There is a new TV series called Life on the Discovery Channel. It is an amazing and awesome look at all forms of life, fish, reptiles, mammals, insects, birds, primates and plants. The photography is unbelievable, some of it not seen before by human beings.
However, what is most fascinating about this series, Life, is the simple but deep understanding it offers us of the mystery and wonder of life in its everyday form in nature. It is hard to look at a worm or frog the same way as before.
TV shows like this one, produced by BBC and the Discovery channel, feature the best TV media has to offer us. We can become aware of the dignity and complexity of life in a way that we could not have imagined.
But most of what we watch on TV, speaking for myself at least, is not like this series. It is news, entertainment or a mix of both. In many TV shows the unusual, the talented, unique or sensational is featured. The beauty of ordinary life is not shown. We are bombarded with violence, sex, anger, fear, affection or intrigue. The line between so called ‘reality TV’, fictional shows or news events is blurred. We are bombarded with so much that it takes more and more to move us.
For those who make war and profit from it this is good. We become insensitive to the disaster of war. It seems not to affect us even though we pay for it, participate in it and are educated by it.
In the sixties we called TV, after Marshal McLuhan’s work on “the media is the message”, a ‘cool’ media, one that allows us to be ‘detached.’ We become desensitized by TV as it takes more and more stimulus, more sex or violence for example, to keep us interested. Even war, a very hot thing, can become ‘cool’.
One can view the TV series, Life, as ‘cool’, just more great photography and video. However, if one really watches Life, and has the eyes to see and ears to hear, one will see that in this show Life is ‘hot’, involving us at its core.
Comments
(:commentboxchrono:)