Reflection

I’m going to start out by saying that this class was by no means, what I had expected and simply put - I was pleasantly surprised. I expected to be watching shows and movies and to be writing essays about them, but being able to blog about them instead was awesome. So far in my academic career I have been instructed solely on academic writing, and while I enjoy that, I do feel that it is easy to lose ones sense of voice and personality when writing formal essays all the time. That is what I really enjoyed about this class -- we were able to work on both our formal and informal writing styles, the latter being typically overlooked.

I, like my others in this class, had never blogged before, and was a little turned off by it. I admit it, I had some stereotypical thoughts about blogging and thought it was nerdy. But, after blogging for this class, I have a completely new view. It is a forum that allows for much discussion that would’ve otherwise gone unmentioned. I had certainly thought about what TV shows and mainstream movies are trying to hint at, tell us and so forth but this class increased my knowledge of that greatly. Not only did the subject material help, but the insight of fellow classmates really got me thinking.

As far as what I struggled with in this class, I had trouble narrowing down my ideas. Once I watched a show and began blogging, I had trouble keeping my conclusions narrow. I just felt that there is an infinite number of ways to looking at each and every show that has been blogged about in this class. It was hard for me to pick one. Another thing that I had a hard time with was changing the structure of my blogs - maybe that’s not a bad thing though. I thought about this when writing, and ultimately didn’t worry too much about it too much, as I thought that it established my personality, something that is important when blogging. I like to think of myself as a good writer, and I genuinely enjoy writing, so it was tough for me to break out of my comfort zone. Having this class formed around blogging rather than simply essays is a great way to do that. It was interesting to read a blog and get this sense of voice from classmates, and then relating that to who they were in person.

I think that I share with many other classmates in that I enjoyed being able to watch whatever show we wanted and to be able to write about whatever angle we wanted. If we were confined to specific shows, I feel that this class wouldn’t have been nearly as beneficial to all of us. I was fairly happy with the content of most of my blogs, however I did do a decent amount of tweaking when I went back through. I focused on cleaning them up, trimming the fat, in a sense. I tend to get carried away and drag on about certain points so I aimed to eliminate some of the overlap. I also worked on the appearance of them, and put videos directly in the blogs rather than links to you tube. I learned that appearances, paragraph length, and voice were all-important things to consider when blogging. Though the ideas and content are the crucial, if you are lacking in the other areas, you blog may be overlooked. It is really important to consider the audience (something that I knew, but didn’t necessarily put too much thought into).

This class has certainly changed my outlook on TV and mainstream media in general. While I had certainly thought about it before, I am much more aware of what shows are getting at when watching now. I am a much more educated viewer than I was. In the past it would’ve been easy to get lost in a show, and think its only goal was to make you laugh, cry, etc…but now I realize that shows go a lot deeper than simply getting emotional reactions from people. All in all, there is a lot more to the TV business in general than I thought. While I have always had respect for Hollywood writers and the people who come up with these ideas, I really am amazed at how complicated shows are today.

Blog = Fog ---> Reflection = Perfection

I came into this writing class excited, for I have not taken a writing class for years and found the topic, Television and American Culture, to be something that I was truly interested in. I will be honest, as soon as I heard we would be blogging, I felt immediate disappointment. The classes that I have blogged for in the past have been the worst assignments given in college. Each and every student DREADED our blogs. To my surprise, however, I really enjoyed blogging this time. I have never read blogs about things that I was interested in before, just other students work about ancient art and really boring topics before because I was forced to. Little did I know, there is a whole blogging world out there that interests me in something I like to read, talk, and hear about- Television. I can find a blog on any and every show that I watch, and more often than not they get me thinking about deeper meanings of the shows, character analysis, and predictions for future episodes that intrigue me!

It was difficult at first, not to find a show to blog about, but to blog about it without summarizing the episode or season because I felt that people were not familiar with what I was talking about. After a few tries, and researching popular blogs to see how the pros were doing it, I started to get the hang of it! I actually enjoy discussing shows that I like, and allowing myself to critique them as well.

I also enjoy trying to really find my sense of voice when blogging. At first, I am pretty sure I didn’t have one. But now, I am slowly but surely gaining one and really find it interesting and challenging to grasp one that truly suites me. I also took pleasure in reading my classmates blogs and trying to hear their voice as well.

I found it hard to believe that my views about the television shows that I liked and disliked could be changed just by writing and reading a few blogs. After reflecting on how much I have learned throughout this course it is clear how wrong I was. I have learned to look at television in a whole new light. Any time I notice something funny, or off, or offensive, or even conversation provoking, I think about how I could propose my ideas in a blog. I am very thankful that I have taken this course, for many reasons. But if for solely for the fact that I now think more creatively and less mindlessly while watching television, I am more than pleased.

Reflection On Blogging

Prior to this class I honestly thought that not once in my entire life would I write a blog. In fact, the idea of blogging sounded kind of juvenile to me; all I could picture in my head were over-enthusiastic people ranting and raving about how such and such was the best/worst thing they had ever witnessed. Upon learning that a major portion of this class involved keeping a personal blog I was a little anxious at first because I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.

My first blog on the show Undercover Boss followed a summary type format very reminiscent of the writing styles taught in most classes, but as my blogs progressed I experimented with different formats triggering my creative side and allowing me to better represent my opinions. I really enjoyed the un-strict guidelines that a blog provides, granting the ability to truly personify my writing style because there is no set layout on what a blog is or should include. Reminiscing on shows that I had not seen in a while, and remembering what I enjoyed or disliked about them, took me on an analytical journey that helped me to appreciate the shows in a new way.

Blogging created many obstacles for me that I had to overcome in order to develop my voice. Before this class I mainly watched television strictly for entertainment purposes and rarely analyzed the veiled connotations of many of the shows on television. The first step in my process to become a better blogger was to watch these shows in a questioning manner, thinking about the who, what, where, when, and whys of the shows I was writing about. After doing preliminary research I had to consider how to draw the reader into my blog by making valid points that were engaging and thought provoking. I felt that introductions like the one I wrote on the show Man vs. Wild helped in doing this because it provided an exciting yet relevant intro to the series. Creating a blog that was comprehensible to viewers was also one of my primary goals. I wanted to develop blogs that were simple enough in nature to be an entertaining read, while still looking at facets of each show that were not evidently known. In my blog on The Soup I tried to keep the conversation light and did my best to interject personal commentary whenever I could. Pulling away from summarizing shows was, and is, still very difficult for me. At first, forcing myself to look at shows with scrutiny frustrated me because I had a difficult time formulating my thoughts. Making my blogs visually stimulating, as well as interactive via links, helped me to overcome some of this issue, but it is still a work in progress.

To me blogging is a very personal type of writing that allows the author to critique a show, pointing out things they like or dislike, disregarding other aspects of the show in order to provide a stronger argument. In a sense blogging is similar to keeping a personal journal on your thoughts only other readers have the option of examining it. Blogging gives me the ability to provide my personal touches and opinions while still portraying over-arcing themes from the show being analyzed. While the tendency to create a blog that everyone will like is tempting, blogging is really about describing how you feel about a certain subject; in the case of this class television shows. This highly uncensored form of writing is something that you do not see in scholastic texts. Blogging allows the writer to really show their voice without any constraints or guidelines.

