Stupid writers strike

Pretty soon, TV will run out of new scripted shows for us to watch. So get prepared for gobs and gobs of reality based television. While reality isn't exactly real, I do enjoy a good fictional storyline. Whether it's drama or comedy, writers control the pace, the rising action, the characters, the message and most importantly the dialogue.

Let's face it- people are much more eloquent and funny in fiction than they are in reality. I know I can come up with the occasional zinger or make the rare impassioned speech, but the fictional people on TV can deliver one liners with ease and make their points of view terse and full of importance. People in real life aren't as interesting all the time as people who are fictional. If reality TV wasn't edited, it would be even more boring and insipid. Life is full of the banal and even the most famous and richest people in the world still have to sit on the toilet and take a 5 minute dump like the rest of us.

We watch TV, movies, play video games and read books largely for escapism from our own ennui. Even if it's a heavy laden drama full of depressing events, it's still cathartic to experience such emotions through a fictional character. Writing allows the writer to edit the world into his vision and point of view. It takes away all of the unimportant things and brings forth what we truly want to know, see, or experience. I know most writers aren't exactly Shakespeare, especially TV writers, but even the average writer can spin a decent yarn and take me to a different place for a little while. That all by itself is worth whatever the writers are asking for in their strike.