American television is a dying beast

March 25th, 2008 | Video

A month or two ago, while we were still in the midst of the recent Writers’ Guild strike, a guest and I spent an entire evening watching TV and at the end of the night I realized we’d watched nothing but BBC material, VHS rips of great shows that were never released on DVD (I’m looking at you, Larry Sanders Show), and internet podcast shows. I also realized that barring few exceptions, American broadcast TV is pretty disposable. Despite the long downtime I never even bothered to get back to Heroes (the lackluster Season 1 finale and underwhelming reviews of Season 2 probably had something to do with that), and even since the strike was settled I still haven’t gone back to my Daily Show & Colbert Report habit–but I didn’t replace it in the rotation with Tom Green’s House Tonight, either. Not too many of the various podcasts or internet shows I try out bring me back regularly, I’m afraid, though I admit that’s an elusive feat even at the best of times.

The one true internet podcast show that always makes it into my playlist is Liam Lynch’s Lynchland, which carries on the spirit (and sometime the characters) of his old MTV puppet show Sifl & Olly but replaces the ultra-low budget S&O sock puppet gestalt with homebrew bluescreening and digital animation. One never knows what combination of self-documentation, original music videos, odd cartoon scenarios, and behind-the-scenes looks at Lynch’s paid work will comprise a Lynchland episode, but I’ve come to trust that no matter what it’ll be entertaining. I haven’t watched the latest episode (#20) yet, but it’ll definitely be at the top of my queue this evening whenever I have a chance to sit down on the couch for a few minutes.

In contrast, last week’s Lost sits waiting for me to get around to it. Somehow I suspect whatever shocking events are contained within will wait until then.