Over the course of the semester (if you could call it that) I truly learned to enjoy the art of blogging. It was interesting to read about what other people thought of shows that I had seen and I gained some insight into other series that I was unfamiliar with. Everyone had a unique voice to their blogs which showed off the diversity of my classmates and enabled me to watch their writing, as well as my own, further develop throughout the course. The structure of these blogs really allowed me personal growth as a writer because of their relaxed guidelines. I now feel that this style of writing should be implemented into more college level writing classes because it really enabled me to express thoughts in a manner I was previously unfamiliar with. By making someone follow a strict mold it is much harder to learn how to think outside the box so to speak. After writing all these blogs I now look at television in a very different light. Television really is a world community now and has just as many sub-cultures as the population watching it. TV creates emotions, conversations, and a common ground among people who use it daily as some form of outlet source, representing people’s ideas and views on society. There are infinite possibilities on where television can go in the future as it is now a staple commodity in our lives. Blogging is sure to follow television’s trends and has really opened my eyes to a new form of expression that I can actually see my self taking part in again.

Reflection

When we were first told that part of this writing class would include posting a blog, I was not happy. I had never read a blog, and I certainly had never even thought about posting one. However, I found myself thoroughly enjoying our class blog. I liked reading what other people thought about popular shows, and I enjoyed sharing my own thoughts as well. I loved seeing how people's voices were apparent in their writing, especially as I got to know people in the class. Putting a face to a blog is an interesting perspective on a somewhat-anonymous way of sharing thoughts.

The hardest part of the blogging for me was trying not to repeat myself. When I start writing a blog, I find that it often takes on a direction of its own. Sometimes this direction is not at all what I planned on writing, but I like the new ideas that come to me as I'm putting together the blog. However, I found myself repeating the same main points and concepts in my blogs.

I also had a hard time coming up with ideas for my blogs. I didn't have much interest in summarizing a show, and since I don't follow many shows I found it difficult to find TV material to write about. However, by thinking about what shows I had recently watched that created some type of reaction in my thoughts (suprise, disgust, laughter) I was able to come up with some blog ideas. My Toddlers and Tiaras blog stemmed from the shock I felt after watching an episode of the show. The Biggest Loser concept came to me when I realized the irony of eating pizza while watching a weight loss show. Each blog was generated from some sort of reaction to a TV show.

My favorite part about the blogging was being able to connect a TV show to a larger concept. I found that this way of writing mimicked the way I typically think. I'm a "big-picture" type of person, and I tend to think about how a show fits into our culture instead of simply enjoying the TV program. I decided to write about Deal or No Deal because while watching the show, I realized that each contestant had very stereotypical personalites that tie into our idea of "good Americans". Although this can be a curse when I'm simply trying to relax and watch TV, I found the blogs to be a great outlet for these thoughts. I liked having the chance to share my thoughts with the blogging community as well.

I loved that we had so much freedom in terms of writing our blogs. Many writing classes that I have been in require a very structured and specific type of writing. I really enjoyed the opportunity to write about a subject of my choice. I think that this also made reading the class blog more interesting. Reading 17 blog posts on the same required prompt would have been miserable! Instead, we had the opportunity to hear the thoughts and opinions of our classmates, which always provides a unique learning experience.

When I went back and revised my blogs, I fixed a lot of grammatical mistakes. I tend to write fast, so this is an issue for me. I also tried to take out parts that felt repetitive or unnecessary to me. I noticed that throughout the course of the class, my writing seemed to flow a little better. I became more comfortable writing a free-flowing blog rather than a structured essay-type of blog. My first blog about Toddlers and Tiaras follows a typical introduction, body, conclusion setup, but my last blog about Wifeswap has a much less structured feel.

Overall, I thought that this was a great class that allowed for much more freedom and expression than most writing classes. I was pleasantly suprised by the assignments and my enjoyment of blogging! I loved getting to know my classmates through their blogs, and I thought that everyone had very unique outlooks on TV. My relationship with TV now involves a broader knowledge base since I have been introduced to so many new shows through my peer's blogs.

Blog On

I’ve always had a love hate relationship with blogging. It’s hard to understand how extremely personalized, un-fact checked, and unedited work has become such an online influence. Its appeal becomes increasingly obvious as soon as you start participating in one. Admittedly, I’m a hypocrite. I’ll come clean and say as much as I like reading and visiting blogs-I’m sure they constitute ninety percent of the webpages I visit- I have never had any interest whatsoever in writing blogs or commenting on them. But as soon as I started, I could instantly see the appeal. I notice when that when I blog, I am constantly thinking of the millions of potential readers, ambiguously surfing the web. Maybe a few of them will stumble upon my blog, and maybe some of them will even read it. Blogging is like meeting a group of people for the first time, albeit without ever knowing who they are or what they think. You want your blog to be inviting, amiable, funny, you want your blog to appeal to everyone, but mostly you just want it to be liked, and returned to again and again.

Blogging is very much like any kind of writing but its peculiarities as a form sometimes make it hard to get used to. Seeing my words on a page accessible by any of the millions with Internet access, made me first feel like a bit of an exhibitionist. It takes a while to get use to the fact that your words are out there exposed for all the world to see. In this way blogging is just a reminder that anybody serious about writing, or their own writing should be prepared for the fact that others will be able to read, and perhaps disagree with either their ideas or style. I’ve also come to realize that blogging is much less an exercise in stream of consciousness dissemination than I had thought. It requires preparation and organization of your thoughts and arguments.

Blogging can be cathartic, exciting, and maddening all at the same time. Many of my strengths and weaknesses with writing in other forms are similarly visible in the blog. It has been hard for me to find my own ‘voice’ while blogging. It is hard to be conscious of those uniquely characteristic parts of your personality that imbue your blog and create an imagined individual to your readers. It’s also makes one realize just how difficult writing as a form can be. It’s difficult to be satirical in a short paragraph that is probably going to be largely glossed over without the sensory ability to show visible facial expression or audible tone. This is where blogging has to be separated from other forms of writing. I find myself revising my blogs to be concise and digestible, and to communicate my underlying mood more patently, as again, it is hard to build tension or irony in several abridged sentences and paragraphs. It’s also hard to be timely, and by extension prescient, which is what I think all blogs aspire to be. I often find myself wanting to indulge my own thoughts about things that are not necessarily bound to the present.

The lens of timeliness is how I’ve now come to understand TV and the experience of watching it. I’ve come to realize that if something is on TV it must be related to current trends in some way or another. I even noticed this on pay-tv movie channels like Showtime and starz. After Dennis Hopper died you could watch Blue Velvet, Apocalypse Now, and so one, decisions made maybe even subconsciously by some programming director. I’ve also come to see how communal TV can be. Events can be broadcast and shared experientially by billions of people. The world cup is perhaps the most recent and glaring example of how the world embraces television as a source of not just entertainment but also community and national pride. Television is thus much too multi-faceted in terms of the meaning it communicates and the goods, both tangible and ineffably, that it provides its audience. Something this meaningful and entrenched in the human mind won’t be going away if there are still people around to watch it.

