Went with a movie quote today, from a movie that just isn't given enough credit for some of the darker things it has to say about our celebrity driven culture. And yes, I know, I'm a day late, but yesterday was a holiday, and I just wasn't feeling it. Besides, I write these from work, ironically the only place I have time to focus on this. As it was a holiday, no work, ergo no motivation, and thus, no post.
Geek culture has been buzzing about a topic for about a week now, and I was hesitant to throw my $.02 in, but hey, why not? After all, if I can't spout off like an expert about something on my own blog, where else am I going to do it? Well, probably on Facebook, but the outcomes there are:
1)I piss people off.
2)My mother posts a comment completely unrelated and embarassing that then prevents anyone else from commenting in a meaningful way.
3)No one has any idea what I'm saying anyways.
Ultimately, if they come here to read it, it's already an expectation of dealing with my opinion, and if anyone gets offended, they're more then welcome to not come back. Or comment in a meaningful way to start a dialogue. I'm good with either.
So, King of the Nerds. I wanted to hate this. I despise reality television. Although I find Big Bang Theory amusing, I can't quite shake the feeling that most of the jokes involve us laughing at them, rather then with them. "Geek Chique" (among other equally ridiculous terms) is a hot commodity that the media enjoys catering to, even if most of the mainstream just doesn't get it. If I'm being completely honest, I take pride in being a bit of an outcast, and mainstreaming my hobbies and interests makes me feel less special, and worse, makes it harder to tell myself apart from, well, less intelligent people. It is a complete ego thing, but there are worse motivators I suppose. Perception really is everything in society, and being perceived a certain way is far more important to most people then they are willing to admit.
The show started off iffy. Oh look, they're establishing dominance. (Why are people surprised that there's a nerd/geek pecking order?) Let's make fun of the douche bag hacker for being caught. Let's gang up on the lesser nerd and not let her play any of our reindeer games.
Then Booger got emotional. I really wasn't expecting that. Then the girl who was being ostracized won. For being ostracized. Well damn. Then they played chess to decide who got kicked off. Actual chess. Yes, the pieces were ridiculously over-sized, yes there was eye-candy props moving and destroying pieces, but it was still a legitimate game of chess. I was annoyed that we, the viewers weren't given a better view of the game itself so we could analyze the game (Don't look at me like that, you sports nuts do the same damn thing with your football and baseball.) , but that's kind of a minor quibble.
So yeah, I think I'll DVR this. Who knows, it could be the piece of crap reality show I thought it was going to be. But if it sticks to the somewhat reverential tone that it's giving geek culture, I might be able to continue overlooking it's flaws.
No comments:
Post a Comment