Brian Hamilton » TV and Film

Learning to like TV

Brian Hamilton — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:22:46 +0000

I watched very little television growing up, in part because my family had it only sporadically and in part because I just didn’t enjoy it–I hated the tense feeling that shows were designed to inspire. And when I went to college, like a good white boy, I embraced my TV ignorance with open pride. It’s not until the past several months that I’ve really started watching and appreciating it, as a pleasant (if sometimes habit-forming) diversion and for the joy of analysis. Now I just feel behind. Watching TV is such hard work! It’s so time-intensive! How will I ever catch up with all of you who have known the satisfaction of a good series since your youth?!

The white man on the silver screen

Brian Hamilton — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:01:17 +0000

Odd, isn’t it, that two of the most popular primetime television shows star racist, sexist men in essentially unchallenged positions of authority? The Office, I mean, and House. Michael Scott is nothing like Greg House, of course; Michael is insulting more or less on accident, out of ignorance and social ineptness, whereas House is deliberately insulting. Both are incorrigible. There seem to be no lengths to which these men can go that result in their actually being penalized. Oscar is given an extended vacation at the company’s expense rather than firing Michael. House can debase and even grope his women co-workers without fear, because he’s always right. When my mom saw her one and only episode of The Office, she hated it–because Michael wasn’t a joke to her, he was real. He was the incompetent, ignorant, insensitive boss she’s met a thousand times, who for some bizarre reason is untouchable. And House is just Michael’s more intelligent double, who precisely because he isn’t incompetent, can get away with anything.

The analysis of entertainment

Brian Hamilton — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:11:13 +0000

Adam’s post at An und für sich is exactly right in arguing that the point of analyzing movies or TV shows is just enjoyment. The idea that analyzing a piece of entertainment can somehow “ruin it” isn’t wrong, since it is possible for analysis to look past the quality of a movie as a movie, or as a story–it’s possible to do away with surfaces and skip straight to the “hidden depths.” But analysis certainly doesn’t always do that, and when it does it ruins the entertainment only at the same time that it ruins itself as real analysis. Real analysis really does make TV-watching more fun (which is a good enough reason to do it, even if it can also be helpful in thinking through problems). It’s a deeper way of getting involved in the storyline, a way that opens up the possibility of that story’s affecting the way we think about the world.

The post on Zizek and House Adam refers to as an illustration is a perfect example of all this. His analysis there is exactly what made House so much fun for me over the last couple months, as I started watching House at the same time as I was reading Badiou’s Ethics. Though I confess it makes me bitter to find that he noticed the resemblance first, and wrote about it first.