The Reflection

I think what enjoyed most about the class and blogging in general was that part of my homework was watching television. This class allowed me to view programs I wouldn’t normally view and to look at them with more of a critical eye. There’s watching television and then there’s really watching television. I had a tendency to be one of those people who put the television on in the background and never really pay attention to what’s happening on the screen. When you’re blogging on television it makes it kind of hard to ignore what’s going happening on the screen. Now I really watch television. I find it difficult to form opinions on the shows I’m watching and not sound too opinionated when I blogged on them. I think the most difficult part of blogging was keeping a balance between what I’d seen on the screen and how I felt about what I’d seen. I’m definitely under the strong opinion that my last two blogs on Last Comic Standing were definitely my better blogs from the class. I feel that in the two blogs I posted on Last Comic Standing I have a strong combination of my opinion as well as summary. When I went about revising my blogs from class I really just went through and read them again making spelling and grammar corrections. I really enjoyed the points I made and the summaries as well. There wasn’t much I wanted to change as far as the content of my blogs went. My blog on Glee I worked over after the initial classroom workshop and when I went back and read it earlier today I was pleased with the content. Not having ever blogged before I personally feel as though I did pretty well through out the class. I noticed that by watching the program once and then watching a second time while blogging helped to add more duality towards my pieces. I certainly feel as though I progressed and improved vastly from my first blog to my last.

I’ve greatly enjoyed learning about the dynamic world of television. I definitely think that I have a greater appreciation for media and how it works in our culture. As I stated previously I was one of those people to use television as a background noise. I don’t feel like I can be that person any longer. This class has helped me to look at television with a closer eye, you could say. I never noticed before on Last Comic Standing that each of the comics showed throughout the show would be in the showcase at the end. Also I never noticed that most of these comics would be getting tickets to move on to the semi finals. Really watching a show for the first time has its definite benefits. I also never gave much notice to the shows opening until I watched and blogged on Pretty Little Liars. To be perfectly honest this shows opening really nails it and if I was flicking through the channels I’d most likely stop at a show like Pretty Little Liars thanks alone to the opener. This class has if anything given me new eyes and ears for television. It’s not just another entertainment outlet, television is truly a topic of conversation. What used to just be mindless noise and colors is now thought provoking and conversation starting. I think that I’ve progressed as a writer in the sense that before this I’d never blogged and now I have a better feeling for what blogging is and how to go about it. I’ve certainly progressed as a television watcher. I really enjoyed this class and the way it made me think outside the box and even try to think like a network executive. Having previously been a creative writer it was a refreshing change to step outside my box and really get critical and analytic with television and writing.

Blog Reflection

This class was nothing like any previous writing classes I’ve taken in the past, so the format was initially a little weird for me. I don’t regularly part take in any form of blogging or forums online, so the first couple of blogs that I wrote were probably the most difficult for me. In particular, the most difficult thing was having a good sense of voice in my writing. I graduated (now that this class is officially over with) with a degree in Integrative Physiology, so the only papers I’ve written are very formal and scientific and do not allow for much voice. My previous papers have been mostly factual rather than opinionated as they are in this class. I think that while my voice has gotten stronger throughout this summer term, I believe that there is still a lot of room for improvement which will only come with time. I was actually very excited to be able to watch a television show and simply talk about it (blog it). It was a change of pace from what I’m accustomed to doing, and I really enjoyed it.

One thing in particular that I learned from this class was the many different ways to pre-write. I normally just stick to outlining just to keep things simple, but I found that using post-its and small scraps of paper to reorganize your ideas really helped me generate new ideas, and allowed me to see where I needed to have stronger arguments and supporting information

As I expected, most of my revisions occurred in my first blog about the Half Pint Brawlers. I didn’t have much of a sense of voice and spent a lot of time summarizing instead of analyzing the show in detail. I also added a comparison section to Little People, Big World to contrast the different little people shows that are on TV, as well as how the show fits into today’s TV culture. My other revisions consisted of more critical analysis and less summary, in addition to working on the flow of my sentences and paragraphs.

This class has drastically affected my engagement with TV. Prior to this class I had one or two shows that I really enjoyed watching and was a loyal fan to. However, after reading our classmates blogs and talking about good and bad TV shows, I find myself watching shows that I would normally overlook. I am more critically analyzing shows on their content and character rather than watching TV to just relax. This happened with one of my favorite shows Modern Family. I used to watch it because it was really funny and entertaining, but since taking this class, I have written an analysis paper about the show and now have a totally different perspective on the shows storylines and characters. I also learned a lot about the history of television from reading chapters in the book and I have a greater respect for some TV shows and less for others because of it.

In the end, this class really opened my eyes to new media and in particular blogging. I got to know a lot of my classmates better through reading their blog posts and it was easy to connect with people who had similar ideas. It’s encouraged me to get out there and use new media and start to blogging and commenting on other peoples posts. This was an eye-opening experience for me and a good change of pace from my previous classes.

Revised Blogs

Community's letdown of a season finale





I love, love, love Community. The characters are ridiculous, the situations unbelievable, and it’s jam-packed full of witty one-liners and quips. A satirical show, Community makes a mockery of other shows and movies while subtly reinforcing the stereotypes associated with community colleges (they’re “not real schools”, “theyre easier”, “the students are lazy”.) Don’t worry, I can say this having attended community college for a year prior to transferring to CU!
As with previous episodes, the show mimicked that of the traditional, open-ended, unexpected-twist finales that so many other shows rely on. Which makes sense, they want you itching to know what is going to happen next! They’re not going to deliver a clear cut, black and white finale, where’s the fun in that? However, the season finale did leave the viewer with something to be desired, the half-hour I spent watching it! No, but, really, the final episode of Community seemed so random, unexpected and a bit cliched. Instead of making a mockery how contrived other show’s finales can be, they essentially delivered a show just like the ones they make fun of.

Season finales, in general, adhere to the cliffhanger ending to be resolved in the next season or bring open-ended plot lines to a conclusion. Community went the cliffhanger option.

What was with the out-of-the-blue love triangle between Jeff, Britta and Professor.Slater? The sudden emergence of a love triangle leaves Jeff with a tough decision and the viewer completely blind-sided and confused. Of course, Professor.Slater would show up again (after being M.I.A for so many episodes) to give Jeff another chance, who else would be the third party in Jeff’s love triangle? Just as guarded Britta finally lets her guard down, professes her love to Jeff in front of the entire school at the “Tranny Dance”, and he, of course, in his typical nonchalant manner, sidesteps the sticky situation. Instead, Jeff excuses himself from the room, runs into Annie( who decides not to leave Greendale with Vaughn), and unexpectedly, they kiss. Quite an age difference between the naïve, flighty freshman and the pessimistic, smooth-talker! That will never work. All things considered, I expected more from Community, not the usual cliffhanger-ending finale. It seemed as though the writers didn’t have anything original and novel for the finale, as with previous episodes, and merely fell back on the clichéd open-ended ending.





