At the beginning of this MDIA 3110 course we listed grouping of television shows based on different criteria. Now that this course is drawing to an end I can better review my own list and see how that list may change or reflect my own preferences in television.
I guess my tastes of favorite and less favorite television shows that my personality wants more depth in a program. I also enjoy watching shows where I can see some sort of angle from outside of the reality of the television show itself, even if it is simple. Here are a few examples of this:
Hannibal: I believe that it is becoming popular to have a main character in a program to have an accent, specifically an accent that is difficult to hear at some points. Hannibal Lecter is played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen and his accent is quite thick but somewhat pleasing. Another angle I see in Hannibal is its writing. I found it to be very good compared to other recent television shows I've seen in the past, I come away from the season wanting more.
Adventure Time: I personally get more involved in this show because I've done my research on the studio and it's creator, Pendleton Ward. I feel I have a deeper connection to the show because I know a little more about its creation then the average viewer. I guess you could say that I feel included while everyone else is a 'them'.
Accents/Internationals: This isn't a tv show... This is one of the angles I've picked up that I also mentioned in Hannibal but I realize that I can back this angle up much more to even convince some of you that it's true. The following new shows that I've seen have difficult accents to understand: Hannibal (duh), Siberia, and Crossing Lines. Why this is a trend I have absolutely no academic guess because the television is a distracted medium. Viewers often multitask while watching television. They would not contribute this amount of attention to decoding the characters accents and thus become disengaged from the series... My best guess as to why this is becoming to producers is for those viewers that do focus enough to hear the words and thus get more involved. (That or I am just really bad at understanding accents and this whole argument is null).
So from the above examples I'd say that my viewing habits have been transformed from the uneducated viewer to the more keen television critic. I am very pleased with this transformation however it does leave me slightly regretful. Because of my new approach to television I lose some of my childlike wonderment of shows I previously adored. Prison Break was and still is a great series. However I watched some seasons again and I caught some very cliché dialogue and some uncomfortable plot points. It was definitely disappointing to go back and realize that it wasn't like how I had remembered it.
As for my sense of identity I find this to be a great step in my growth. I aspire to be involved in television when I have the chance. It is a wonderful surprise if not a relief to realize that I am adapting to the viewer point of a producer/critic instead of the average viewer. If I ever wish to succeed it is important that I have my eyes open to the right clues not only in my own projects, but others as well.
I haven't really stopped watching the tv shows I mentioned earlier (except The Office) but I'd say that if I stopped watching a show it would be due to an underdeveloped story or a shallow program in general. When I watched The Dog Whisperer to comment on a groups post I was so bored out of my mind that I actually asked myself why I was wasting my life...
I'm very glad to have taken this class. It developed my viewing style and I believe that it can only get better from this point on.
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