“Touched by an Angel” continues to smack me in the face like a giant halibut on “Monty Python.” For some reason, I found myself watching an episode last week where a geek who was picked on in high school became a Bill-Gates-like figure 10 years later. He was looking forward to humiliating the jock who made fun of him, and winning over the head cheerleader he always had a crush on (who just happened to be the wife of the jock, now a pro football player). Gates-lite was excited because the cheerleader hadn’t been to a lot of the jock’s games, so he was sure they were having marital problems. All this was taking place at their 10-year high school reunion, where Gates-lite was going to buy the jock’s team and fire him.
Well, of course, in the TBAA universe, the jock apologized, he and the cheerleader are still in love, and – wait for it – she has cancer. So it didn’t take much prodding from Valerie Bertinelli to make Gates-lite “do the right thing.”
The thing is, if this was a show where people made difficult choices despite obstacles (and without an angel hitting them over the head), I would be the first one to applaud it. Why not, for example, have the jock still be a jerk, and the wife vulnerable to Gates-lite’s advances? It would still be wrong for him to exact revenge on slights committed in high school. But they make it so easy on everyone.
To me being a good person means doing the right thing when it’s not the easy choice, just the right one. How about making a show about that?
Adam, why torture yourself watching crap when there are so many other fabulous things to do, and to watch?
Then again, I guess I’m one to talk. I still listen to the local Christian radio call-in show. Even better is the “Faith and Freedom” segment, where on one show the Orlando newpaper describing a city council vote to put sexual orientation in the city’s anti-discrimination ordinence and an article on Muslim men praying outside a courthouse prompted the host to exclaim “We’re under attack!”
God help us. What is it about religious topics in the media, be it “Smacked by an Angel” or preachers on the radio, that makes for such bloody awful drek?
I found a wallet with at least a couple hundred bucks cash in it in the 7th floor men’s room the other day. I returned it to the building manager’s office cash and all. That was a hard choice. It was a very long elevator ride from seven to two alone. I was tempted to take the cash, but not stealing is a commandment. There’s your real human in tough-choice situation who did the right thing because it was right for the week. Not a major life threatening one, but it’s real.
I remember that television is aimed at the lowest common denomenator. It was never intended to challenge people, make them reflect on themselves and their actions, but to make them feel good about whatever stupid, trivial, or cruel actions they have taken. Television that does what you ask, Adam, would never get commercial sponsors.
With that said, I’m glad you want TV like you do. I’m going to go hug one of my cats until I feel less cynical.
<< I found a wallet with at least a couple hundred bucks cash in it in the 7th floor men's room the other day. I returned it to the building manager's office cash and all. >>
I can’t say for sure what I would do in a situiation like that. That’s the marking of a really great person. You made the right decision.
Anyway, I came to the conclusion that Touched by an Angel was crap 10 years ago, or something like that. There’s a lot of shows out there that are so good that they’re bad. This one is so bad, that it passed up good, and is back to bad again.
I’m with Lisa — why torture yourself by watching the dreck? Read a book, rent a movie, go for a walk. Anything’s got to be better.