An Intelligent Show

As I read the chapter on television in "Everything Bad Is Good For You" I reflected on my childhood years. When I was around five years old, I discovered the magic of television. Barney, Teletubies, Mickey, Magic Dragons, The Cumfy Couch, were my best friends. If I was a "good girl" I would get the privilege of seeing them again and again, but when I wasnt, the severist and worst punishment of all would be to hear the words "te quedaste sin television." It was like a dagger in my chest, the pain never ended, until I was allowed to watch TV once more. 

Now that I am older I realize that my parents weren't bright in giving me that punishment. "Cristina without TV "meant that they had to deal with me all day. I was a very hiper kid growing up, so just telling me to go to my room didn't cut it. I would start screaming and probably hurt myself or break something. The only viable activities to keep me civilized were playing outside, or watching TV. But I couldn't go out and play without my mom, and many times she was busy or didn't feel like going out, so putting me infront of a TV was the perfect solution. 

When I was infront of that screen it was if I had summerged in the show and lived in another world. I didn't hear anything around me, it was just me and Barney. That is the power that television had on me, it made me another person. I could sit there for hours and I wouldn't get hungry. It was great for me and for everyone around me. 

As I read this chapter, Johnson says interesting things about how TV shows are managed and how there exists "two types".  He says that "some narratives force you to do work and make sense of them, while others just let you settle in the couch and zone out" (63) but I believe that already a show that makes you zone out is completely intelligent. It depends on the viewer. This might sound ridiculous, but Modern Family can easily compete with Homeland, although they are completely different shows beacuse they both have the same power to captivate the audience. One will do it by making them laugh and the other by making them crazy with all the twist and turns of the plot. As I continue reading Jhonson talks about "intelligent shows" and others that "dont cause any intellectual work", but the truth is is that they all do. I am doing cognitive work as I watch Modern family because I have to catch the jokes and think about what Cam is going to do next.  It's the same way that in Homeland I make inferences about who is the bad guy. 

So I conclude that an intelligent show can also be Barney, because it has the power of obtaining childrens attention, and allowing parents to take a breathe. 

Visual Vocabulary:

Cunning: 

Having or showing skill in achieving one's ends by deceit or evasion.

















Imminent:

About to happen.



















Amnesaic:

Person who suffers from partial or total loss of memory.