Silly me for thinking that watching a little TV would relax me. Instead I stumbled upon a bizarre and terrible medical show on FOX, called House. Sniping, clueless and/or drugged-up antisocial doctors... it was the practice of medicine somewhere there clearly was no tort regime, where there were readily-available donor organs, and where there were no insurance issues to speak of. I would have ignored it altogether, had it not starred Hugh Laurie. What is he thinking getting involved with such dreck? Yes, his American accent is impressive and acting skill fine. But this is the comedic master I first saw in "A Bit of Fry and Laurie." I don't even like watching him in dramas because I hate to miss out on his unique comedy talents, but for a worthwhile work I could hardly begrudge him to stretch his craft. But on this? His talents are completely wasted on this horrible program. It's really sad to watch. Sadder even than seeing him in Stewart Little. And that was pretty sad.
So I flipped channels and ended up catching Dr. Phil. I used to think he was ok, fairly common-sense in his advice and effective at making people see it. But lately I've been gravely concerned that any legitimate therapeutic goals are being subverted for the purpose of making entertaining television. I've seen some revoltingly cruel segments, like one involving a woman who had a dream to be a country singer. She wasn't great, but she also hadn't had much opportunity to develop. She was enthusiastic and willing to work on it, but Dr. Phil's advice pretty much amounted to him just crushing her dream, and in a very public, humiliating way. Meanwhile on other shows there are so many guests (can't even call them patients or clients) that there's only a few minutes of interaction before they are shoved to the side to make room for the next. On other occasions he involves his wife and children, often in inappropriate situations as therapists that puts them or the "guests" at risk for harm. As TV it's become painful to watch, and as therapy it's a travesty. A good therapist can be really helpful, but a bad one can cause damage. I fear he's become the latter.
After that I stumbled onto SpikeTV where I was scarred by the 30 seconds I caught of Mortal Kombat Annihilation. I think it's time to turn off the TV.
Edit 2/16: On retrospect, I realize I got lucky. It was Tuesday, so I might have accidentally ended up watching One Tree Hill. I watched it purposefully earlier this year because Huey Lewis was on it. Huey really needs to pick better roles, I'm tired of suffering for his art... (Well, just the acting. No suffering ever involved with the music. And Duets and Short Cuts were perfectly respectable, as was his appearance on Just Shoot Me. Unfortunately not so Shadow of a Doubt or .Com for Murder, or this...)
One Tree Hill involves a town full of supremely morose kids and adults. Perhaps the show thought existential angst would be "cool," and the kids would relate, but I can't imagine any kid actually wrestling with the meaning of things would recognize anything about that show as being representative of their life. The character played by Huey, and the character's wife, were the only reasonably emotionally-healthy people in the entire town (based on the two episodes I happened to watch), who conveniently sold their house to buy an RV (thereby writing themselves off the show) AS SOON AS THEIR HIGH SCHOOL AGE DAUGHTER GOT MARRIED!!! "Yeah, you're 17, so what? You're married now -- you don't need us!" Naturally, upcoming plot lines suggested marital difficulties. What's the poor girl gonna do now that her safety net has driven off in a camper?
Anyway, I'm going to have to stop watching TV on Tuesdays. It's way too aggravating.