Summer Binge TV Shows-Escape-Midnight Walk-Podcast 722

Summer Binge TV Shows-Escape-Midnight Walk-Podcast 722

Suddenly summer in the Upper Midwest. When the news keeps talking about the same stuff time for escape. These days that means binge watching. In Summer Binge TV Shows-Escape-Midnight Walk-Podcast 722.

Lots Of Great New Shows Means Peak TV

Hundreds of drama and comedy shows will be produced for networks like HBO, ShowTime, Hulu, AMC, Netflix and others in 2018. They call it ‘Peak TV‘. I love nothing more than sitting up all night, drinking coffee and binge watching my favorite shows. Every now and then I like to talk about the shows I am watching.

What’s more, I actually consider it part of my job!

The shows we binge watch say a lot about the national mood.

A Window Into America’s Subconscious

Especially relevant to this podcast is the idea I have that the content and tone of these shows has begun to change. Does this reflect a change in the national mood? Are these shows a window into America’s subconscious? We’ll talk about it on a midnight walk in Summer Binge TV Shows-Escape-Midnight Walk-Podcast 722.

New Shows

While the major networks are focused on adding remakes like Roseanne, Will and Grace and Murphy Brown, Netflix, HBO and others are cranking out great new dramas, comedies and documentaries. I can hardly keep up with Stranger Things, Black Mirror and more!

What Are You Binging On?

I’ve been binging on WestWorld, Homeland, Billions, and especially a new show on ShowTime called I’m Dying Up Here. Who hasn’t watched all the Breaking Bad shows again, or the more current Narcos? Plus documentaries like Evil Genius, and the new Elvis doc on HBO, Elvis The Searcher. Don’t even get me started on Game of Thrones!

Changing Mood

With the addition of new shows like The Deuce and I’m Dying Up Here, there’s a nostalgia for the American urban experience in the 1970’s. While older shows like The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking dead have started to seem stale, new shows strike a different tone. What’s more, I get the feeling the mood is changing. Maybe we just want to laugh.

Broadcast Fades To Black

As the ratings for cable channels and news shows that focus on the constant drone of the political back and forth these days, when the weather changes, who doesn’t want to escape?

Shows like WestWorld focus on anxiety about robotics and artificial intelligence, in Billions, it seems like they’re all villains. If you think some of these plots are farfetched, consider the fact that House of Cards pales in contrast to the actual craziness in today’s Washington DC.

Delicious!

What are you binging on and what do you think about it. Let me know at thebobdavispodcasts@gmail.com, after you check out Summer Binge TV Shows-Escape-Midnight Walk-Podcast 722.

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing Of Saint Paul and Reliafund Payment Processors

Summer Binge TV Shows-Escape-Midnight Walk-Podcast 722

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:30 — 88.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 313

Heroes. What are they, and why are we so hungry for them? In the wake of Brian Williams’ admission and subsequent ‘self imposed hiatus’ from the NBC Nightly News maybe its time to examine what it is about modern society that drives people to embellish and to make themselves heroes, and apparently allows us to accept them at face value. That is, until they are brought down. Are we wired to create and accept heroes? In Greek Mythology Heroes were actually gods. Some believe society is based on hero worship. Our modern media is a brain; a dream machine that mirrors the human consciousness, whether ‘it’ knows it does this, or not. As Brian Williams falls from his perch, new heroes are being created 24/7 by the ‘Borg’. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes; Entertainers who become demigods; Elvis and Michael Jackson, sports ‘heroes’. Movie stars like Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe who live forever. More dangerously, people who are supposed to tell us ‘the truth’, like Brian Williams and people we choose lead us, like the President. All are flawed, because they are human beings. Yet we think of them – in their glory – as untouchable; Heroes, demigods. Sometimes actual heroes, like Chris Kyle, are built up, and torn down. Other times it’s just this week’s hero, like Brian Williams. The mechanism that raises them up, continually tears them down, blurring the lines of reality and the dream. Are we asking for this? Is it surprising, considering the myth making that ‘makes’ the hero, that a fair degree of embellishment goes into the myth? Is it getting worse? After nearly 8 years of struggle, is it possible Americans have begun to conclude they are on their own and the struggle is internal? If that’s true, how do we slay our dragons? How might that change the hero creation machine? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and by Depotstar. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:40 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 302

Mass Markets and Politics. As the death rattle of the Mass Market echoes through the land, why do politicians, specifically those on one side of the spectrum continue to attempt to appeal to it? In discussing the rhetorical and organizational challenges of the politics recently, it was suggested that the reason some politicians make lurid comments is to ‘appeal to the mass markets’. If you were born at a certain time in the US, you became very familiar with something called ‘The Mass Market’. From Elvis, to the 1960 Nixon/Kennedy Debates, the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, favorite TV shows and songs and the radio stations people listened to, there was a collective experience. Millions had to wait a week for the next episode of their favorite show. You had to go to a big department store to examine consumer goods. It was an era of shared experience; one after another, from Johnny Carson to Star Trek, to All in the Family and Miami Vice. Radio multiplied from AM only to AM and FM, but all still served a mass market and provided a mass experience. First came cable television, which brought scores of nationwide channels into the home, then the VHS machine, the DVD, Netlfix and very recently, on-demand audio and video, You Tube, Google Hang Outs, Vimeo, Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, and more to come.  Now people can have the experience they want, when they want it, how they want it. They can research characters, content and what it said. Now, the experience is between the content provider, the retailer, politician, entertainer or writer and the individual. While we still have shared experiences, we may have it at different times, we may binge listen and view, we may not have the same experience as someone else. Why then, do politicians insist on lining up and yelling at each other, say ridiculous things to get publicity, why do political parties insist on mass promotional orgies called conventions be televised on the ‘networks’, when the era of Mass Specialization is upon us, and growing stronger every day? Are candidates that play to the mass markets making a mistake? What new tools are there and how can they be used to win. 1965 called, and left a message. It’s not coming back. Ever. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:36 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS