Being forced to watch TV in the breakroom (my job has a lot of people who might object to me turning it off, plus I can never find the damn remote...), has reminded me how awful a lot of TV is. On many different levels. Apparently even in 15 minute doses I still get concentrated awfulness a good third of the time.
I've been reminded how incredibly judgemental and needlessly gruesome crime shows are. Hearing people talking about rape, torture, betrayal... not my idea of a break. Also apparently the Law and Order attorneys are incredibly out for blood, especially this one tall white woman (don't know her name, 15 minute doses remember). Multiple times I've seen them finish a trial and then immediately turn on their own witness; in one case a murderer's attorney held on to knowledge that he was a killer for 15 years until his death, then immediately went clean to clear this other guy's name. The whole time the other side's attorneys were trying to argue that she was in breach of client-attorney confidentiality. Then after the trial was over, the main characters immediately turn on her and try to convict her for concealing evidence. That one was funny because partway through the trial one of them turned to the other and was like "I'm not sure we should be doing this." I've also seen the aforementioned female main character do some really needlessly brutal questioning sections; in one case she did an interview of an expert witness on mental illness who wrote a book about being institutionalized. And not only did she publicly question him about whether he had a mental illness and what had happened in the institution, she attempted to convince him that a horrible life experience that he very much didn't like and didn't consent to (electroshock therapy) was a good thing because he didn't have thoughts of suicide any more, even tho he lost a large chunk of his memories. Double whammy of public humiliation and extreme condescension. That one was a 30 minute dose, so I can tell you confidently that that episode was a giant author tract about how institutionalizing the mentally ill is good, even tho actual professionals use that as a last resort.
I also learned that apparently football announcers have weird views on gender. I've only seen less than an hour of football footage total in my time here, and from what I remember in my childhood announcers almost always talk about the game and not much else, so I shouldn't really be able to say that. But I can. The first time it was two announcers kind of in shock, discussing why a football player had cried on the field after an injury and how embarrassing this was for him. They put forward multiple explanations, like maybe it was just a physical response to the pain. Like holy shit guys, boys cry, its not that complicated. Second time was them using the word "hystrionics", which is just kind of. Old fashioned.