Never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret”—My favorable take on the new show Pretty Little Liars




ABC Family’s new show Pretty Little Liars premiered last night; actually it aired a surprising three times back-to-back. The new drama features a posse of popular, affluent, pretty high school students dealing with the mysterious disappearance of one of their own. After the unsettling event, the girls grow apart, but reunite after they each start receiving foreboding messages from a mysterious author, “A”, which they believe to be their missing friend Allison. Each eerie text, instant message, note received by the girls contains information that only Allison was privileged to. Each girl receives a message specific to a secret they harbor, threatening revelation of said secret. The episode closes with the funeral of their possibly belated friend. I say ‘possibly belated’ because there is much suspicion that the body in the casket is not Allison’s.…how else would one explain receiving messages from a dead girl?







Each character is a walking cliché.
The typical line-up as seen in the new series:
Spencer is the uptight, studious girl, who inevitably ends up falling for every single one of her older sister’s boyfriends.

Emily is the quintessential jock. She has a secret that hasn’t yet been disclosed. Based on a few alluding statements made by Allie and her sort-of-kiss with the new girl in town, it appears she may currently be struggling with her sexual orientation.

Allison is the missing girl who assumed the role of the bitchy, instigating “queen bee” prior to her disappearance. Think Regina from Mean Girls. It’s strange how Jenna looks like a dark-haired version of Allison. It’s hard to get a good look at Jenna’s face though as she is always wearing enormous sunglasses.

Hanna (former doormat of the estranged group) rises up in the ranks and reintroduces herself as Allison’s replacement as most popular girl in school. Hanna transforms from an awkward pushover into a defiant rebel. She’s resorted to recreational shop-lifting as a way to cope with her family issues.

Aria is the level-headed, observant, skeptical friend of the bunch. She becomes very uneasy about these mystery texts, rounds up her old friends, only to discover that they, too, have been receiving ominous messages from an unknown author. Aria is being pursued by her (recent college grad) English teacher; she is on the fence about the matter. They met under false pretenses, she lead him to believe she was attending college as an english major. Very weird (and illegal) how her teacher pursues her after discovering he’s her student. He must have been so enamored with the two cutesy, witty comments she made about books.

Jenna, what is there to say about Jenna? Well, not much so far, there’s a lot of mystery surrounding this girl. Any mention of this character’s name was in the phrase “the secret about Jenna”. Also, she is blind. Her handicap is made evident when a man escorts her to her seat at the seemingly deceased friend’s funeral.

Despite this predictable set-up, there is something about this show that compels me to keep watching. Pretty Little Liars is entertaining and intriguing, I’m curious to know what will transpire next. What really happened to Allison? What is the “secret about Jenna”? Will a secret relationship between Ari and Ezra (her young teacher) come to fruition? What, if any, repercussions of her shoplifting habit will Hanna incur? So many unanswered questions that need to be addressed.

My take on Pretty Little Liars in a nutshell: dire secrets, complicated characters, forbidden affairs, mysterious murders and “the secret about Jenna”. I’m going to stay tuned and see what other secrets this show has in store!





I DOn't care for Four Weddings
I’m really not one of those girls whose had every detail of her wedding day planned out since she was 5, but I really enjoy watching wedding-related shows, ‘Say Yes to the Dress’, ‘Engaged and Underage’, ‘Battle of the Wedding designers’…However, I do have a few bones to pick with the a more recent show, Four Weddings on TLC (Fridays at 10/9 c).

The jest: Four women strive to impress each other with their weddings in order to win a free, lavish honeymoon. Each episode, four soon-to-be brides have their weddings critiqued, inviting three competitors (other brides) to judge their wedding and allot her a score based on four specific facets of the special day: venue, food, dress and overall presentation.

There appears to be a negative recurring theme in the show. The bride-to-be with the most money invested in her wedding nearly always receives the highest scores from the three other rival brides, and therefore wins the lavish honeymoon. Which poses the question, if this woman (or couple) had such an expensive wedding then can’t they probably afford dishing out for their own fancy honeymoon? I mean, it seems to me that the woman with the quaint, lower-budget wedding is more deserving of a complimentary honeymoon than the woman who spends $50,000+ on hers! Besides, it is these quaint, inexpensive weddings that focus more on the ceremony and nuptials, rather than on impressing their guests with over-the-top decorations and an extensive open bar. Some of the best weddings, in my opinion, were the more intimate, low-key ones.





Also, it’s slightly annoying how some of the rival bride’s took issue with weddings that didn’t incorporate drinking or offer an open bar, and subsequently issued lower scores to those women’s wedding.

Four Weddings, in general, perpetuates out society’s materialistic mindset. Gone are the days of simple wedding in the family’s backyard or in a small church. Now it’s commonplace for couples to invite hundreds of their “closest friends” to a ridiculously expensive venue…








They really will give anyone a reality show these days…TLC’s Mall Cops





So I was flipping through channels one night and stumbled upon Mall Cops, proof that they will literally give anyone a show. Hence, Mall Cops, a tv show highlighting the high jinx and staged incidents that transpire at the Mall of America and how the mall security deals with said incidents. The show makes everything look so intense, with the dramatic music, the use of schematics to pinpoint where a ‘suspect’ is located, and the security room packed with mall cops watching people on their monitors.

I find it pretty hilarious how the security people are given titles like “sergeant”, “lieutenant”, “captain”. Highly doubt they earned their way through military ranks. Some of the uniform shirts seem to have different types of badges that they may have earned…..doing what?!

Mall Cops really aims to make the security guards look like legitimate police officers, but they lack the credentials or the authority. They even do Roll Call, where the security guards are given their tasks and duties for the day, similar to what one would see in a police drama to police tv shows.
A few ridiculous/odd happenings featured on the show:
-A bike mall cop spends two hours looking for a man’s car that was presumed stolen, but actually parked on the opposite side of the mall.

-A man is escorted out of the mall for running to Victoria’s Secret’s makeup counter, quickly applying all the makeup and sprinting out of the store. Apparently, men are prohibited from wearing makeup in Mall of America. Weird, yes. Criminal, probably not?

-A female cop loses a toenail after breaking up a fight in the food court? How she lost a nail through her shoe, I have no idea…



-A young man is scolded by a mall cop for dancing without any music. The dancing fiend gets reprimanded, a second time, for dancing and doing handstands, still without music.

-A young man wearing a dress is kicked out of the mall. The young man insists that his uncle is a cross-dresser and that makes it ok. It’s so obvious that this kid is just being a smartass, wearing a slip dress and Nikes, but the mall cop takes the stunt so seriously.

-Sarah Palin arrives at Mall of America for a book signing, the mall cops find a suitcase (probably planted there for the show) and enlist the help of their bomb sniffing dog to discover if there truly is a threat. There was no threat. But it’s stupid how they didn’t call the police or bomb squad if the possibility of harm existed.








VH1's adds yet another classy reality tv show to the lineup--You're Cut Off





Nine privileged narcissists are knocked down a peg or two after their families enroll them in a reality check bootcamp.


