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How Responsible For Your Soul Do You Want Your TV?

Written by Tashi from the blog Tashi's TV on 11 May 2006
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Seeing the conversation on the TVSA forum about whether or not there's too much religion on TV reminded me that just last night I was wondering about a similar thing.

Don't you think too many shows on TV come at things from an overly self-righteous perspective demanding that everyone has to be morally, socially and politically responsible according to a predetermined set of values?

There's just soo much on the box that demands you have to see things as being either good or bad, encouraging you to think very seriously about such matters all the time.

Religion and spirituality specifically - why is it even on TV?? It's ridiculous that shows about it are all over the place on a Sunday. While it's all very nice and respectful to the beliefs being featured, it's not respecting the needs of huge amounts of other people who don't believe the same thing.

Also,  - how do you decide who to include and who to leave out? What makes Christians more deserving of a show than Satanists or Scientologists for instance?

It's an out-there example, but still, it makes the point that if you're going to cater to religion and claim to be fair you can't just do it selectively by making assumptions about what's acceptable to believe in and what's not.

These types of shows cater to such a specific audience whereas something  totally escapist that's based on a story and fun appeals to so many more.

The other thing that irritates me is that many of these spiritual shows come at things from the perspective that you need be encouraged to live properly - as if you don't already. As a result they're actually making a direct judgement on you. I can't stand having assumptions made about me nor what I think nor what I do or don't know -

There is a place for spiritual, social and political responsibility through TV in between but it's not fair when it dominates entire days because it makes things really boring and exclusive which isn't the point of TV at all. It's first and most important function is to entertain people -  to provide an escape from all these pressurised things in the real world.

We're faced with so many dilemmas and issues and moral choices in our everyday lives that when we're chilling out watching, it's much more beneficial seeing characters facing exciting dilemmas in imaginative circumstances. If a show's done well and it's themes are strong all the important values and moral stuff happens automatically in any case.

With religion for instance - a show about someone who goes into the priesthood who has a mega crisis as he sees the conflicts involved in it - like he falls in love with someone not right for him or he needs to avenge a dreadful wrong which he does through violence by the dead of night.

He slips out to right wrongs in ways the priesthood would never accept and suffers the consquences to his conscience by day - this would be so much better and more fair than a religious show.

What do you think? Does TV try to force us into being too responsible according to certain morals it thinks we should live by?

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