On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 1:40 AM, Kevin M. <drunkbastar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> With respect, I believe there's a distinction to be made between social > media reaction to a TV show and social media reaction to cutting off the > head of a lion after killing it with an arrow. There's a nutjob on Twitter > named Jon Ronson who is getting traction in the MSM after writing a book, > the premise being it is wrong to publicly shame people (Marc Maron even > interviewed him, and Maron and I butted heads on Twitter a while back when > I was critical of Ronson). I think it is wrong to publicly shame people for > making a TV series you don't like, but it is well within the bounds of > civil society to hold people accountable for genuinely bad behavior. Any > "crowd mania" that results isn't unexplained... there are ways to track how > something becomes viral; it is how we learned Gangham Style's popularity > was an overexaggeration of the media, if not an invention of the media. > > I honestly haven't seen much if any reaction to True Detective on my > social media. Instead it seems to be consumed lately with annoying > "Straight Outta..." memes. I only recently watched the first episode of > season one as it was a free iTunes download, and I was underwhelmed > considering how many have raved about the series. I am not motivated to > finish watching the first season, let alone dive into season two. I found > nothing compelling about the story or the characters, and I found the much > hyped acting to be nonexistent. > As I said, I am not defending the dentist, nor was I equating killing a lovable lion (though, as some Africans have pointed out, that is not exactly how the locals might refer to them) with making a TV show people don't like. What is similar is how a compact majority seems to jell around certain views. Internet "shaming" is not really my concern here, just the shrill, certain and intolerant voice of an emerging and temporary majority that seems to not even recognize the need to explain or legitimate itself. Also, I have no desire to persuade anyone to like either season of TD. My point simply is that it seems incongruous on its face that someone would love Season 1 and hate Season 2, particularly if the vague reasons given for the latter are that it is too stylized, dark and confusing. If you dislike Season 1, then it makes sense that you might not like Season 2, and I have no beef with that. But just as there were a couple of weeks last year when the internet seemed to decide that TD1 was the best show on television (it was not); so we now seem to be in a couple of weeks when it has decided that TD2 is an abomination (again, incorrectly) - and regardless of whether I or the internet or correct in our judgements, what is striking to me is that so many on the internet seem so disinterested in giving any specific explanation. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