Surprise...You're Cut Off!: "The girls have their first rehabilitation session with professional life coach Laura Baron. They open up about 'why is money is so important to them.' Watch the full season premiere!"


It’s one dilemma for the girls after another:
1. Nine women, under the guise of starring in VH1’s new reality show highlighting their lavish lifestyles, The Good Life, are in for a rude awakening. Each one aghast to find their credit cards declined during their daily shopping spree.

2. The women “coincidentally” meet each other at the customer service kiosk in the mall to complain about their decline credit cards.

3. The host, a lifestyle coach, reveals to the women they have been ambushed. Their families have turned the money hungry mooches over to the professional to set them straight. They have been sentenced to an 8 week lifestyle boot camp, a last effort to check their egocentric ways.

4. The girls cry and whine and swear revenge on their families for cutting them off from their trust funds. The princesses are brought back down to Earth a bit when faced with reality that parents and husbands are no longer willing to fund their shopping addictions or turn the other cheek to their selfish attitudes.

5. The drama begins after the girls find out they are not being escorted to their new home in a limo like other reality shows, but in a mini-van. The horrors! They consider their transportation to be far beneath them and vocalize their extreme dissatisfaction.

6. Transported in the abomination that is a mini-van, they are let down, yet again, when they see the “shack of a house” they’re forced to live in. What most people would consider a normal, middle-class home, these privileged women deem a shack. One woman insists that her house maid would not live in a house so decrepit. (there is a picture of house at the top of the blog, doesn’t really deserve dump status, huh?)

7. And get this! The girls to cook their own food! Most of the women don’t know how to cook or refuse to cook; so they are limited to cigarettes and boxed wine. And just to reiterate how they are going to start living more modestly, they are supplied with a box of wine. After all, it wouldn’t be a trashy reality show without excessive alcohol consumption.

8. Needless bickering and petty arguments soon ensue after “fake girls” and “bitchy girls” are outed. Alliances are drawn, setting the stage for the upcoming drama that will likely transpire throughout the season.

9. As the season progresses, the women are going to be taught a thing or two by taking on demanding jobs. But will they take what they learn to heart, merely go through the motions, or refuse to cooperate?...We shall see.

All in all, You’re Cut Off is another predictable reality featuring spoiled, childish people with no appreciable concept of real life.

Blog Reflection

Before this class, blogging seemed like a very foreign aspect of the entertainment culture. I felt that blogging was reserved for people wanting to rant their opinions, or a place to tear apart the smallest details of productions. Now, after spending five weeks reading and writing in this field, I have gained a strong respect for those bloggers with a strong developed voice, those that create compelling and engaging commentaries, and blogs that have an overall aesthetic appeal.

For me, the hardest part of the blogging process was keeping my writing focused in a certain direction. I feel like my original attempts were a little scattered, and seemed to be writing just to write. Over the course of the term though, I felt my style become more streamlined. I remember one moment when I was writing my second blog on Glee, and I likened the process to acting, and achieving an objective. Once I was able to create a specific goal for the blog, I was able to focus my writing and achieve that objective.

I found most of my revisions focused on making my blogs more visually appealing. I changed the lengths of some paragraphs, and added additional videos and images to keep the reader engaged. This was also the aspect of blogging that I began having the most fun with. I found that my searches for the right videos and links would take twice as long as the actual writing because I would become so engrossed in researching. I feel like this is where a lot of my strength as a blogger came from as well. For my blog on Breaking Bad I spent several hours during rehearsal one night searching for the right clips that would highlight the brilliant blend of humor and tragedy that the show mixes together. It is a show that I care deeply about, and I wanted to convert other readers into viewers for the program. By finding clips that I believed would be engaging to readers, such as the recap of episode 1 and the two main actors jokingly performing on The Soup, I think readers were able to get a clear picture about the caliber of show Breaking Bad is.

Also, I believe that it’s this use of multi-media that separates blogging from the usual styles of writing that I do. For scholastic papers, my writing is typically broken up into paragraphs that tend to be fairly long in length to prove an example. With blogging, I format my writing in a similar fashion, however they are much shorter in length and broken up by media objects. I found that the shorter and more direct a blogging paragraph is, the more effect it has. For any additional explanation that is needed, I can use an image or video to achieve that example more effectively.

I really appreciated the strong sense of voice that can be developed in blogging. For scholastic writing, I often feel constrained by editing myself to keep my writing formal. Over the course of the term, I believe I grew into my own voice as a writer for this style of writing. I was able to you terms like “clusterfuck” and references of the Flavor of Love girls in the same piece, which I would argue is a success for a paper.

Besides shaping my writing style, blogging has also altered the way that I view television entertainment. I already watched shows with an analytical eye, but I usually kept my evaluation focused on the actors’ performances. Now when I view programs, I watch for the overall arc of the show, whether it is culturally relevant, and if the show is engaging. Watching TV has become an interactive process. I now feel more compelled to search Internet forums, or read blogging reviews of programs. I even feel more compelled to begin writing blogs of my own.
I think this is an incredibly valuable skill to develop for the field I have chosen to enter in as a profession. Many actors use sites like Twitter to remain in the public eye and promote themselves. I believe that blogging can be a very excellent outlet for my own voice in this crazy industry.

Personal Reflection

At the beginning of this class I was a little nervous about having to post weekly blogs. I had never written a blog before this class and maybe read only one only once or twice, so to say the least I felt in over my head for the first few blogs I posted. I do enjoy watching TV and relaxing, but I was extremely unsure about how to go about writing a blog. Honestly, the most difficult aspect of writing the blogs for me was analyzing a specific show. I used to normally lie on the couch, turn on the TV, and then transform into a vegetable every time because I used the TV as an aid to help me relax and unwind. I dealt with my short comings as a TV analyst by constantly reminding myself to think critically about whatever show I happened to be watching, really trying to pick out a few key points the show was trying to make while relating these points back to modern American culture. Today, the last day of class, I feel confident knowing that I am no longer the same vegetable I once was and I have conquered my initial difficulty. Now as I watch TV I can easily pick out subtle nuances of the show and readily identify how and why these shows fit into today’s society.

As the month of June rolled on I felt like I was slowly becoming a better blogger, but going back and revising the blogs has reassured this belief for me. The revisions I made on my first blog post greatly outnumbered the revisions I had to make on my final posts. My first post Somebody…Please Lie to Me contained some pretty good analysis of the show, but I realized that in no way, shape, or form did I make the blog interesting or engaging to other fans of the show. Instead I just tried to tell the reader how the show relates to American society and what the premise of the show is, so I went back and really tried to engage the reader by stating strong opinions about the show and backing up my opinions with undeniable information from the show. After the first blog Somebody…Please Lie to Me my revisions diminished with each preceding post, yet the type of revisions I made were pretty much the same for each. I noticed that most of my blogs were half summery and half analysis with a few tiny opinions thrown in the mix, so I tried to really focus on the analysis aspect while developing and maintaining a sense of voice. I came to think of the blogs like I was debating the importance of the show with a friend while convincing them to either watch the show or not watch it. By my last blog Damn…That’s a HUGE Bitch! I felt like I had finally become comfortable blogging, which I proved to myself by only having to revise small grammatical errors in the last blog.

