That's Entertainment...

I spent the better half of midnights this holiday weekend, thinking and talking of the entertainment that we, as the viewing public, have been recently been subject to on television, film or Broadway. 

I had just made it through season finales of The Office and 30 Rock, watched Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen on DVD,  viewed Pirates of the Caribbean 4 at the Cineplex and survived Spiderman, Turn off the Dark (redux/take two).

Speaking of this, and so many more shows pressured between extensive product placements (my industry's reality) cheaper productions values and cookie-cutter formulas, my verdict, as a brazen advertising executive, wasn't good.

Where are the quality creative shows we yearn for? And why have they abandoned us?

It’s not that I’m a snob regarding Glee or South Park or Top Chef. It’s not that I pine for the Brady Bunch and the Jetsons or Top Gun instead.  I just want something more. Something with heart. Something to remember.

I don’t need the strenuous word play of Shakespeare. I don’t even envy the summer reading list my fifteen-year-old will have to tackle to understand the nature of expressive writing and its authors.

But I want there to be something better.

What right do I have if my industry demands that all the communication in my world must be expressed in under 30 seconds or under 30 words? Perhaps it is that discipline that, as an ordinary viewer, I feel bereft: I miss entertainment where the story has characters you root for. Where the attitude can be arrogant without having to resort to foul language or gross events. Where the second installment is astonishingly better than the first. And when I hope I don’t catch myself, once the curtain goes down or the screen goes black, thinking with mounting sadness that “there goes another two hours I can never get back.”

Every generation has its creatives who have dominated and defined the artists' craft for that audience -- but why can't our current generation have comedy and drama that is sometimes more enriching, not always so denigrating? Why can't we see amazing visuals, digest complex stories and have access to high quality productions that aren't just "risk taking shows" at premium cable networks? When will we use the words "breakthrough or groundbreaking" when the standards are really raised, not just compared to the rest of the art that's already compromised?

I don't get it and I hate feeling old or cynical about it. I am especially embarrassed, when advertising agencies and advertisers are accused of supporting this level of entertainment quality in order to reach the greatest (or depending on your perspective, the lowest) common denominator for the greatest reach and broadest target audience. How else will 7-11 market the Hangover Part II cups?

At the end of the day, it is my belief that there is too little creative and artistic entertainment at this time that moves us -- creative that could benefit advertisers and viewers alike.  Too bad that there are too few entertainment vehicles that take our breath away and just too many that have us gasping for air.