I thought about wasteland this morning as I went out to pick up the papers. The cold wind that came through during the night and stayed on in the morning like a very un-welcomed guest left a cleansed feeling to the air and the landscape. All around the world was brushed, no leaves on the lawn or in the driveway. No clouds in the sky, just the blue. A sort of white sun shone, and I thought of a Georgia O’Keeffe painting and the bleaching by the desert.
When I was younger and TV was more of a ‘new’ new thing, the wasteland was what they called television. Today, I think that may be more appropriate for the internet, but back to TV. TV was mindless, what had originally be thought of as being this wonderful communication device, this way of bringing to the masses, those poor, hungry starving ones that landed at Ellis Island, a bit of culture, a window to the wonders of the world. Well, no. And, though there was some of that, I remember Playhouse 90 with these live stage plays, there was too, Milton Berle, Father Knows Best which were not quite as inspiring. Now it’s WWW Raw, and sitcoms that are about nothing.
And, it makes me think that the best thing about television when I was younger is that the characters stayed true to the storyline and the drama was inherent in the way the story was told. Now it seems like we’re back to the wasteland. Reality TV and the opportunity to watch people make fools of themselves, and no Groucho Marx around to soften the blow. There are series where the whole point it seems is for the main characters to get into bed together. My impetus for writing this? Well, the season finale on Suits, where Jessica Pearson, the managing partner talks about ‘controlling’ another partner. Sigh. Soaps. That’s what they all are. From Downton Abbey to Suits, they are all soaps.
It may still be a wasteland. And, I may grow tired of a series when it turns away from it’s story line into stupid stuff, well, stupid for me. And I may decide to give up and find more interesting story lines. Or. I may just sit down and work on my own.