All my life my teachers have taught me to write in an academic fashion and it was hard to ignore this urge while blogging, especially in for the first few. I remember for my fourth blog Finally I Have My Entourage Back I really had to resist this urge. While writing this particular blog I found myself spending more time on arguing my point with fancy words and proper grammar than making sure my writing had fluidity to it. I’m sure most of the people who read this blog right after I posted it thought it sucked because my ideas where choppy and unconnected, which I hopefully have fixed. This class has taught me to be more confident in my writing as a blogger and an academic because I now attempt to not only use accurate and descriptive adjectives with proper grammar, but now I also make sure to transition smoothly from one idea to the next, making sure to keep the reader engaged and able to follow my thought process.

All in all I loved this class and have already recommended it to all of my friends who still need to take an upper division writing class. Now I can watch hours of TV, which I frequently do, and not feel like I’ve wasted my time away. I recognize the clever writing techniques, timely events relatable to life outside the world of television, and great acting that accompanies many of my favorite TV shows. I started this class as a TV watching vegetable who didn’t even read blogs and didn’t notice the plethora of new shows coming out, but now I feel like I am a somewhat decent TV critic who enjoys watching any and all kinds of TV programming. My thinking about TV has changed for the better, I enjoy the complex web TV spins and which viewers get trapped, and I have only this class and you as a teacher to thank for it!

Final Reflection

This class was not what I expected it to be but it was worth the crash review of how to write well. I was surprised at how easy it was for me to forget the basic rules of writing. This class helped me in both my formal and informal writing techniques. I shall try to utilize what I learned from all that we did within the class, such as the blogs, research, paper, and prospectus to enhance my writing.

Within formal writings such as the research paper, I now know I have to work on my organization and structure of my essays. I need to take the time to revise and flush out my arguments to their maximum. I also found a better way to come up with ideas and get myself out of writers block if I get stuck. Also, grammar is a big issue. As soon as I finish a paper, I need to read and re-read to find the grammatical errors such as the misuse of the semi-colon. This, I am hoping, will affect how my papers are scored in the future.

Informally, my writing may still need a bit of work. I know I have strong voice in whatever I write, which sometimes can overpower the intended assignment, but the same issues that I have within my formal writing can apply to informal writing as well. I think the most difficult part of creating the blogs was coming up with a subject to write about. Sometimes I had to look at other blogs to get an idea of what I wanted to write about. It was a little nerve-wracking knowing that a blog is meant for entertainment therefore it must be entertaining. Especially given the subject of the class was TV, it was hard to judge what other people may have found appealing. Though I did enjoy having the freedom to choose whatever show and write whatever you wanted to say. It was like I was my eight year old self, except with a broader vocabulary.

In the revision process, I looked for more of the grammatical errors than anything else. I also tried to adjust the flow of the sentences so they made more sense as a quick read. It was relatively different than what I normally write. I could allow more of my own judgments and opinions to come across. I normally just write more for educational purposes, such as essays, research papers, and various other school related papers. It was nice for change to be able to not have so much focus on supporting the claim and instead just stating what I thought.

It’s interesting to note that after writing these blogs I see a television program differently. When I watch a show I am now thinking if it would be a good candidate to blog about. I almost want to keep blogging and see how others react to what I have to say, especially people outside of our class. I also want to look up more blogs on TV shows I wouldn’t normally watch. I feel like I could get the best sense of what the show is really like from an avid fan or one not so keen about it. I am glad we got the opportunity to create our own blogs because otherwise I don’t believe I would have ever created one. Out of my friend base I know that a lot of them watch the shows I do, so it was nice knowing that people are actually interested what other people watch. For instance, I would have never known about some of the shows if the people in the class hadn’t blogged about them. It was also nice to get feedback from fellow bloggers. Though some comments were more like, “I watch that show too” or “that was hilarious” it was comforting to know I was being read.

As my first time blogging, I had a good experience. It was fun, relatively easy, and a bit cathartic. I am not the best blogger and I know that there is room for improvement but hopefully these first five are just the beginning to my blogging endeavors. It was a good class, a little fast passed, but my writing reaped the benefits and hopefully that shows.

Blog Reflection

Prior to taking TV and American Culture, I’d never written a blog before and really never read others’ blogs either. Writing the first blog was somewhat difficult because I tend to want to summarize and/or ramble, but the more I blogs I wrote, the easier they became. Portraying a good sense of voice in my blogs was a bit challenging in the beginning as well. So those aspects of blogging were a bit tough, but the more blogs I wrote and read the easier finding voice, avoiding summary, and incorporating much more commentary became. Also, reading other’s blogs got me interested in other shows I probably would not have tuned into. I think writing these blogs forced me to delve deeper into the shows I was watching. I had to really think about what I was watching and what the bigger meanings were and then apply that to my blogs. I enjoyed writing about shows I really liked but found that I was harder to criticize them. The shows I thought were terrible were a lot easier to write about though, because there was so much to pick apart and criticize.

Blog writing was different from the writing I’m used to doing, in that it’s not as formal and inherently incorporates the author’s opinion. In formal writing, it’s shunned to use “I” or state your opinion outright, but that is the whole idea with blogging; it’s entirely opinion. Also, cursing would probably not go over so well in academic writing, whereas there isn’t any censoring with blogging; one’s free to say whatever they please. It was nice to be able to write more informally and in a sarcastic and witty tone.

As far as revision of the blogs in general, I took out the irrelevant, omitted too much summary, combined really short paragraphs, and corrected spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. For my first blog, pertaining to the season finale of Community, I revised based on feedback given in class and corrected a few grammatical errors. I omitted the last paragraph as it was kind of irrelevant to the subject of the blog. I included a brief paragraph about how typical season finales play out and how Community mirrored that set-up. After re-reading my second blog about the season premiere of the new ABC Family show Pretty Little Liars, I realized it was actually a lot of summary and very little commentary. I added in my two-cents at the end of a few of the character descriptions. My third blog, critiquing the wedding show Four Weddings, was in need of a few changes in word choice and some editing in the opening paragraph, as two of the sentences were contradictory. For the fourth blog, Mall Cops, I combined smaller (two, three sentence) paragraphs and changed the order of certain paragraphs. I also added in bullet points to the list of events from the show for aesthetic purposes. My final blog was is need of some grammatical corrections. I think from the first blog to this one, I’ve improved from just summarizing to less summarizing and more commenting on and critiquing of the show. I think this last blog got to the jest of my point quickly, didn’t have any irrelevant sidenotes, and was fairly concise.

I think the prospectus project changed my view of tv in that I’m more aware of advertising and to what population commercial is trying to appeal to. The blogs made me more cognizant of stereotypical characters in tv shows. I’ve been paying attention to the different types of camerawork and camera shots while watching tv too. Now I know the purpose of all the different kinds of shots and how they are used.

