Don’t watch TV? Go away. Interested? Today I’ll be complaining about Webisodes, Diversity and Digital Transition.
Webisodes
These need to be made more accessible. For example, if you hadn’t watched BSG’s webisodes, you’d never know that the late Lt. Gaeta is gay. Many of my friends had not watched them because SciFi’s website sucked, and they didn’t know iTunes had ’em for free. These could have all been aired as a ‘special’ intro to the first new episode in ages, and then you just pad the ep to be 90 minutes. Lookit! Revenue!
Diversity
Speaking of gay Gaeta, some diversity would be nice. If you watch reality TV, you see Survivor with every possible type of person known to man. Now I totally understand that a redneck hillbilly may be perfect for The Amazing Race and totally out of place for Private Practice (where would they get the money to go to see Addison, I ask you?), but ethnic diversity would be nice. TV’s getting ‘better’ about tossing in a gay character here and there, but it’s almost an afterthought, like Elizabeth Rohm’s character on Law & Order. A couple ‘Oh and he’s gay’ main casties on some some shows that don’t generally delve into relationships (Law & Order is perfect for this) would do a lot to spread the word. Of course, Law & Order doesn’t have any Asians on main cast for the main show, last I checked, and the only one I even remember is B.D. Wong, who was on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Shame!
Digital Transition
For crying out loud, will you just go already! Only one-third of the stations in the US are going digital tomorrow (yes, tomorrow, and no, none in Chicago). I know the economy sucks right now, and I know they ran out of funds for the ‘free’ converters. They would have been better off just mailing a converter box to everyone registered to vote, but that’s not the point. They’ve been harping about the transition for two years now. Two years. While we’re in a recession (possibly depression) and have been for a while, two years ago we all had enough money to do this thing. Let’s move and free up the airwaves! If you’re worried about your reception, the DTV has a site to help you figure out if your TV will work or not.