Psychic TV Shows

[Qwertz]

What's with all the psychic TV shows? Even CourtTV has a new psychic detective show (Haunting Evidence - when conventional detectives fail, we call in the psychic detectives!). I used to like that channel! Discovery, the History Channel and the Learning Channel all have shows on treating the 'paranormal' (UFOs, psychics, the 'Bible Code,' Nostradamus) as something we should all be embracing. I find it disturbing.

Has anyone else noticed any other disturbing trends in TV programming over the years?

-Q

[Bold Standard]

I think maybe it started with the success of the show X-Files. But maybe that was just part of a paranormal trend in popular entertainment that started earlier. Ghost Busters?

[Vladimir Berkov]

The most disturbing trend I can think of is somewhat related. Namely, the confluence of entertainment and news. This is partly due to the invention of the "celebrity" and partly due to the ubiquity of information today.

I do agree though that those types of pseudo-science shows on normally quite scholarly channels is annoying. I actually don't mind the shows analyzing historical legends or claimed paranormal events, that is legitimate historical research.

Shows like Psychic detectives are pure garbage, as are shows stupidly tied into movies like The Da Vinci Code or Superman.

[Strangelove]

The most disturbing trend I can think of is somewhat related. Namely, the confluence of entertainment and news. This is partly due to the invention of the "celebrity" and partly due to the ubiquity of information today.

Its also just due to the stupidity and poor taste of the average joe which keeps the system running by playing into the hands of people who have no moral objection of keeping garbage like Fox News on the air. Rubert Murdoch is the modern day Gail Wynard in so many ways as it was in The Fountainhead.

[Lemuel]

I'm going to try Psych, which begins on the USA Network soon. The main character isn't really a psychic, he's just got a photographic memory and is highly observant - but he fools the police into thinking he's psychic so he and his buddy can get work.

It's a comedy, but I have to wonder if there's any new place for psychic-driven TV dramas to go?

USA's got two other shows that deal with it. The Dead Zone is just tired old "something bad is going to happen so the misunderstood psychic stops it" formula. There's a poor attempt to weave the original film's stop-the-politician-from-destroying-the-world plot thread into a kind of X-Files "mytharc". In The 4400, where as many people mysteriously return from being abducted, each with a different "gift", actually plays the psychic motif well. Instead of changing the future, Maya (10-12 years old) is a kind of Cassandra, who sees a future that cannot be changed ... she's really kind of creepy, which I think a true oracle would be.

But, I think after Superman Returns I'm spending more time with hard scifi and less with super-power characters/shows. Outside of a few comics that have the freedom to run with interesting concepts, special-ability characters are written very poorly. I love sci-fi, but the constant homage to the supernatural is wearing my patience thin.

... and I have to wait until October for more Galactica ...

Edited June 27, 2006 by synthlord

[Bold Standard]

I do agree though that those types of pseudo-science shows on normally quite scholarly channels is annoying.

Scholarly? You mean Discovery, etc?? LOL!

[LaszloWalrus]

Its also just due to the stupidity and poor taste of the average joe which keeps the system running by playing into the hands of people who have no moral objection of keeping garbage like Fox News on the air. Rubert Murdoch is the modern day Gail Wynard in so many ways as it was in The Fountainhead.

Fox News isn't great, but it's ten times better than CNN, CBS or NBC.

[Strangelove]

I think this forum has had several "which media outlet is the lesser of all the evils" discussions. For myself, I find Fox News to be the most patronizing to the audience's intelect, its weather maps are simplistic in a way I never thought possible, it gives far more credence to flash and flaire then substance, and they play into the religious wing of the Republican Party like drones.

The other networks have a lefty tilt, but at least they are not devoting as large a percentage to unecessary flashy lights.

If all else fails, I go for the BBC. It has flawed politics, but the likelyhood it will bring up stories not in the American media is high.

Scholarly? You mean Discovery, etc?? LOL!

Didnt the Discovery, TLC, and History Channels used to be good? Before Discovery went low brow, TLC turned into an interior design channel, and the History Channel started recycling the same World War Two documentaries?

Edited June 27, 2006 by Strangelove

[LaszloWalrus]

I disagree about FOX; sure, they have religious right commentators (who are total idiots) like Sean Hannity, and slightly-less right (though equally religious) other commentators (who are also total idiots) like Bill O'Reilly. However, all the other outlets (especially the BBC) hide there commentary in the actual news section. FOX rarely does this and calls its commentary commentary.

[FeatherFall]

I prefer FOX when watching cable news, but I was disappointed with one interview. George Carlin was on FOX promoting Jersey Girl and the interviewer pressed him on his views about religion. George Carlin had a reply that amounted to the fact that he didn't have much respect for religion and that it teaches that the human body is filthy. About 40 seconds into the bit the interviewer no longer had any time for George Carlin. I don't like the guy's politics, but what FOX did was pretty low.