Apparently movies are struggling. Television is taking some of the high road with better fare headlined by Mad Men. The studios have gone LCD in hard times and putting on more Dumb and Dumber fare figuring the safe bet is the play when people are tightening their belts. It worked in the last Great Depression with Fred and Ginger doing the tux and tails among the champagne glasses. So why not again? Escapist fare should be the ticket for a middle class being driven into the ditch.
But they are rebelling and staying home. Three D gimmickry aside which gave them a momentary boost, people are even turning away from DVDS and looking for television drama that tells a story. Wow. A story! Reality television bet that story was dead and you could put truckers, rockers, movie stars on with a camera and tell their life of weight loss, drugs, family and that would be enough. Seems people want some story to go with their warmed over re-runs.
So they are looking to HBO and the streaming channels that might actually give them some substance. You may not go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, but there are some thinking people out there and a lot of those boomers had college educations. So maybe we are moving, or creeping back to a point where people prefer not to sit in the darkness of CG madness, but would rather sit in their living room and watch a story tangling it up with the human condition. Maybe even read a book.
Sigh. Where is Fred and Ginger when you need them most?
William Hazelgrove's latest novel is Rocket Man due out in September.
...funniest book since Russo's Straight Man..."
Chicago Sun Times
http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