Reflection

In blogging, the most difficult thing for me to do is write something that I think will be engaging. I read blogs occasionally, and I never want to read something that is too long unless it really grabs my attention. I know that people read blogs for amusement/recreation and no one is going to read something long and boring. So I found it challenging to try to create a post that was thoughtful and analytical as well as compelling and entertaining. Also, I found it difficult to create my personal voice. When I would sit down and write a blog post, I could hear the sarcasm or disappointment or any other tone in my head. While I though I was clearly conveying my attitude, I realized other people are not going to read my post exactly the way I heard it in my mind when I wrote it. I think the tone is an important part of a blog and a key element to the blogger’s voice. When writing my posts I felt I was very obviously not taking and show or opinion too seriously and I had sense of humor about it all. It is difficult to read your own post and know how another person is interpreting it; therefore, I found it to be difficult to strongly convey a voice.

I found it was easiest and most enjoyable to write about something that I was passionate about. For instance, I had more fun writing about Chelsea Lately than I did about Jillian Michaels. I think that the reader would notice that too, and see that I have more passion for one show than the other. When I wrote about Chelsea Lately, the words flowed right through me: I wanted the reader to feel the way I did about the show and I tried to convince who ever was reading that the show was funny and worthwhile. Jillian Michaels, on the other hand, I had more trouble with. I wasn’t really into the show and I struggled with developing a compelling post.

When I revised, I went through my posts and tried to read them from a different perspective – as if I hadn’t written them, and tried to take out that parts that were less interesting and add something a little more compelling. Also I tried to add a little bit more of my voice into the post.

Blogging is different from regular scholastic writing because of its casual nature and, as I mentioned, the struggle to keep the reader engaged. When writing for school I never thought so much about keeping the reader engaged, I think because I knew the only reader was my teacher. In this case, I knew the whole class, and anyone really, could be reading my post, and I wanted to have it be interesting so that other people would like it. Also it blogging the writing attempts to create a conversation. It is one thing to argue a thesis for a paper, but in a blog, you want to give your opinion and hopefully leave room for the reader to have an opinion while feeling comfortable to comment that opinion.

After I began writing the blogs, I watched TV a little more critically. I noticed social commentary a little more; I began to notice trends– in genre, plot, humor, etc. Themes in TV go in and out of style and it’s interesting to see what is popular and think about why. I also had never thought about the difference between shows on basic cable and premium cable networks. It was so interesting when I realized that the shows on cable channels cater their plotline to advertisements because they rely on a commercial break, while premium channels can focus on the show’s story line. This class and blogging definitely made me more aware of the strategies in television, themes, production, and commentary made by good TV shows.

Reflection

I really enjoyed getting to take part in a blog like this one and see how the blogs that I read actually come to happen. It was a different experience for me, since I don’t really write as often as I read. The most difficult part of this blog was trying to find something relevant to watch and write about. Since I have odd hours and I’m never able to sit down for prime time TV I usually just watch reruns that run after 11 PM of shows that are about 2 years old. But now with the watch instantly on many networks websites and the OnDemand feature on Comcast as well as the frequent use of my parents DVR (and free food) I was able to actually be active in watching the summer TV programming.

I enjoyed the ability to put my two cents in the comments of the blogs if I did or did not agree with what was being said in the blog, or if I thought the TV show being blogged about was completely crazy. This was also a little difficult because we all commented on such an unscheduled and random basis that no real discussion could happen in a timely manor. I revised a little. My revisions were mostly to add links, videos and make the discussion more timely and accurate with some research into the subject or show I was discussing.

Blogging is different than any other type of writing I have done because my subject was supposed to be as timely as it could be. The peers commenting on my final (ish) writing was different from my other academic writing. In other writing processes, my peers were involved in revisions, reviews, idea generating, and editing. But here, my peers were reading my final work and they were able to comment on my final product. That made me a little nervous at first, but it was unwarranted nervousness because me peers were really supportive, understood what I was trying to portray as well as were able to readily relate to what I was speaking about.

This experience has changed my engagement with television in many ways. I now come home and check out what’s playing right then, what’s new on OnDemand and make a decision on what to watch based off of that rather than just sit down and watch an old favorite show on DVD or a lame movie on AMC. This class has also changed my thinking about TV. I have become more critical in my thinking and watching of TV… when I want to. When I’m starting to look for a new show to follow, I have become more critical in my thinking about where this show can go and where the writers and networks will take the show. I look more into character development than I did before. I look more into the originality of the plot line of the show. I look more into really whom the target audience is. All of these aspects give a glimpse of where the show could go and if I really want to invest my time into following it.

'Neighbors From Hell' - WTF....???

I would be lying if I said I went into this show with an open mind. To be honest, part of me wanted to like it, but in reality, I knew I wouldn't.

I'll save you and myself the energy of going over the plot line - all you need to know is that it's about a family the comes to Earth from the underworld and the plot was extremely predictable.

So this much is obvious -- it's not so much about the plot as it is the commentary. It seems to be trying to make a statement similar to that of The Simpsons, Family Guy or South Park, but it just didn't do it for me. Maybe the satire went over my head, but I'm pretty sure they're just trying to hard.

The episode I watched was about a guy that loved Coldplay, Dane Cook and making fun of cripples. Obviously, those things were so 5 years ago, and so they try to transform him into the "new cool" -- Zach Efron meets A-Rod meets Twilight. How clever.

The show made fun of gays, American youth, blue collar labor, pop culture and on and on...

Clearly the humor and plot line didn't impress me, but that wasn't all the show had to offer. It had this strong element of weirdness. It reminded me of how in Family Guy, Peter will say or do something completely outrageous that just makes you feel uncomfortable, but Neighbors From Hell tried really hard to imitate that strange-ness. They had a weird talking goblin (Brian Griffin, anyone?) and a less frequent but equally as strange grandpa (hello...Simpsons??).

It's not easy to explain the feeling I got from watching this show, and I certainly don't advocate taking the time to find out what it was like.

Neighbors From Hell tried too hard and got too weird. Don't waste your time, I feel bad enough if you took the time to read about how terrible it was.

Whale Wars: An Ongoing Battle

How do you keep the largest in physical size animal on the endangered species list safe from being brutally murdered in internationally illegal manners? It seems like a daunting task, but the men and women of Whale Wars are attempting to do just that.

The show on Animal Planet is a documentary following the crew of one (now three) ship of the Sea Shepherd campaign as they fight the Japanese whalers in the vast ocean. The Japanese claim they are doing animal research and they are within the legal limits. The Sea Shepherds claim that there is no way all these whales are needed for research and that the Japanese are in fact in violation of international whaling laws.

The third season is upon us and there is some drama already. There have been engine problems with two of the ships, including the newest addition Ady Gil. The Ady Gil is an integral new part of the campaign to end whaling in its futuristic design and fast speed. There is a third ship that has been added to the Sea Shepherd campaign called the Bob Barker. Not this Bob Barker, but this Bob Barker. The boat was named after the Price is Right host for his donation and animal rights activism. This ship was kept a secret and it also had engine problems. A difference besides the ship change up, is the way the whalers are reacting to the Sea Shepherds. In previous seasons there was only a fight when the two ships came in contact and it was usually the Sea Shepherds that made the first contact. This season the Japanese are actively perusing the Sea Shepherd ships and using defensive weapons such as water canons to deter the Sea Shepherds. We are 4 episodes in to the third season and the Sea Shepherds are relentless in their campaign against whaling.

