And kind of how i feel about things. This is a blog from someone in Sydney and how they feel about the show on public TV there.
Liz & Darrow In Sydney
This is the chronicle of 2 Americans' journey through an Australian medical school.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Californication...
is a new TV show starring David Duchovny as a famous author who hasn't cranked out a book in quite a while. Darrow and i have watched this show for the past 2 weeks during it's regular time slot (Monday at 9:30 pm) on Australia's "TEN" network. For those of you not from Australia, Ten is a channel we get just from plugging our TV into the wall. We don't pay for any cable--we only get 4 or 5 channels, and Ten is one of them. During the first commercial break of the 1st episode, i turned to Darrow and proclaimed,"We already saw 6 boobs in the 1st 1o minutes!" The show is pretty graphic with many F-bombs, sex scenes, drug use, etc. I was actually pretty surprised that this TV show was allowed on free TV at 9:30 pm.
In the US, this show appears on Showtime. Showtime is a premium cable TV channel in the US. That means, those with basic cable don't get it. You have to pay extra money for channels like Showtime and HBO (the channel that happily housed the Sopranos, Sex and the City, etc). So, i was shocked (and happy!) that we in Australia could get a show that Americans had to pay extra for on free TV. I thought that the Christian groups and censorship groups that seem so prevalent in the US must not exist here for them to put this sort of show on free TV.
I was wrong! There have been calls to boycott the show, the network, and any products advertised during the show by the director of the Australian Christian Lobby, and candlelight vigils by Catholic priests. It seems that they had issues with a scene where 2 adults smoke pot and then vomit on a painting. Also, Andrew Bolt, a columnist for the Herald Sun has labelled anyone affiliated with the show as a "pornographer."
Darrow and i actually quite enjoyed the show and hope it's not taken off the air. While on one hand it's dark and sad to witness the downward spiral of a man who (probably) has good intentions, on the other hand, it's funny & witty, and such a far cry from the other crap on TV: Big Brother 56, Idol, SVU, CSI, XYZ etc. That being said, i actually agree with the Christian and family groups! Gasp! I don't really think this show should be on free TV. If people want to see 4 sets of boobies in 40 minutes, they should have to pay for that!!
And at 9:30 PM, most preteens and teens are still awake. I do think that parents should have some sort of responsibility over what their children are watching and doing, but let's face it: parents can't be around at all times and having the show on premium cable/satellite TV would make blocking it easier, so that kids can't watch the program even if the parents are not around. The depressing thing, however, is that if your kids aren't watching it at your house, an Ohio State University study has shown that (DUH!!!!), they will watch it at a friend' s house. There will always be some parent who is the "cool" one and lets the kids drink at home & watch adult TV shows and movies, or the parents who simply don't know how to work the program restriction methods on their TV. I remember being in 8th grade (13 yrs old) and watching the Spice channel at a friend's house. For those of you who didn't grow up in the late 80's/early 90's in the US, Spice is a porn channel that some homes picked up for free accidentally, although it was very fuzzy & grainy. We didn't watch it for any other reason except for that it was something novel and something we weren't supposed to do!
So, i guess kids will be kids, and will always want to do that which they are restricted from doing. Perhaps it would be safer if this show was on pay TV, or if it was on at 11:30 pm instead of 9:30, but kids would still find a way to watch it!
Posted by Liz at 11:20 AM
Labels: Australia, Nerdy Musings
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