the duration of its run and was constantly impressed at the way it continued to build upon itself. I went into the final season expecting it not to answer all the questions raised in the show, but to provide enough substantial resolution to the major issues and plots raised throughout the series run. Instead, what we received was a season that did little to develop upon the plot of the series. Show producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindeloff clearly had an end point in mind from the first season, but did little to incorporate the mythos that the show developed in the four seasons inbetween. “The show was always about the characters”. True, but only to a point.

What are your 2010 TV grievances?