It is necessary for Animal Planet to air a program like this to further their mission to raise animal right awareness. The use of the common pirate flag with a twist in Whale Wars makes the show appealing to kids and general fans of the pirate culture and thus gains viewership and attention to this international issue. If this program could be syndicated and incorporated into different channels like the original Discovery channel, Travel channel, the History channel as well as A&E channel the awareness of illegal whaling would be more prominent and there would be more news based around this ongoing battle.

reflections

I have always liked reading other peoples blogs. The best thing about blogs is that you can find one about anything and everything. I have attempted running my own blog like three times and it never has really succeeded because it ends up being like a journal for me, and then things just get to personal to share or I forget to update it for like four months. Whoops. I have had to blog for other classes before and it has always been successful! I really got to understand my classmates sense of humor and a lot about what we talked about on the blog was brought up in class for further discussions.

This semester it was hard for me to come up with actual relevant things to blog about. I focused on True Blood, but in my heart always knew someone else was out there writing the exact same thing I was saying. I think finding something relevant to blog about was the hardest part of this class, and getting my classmates to actually read it. I was not really interested in reality television but on the blog I did get a good dose of some good and interesting aspect of it, I mean, Toddlers and TIaras is a television show I will never watch, or forget thanks to this blog. I enjoyed blogging about things I liked and putting my own personality on what I find important in the television world.

When I revised my work, I looked at voice, and personality. I tried really hard to put more of that into each post. I also tried to eliminate summary, which is hard because as a blogger/writer you feel like you need to tell your audience EVERYTHING. For my last blog I decided to kind of play with television and try to engage more people in my post by offering up my fantasies of what I would like to see on T.V. The kind of writing I normally do is analysis on literature which is extremely stuffy and boring at times. Blogging is extremely different from that because I can talk about naked people, sex, drugs, fantasies, and just anything that comes to mind. There is no censor. Since I have always had a deep relationship with television, blogging about T.V. introduced me to a new world of people out there who appreciate the same shows I do, and have interesting things to say about them in their own blogs. Now, after my favorite television show airs new episodes I can literally read all the blogs about them twenty minutes later. Blogging has opened the doors to a new online community the surrounds my interests and makes me connected to other people. My thoughts on television have changed this semester because now I realize the amount of work that goes into planning a television show. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that I have never really appreciated until this class.

This whole year I have been writing about Renaissance English poetry, or American Transcendentalists. This class has helped me break out of the strict academic mold, and helped me re-find my voice as a writer through blogging, and all the assignments we have done in this class. In the future, I hope to not forget my voice when writing because it is the most important and effective asset I have when it comes to expressing myself. This class allowed me to re-find that part of myself and I hope I can incorporate in more down the road in graduate school. Analyzing TV has also helped me think critically and examine what goes on beneath the surface of a television show. Usually, I just watch a show and turn it off after being entertained, but now I think critically about what it takes to make that show, and what elements are in the show that are being targeted towards me. This type of critical thinking will help me analyze other mediums down the road in my career.

People easily sit around and bash television because of its negative effects it has on everyone. By analyzing and understanding the stereotypes and problems television can produce, it only makes viewers smarter and more educated about the culture they live in. Thinking critically about anything is a beneficial to everyone and because TV is so popular and widely watched, thinking critically about television can only help us understand the society that surrounds us.

A Different Kind of Circus

What do you get when you task leading figures from different genres of action sports, and their friends, to travel around the world performing outrageous stunts? You get the series Nitro Circus; an appealing combination of Jackass meets X-games style television. The series has similarly dim-witted stunts as Jackass but on a much larger, more death defying scale. Talent is definitely more of a requirement on the show. To provide a better mental picture just imagine you are calmly drinking a Red Bull (maybe it will give you wings) on an airplane only to have the emergency door ripped open, forcing you out of the plane, and throwing you into a plunging free fall towards earth without a parachute. All this and more takes place on the show.

Nitro Circus is a reality television series, created by Jeff Tremaine and Johnny Knoxville (both of Jackass fame), following Travis Pastrana and his friends who are mostly professional athletes from various sports. As stated before, their goal on the series is to travel around the world performing extremely reckless and creatively designed stunts. Don’t expect any award winning commentary; Nitro Circus is all about vicariously experiencing the adrenaline rush that these athletes endure on a daily basis set to electrifying music. Watching the series makes it blatantly known that in the eyes of these competitors adventure sports are more than just a job, it’s a lifestyle. Here is a quick run down of the main characters on Nitro Circus:

· Travis Pastrana: Travis is the unofficial leader of the Nitro Circus team, and has dominated the action sport world and has won X-Games gold medals supercross, motocross, freestyle motocross, and rally racing. Travis has endured dozens of broken bones and still show no fear when he is faced with a new challenge. The guy is a friggin’ beast. Travis’ competitive nature really helps him out on the show as he is usually the one going the biggest… and first.

· Andy Bell: Andy is referred to as the “Washed-up motorcycle rider” on the series. He is a former FMX rider and holds a rivalry with Travis Pastrana over who can do the crazier stunt on a tricycle.

· Jolene Van Vugt: Jolene is a Canadian Female Motocross Champion. She joins Pastrana in many stunts involving dirt bikes. She is definitely a dominant woman and an often time goes bigger then the guys competing with her. In the second season she broke her arm and had to take on a cheerleading role throughout most of the season.

· Jim DeChamp: DeChamp is a professional mountain bike downhill race as well as a freestyle rider, and is childhood friends with Pastrana. On the last episode of the first season he became the first person to ever land a front-flip on a motorbike.

· Erik Roner: Eric is a pro skier and BASE jumper. Most of the stunts that involve parachutes involve him and his expertise on the subject.

· Tommy Passemante: “Street Bike Tommy” as he is known on the show is a former street racer who provides most of the comic relief on Nitro Circus. He usually the guy sent in to partake in the more dangerous stunts that require little actual talent. Tommy is also the only non-pro among the core members of the team.

Nitro Circus in some respects re-establishes the notion of the American dream by filming these action stars pushing the limits of what is thought to be humanly possible. Cast members are shot out of cannons, wing walk on bi-planes without parachutes, hit jumps on rocket powered tricycles, and even drive motorcycles off the rim of the Grand Canyon. The series is different than most reality shows because it does not focus on the bickering and drama cast between members of the show. Viewers never actually learn much about the characters except for the fact that they love to live life on the edge. The series could surely go into detail on how each stunt is created and why it is so dangerous but that is not the focal point of the series. To this close group of friends it is all about having fun and pushing personal limits. The show is really testament to a sub-culture of adrenaline junkies who will sacrifice anything (including their lives) to take pleasure in all of the possibilities that the world offers them.