Things happen so fast it's best just to sit back and enjoy the stylishly done action and not think about some of the holes in the plot this time around.

Walt Belcher,
Tampa Tribune TV Critic
(Reviewing 24's Season 2 opener)

Once upon a time, TV critics would tell us what was worth watching and what was worth avoiding. They made much out of little details like writing, plot and acting.

Now, however, it seems they just hype the new shows for the studios, ignoring the flaws (or even, as in the above example, telling us to ignore them). Just shut off your brains and look at the pretty pictures. Who cares about the writing? It's action-packed!

In 1961, Newt Minnow, the head of the FCC, derided television as a "vast wasteland". That little soundbyte is frequently quoted, but the rest of his speech is frequently ignored. It's a pity, for it contains a great deal that is still as applicable to present-day television as the oft-quoted excerpt. We still need, as Minnow said, "imagination in programming, not sterility; creativity, not imitation; experimentation, not conformity; excellence, not mediocrity."

And when the networks persist in their "relentless search for the highest rating and the lowest common denominator", they do lose at least this member of the audience, as Minnow warned the National Association of Broadcasters over forty years ago. I've been a hardcore Trekkie literally for as long as I can remember — but I don't watch Enterprise because it's so pathetically awful.

Broadcasters — like most corporations these days — care more about their profits than about the quality of their products, as the Farscape debacle shows. Until that changes, the stream of crap coming out of Hollywood will continue unabated — but as long as people are encouraged to just shut off their brains and look at the pretty pictures, it's not going to change.