what's entertainment coming to?

I've been noticing lately that much of what's out there-and popular-to entertain me is...crap. There's a dearth of originality on all forms of media: film, music, television. How is it we can have 400 channels of cable and nothing worth watching? How can hundreds of millions...nay, billions, of dollars be spent with so little to show for it?

I spend what seems like a lot of time with the TV on. The thing is, most of the time, I'm on my computer with my back to it. I could just as easily have a radio on...except that radio is really bland these days, too. I've heard a couple of songs from the new Dixie Chicklets record. In addition to holding a nice, big fat grudge against them for their anti-American comments, I found it to be the same old tired stuff. Oddly, their record sales are down something like 30% according to some sources, but they still have a top ten disc that's apparently gone platinum.

I watch three shows with regularity, not counting sports. I've been watching Rock Star for a couple seasons now, and I'm not exactly sure why it facinates me so much. I guess because its competition, which I like, and because it rocks from time to time. If they pick Lukas, though, I'm not buying that disc. I'm also a regular watcher of The Unit, even though the errors in that show drive me absolutely nuts. The best thing on TV is The Ultimate Fighter, and the other UFC shows like Fight Night and Unleashed. Its pretty real, and its competition. Other than sports that I watch religiously (baseball isn't a sport, and its at least 150 games too long in season), that's what there is on TV.

The Blockbuster movies of the summer are pretty damn tame these days. I've seen two of the three that have been of any interest over the past several months. The Pirates sequel was what the middle film of a trilogy always is: a transition movie that sort of stands on its own, but really only works in terms of the whole story. The other, Miami Vice, was enjoyable, but mostly because I was a huge, huge fan of the TV show. I might have liked it a little better if they'd used Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas. The only other flick I'm interested in is a classic B-movie comedy, Beerfest. Being a B-movie, though, means that I gotta see it on a matinee to be worth the price.

Is that the reason? Is that why there's so much of the same out there these days? Is it simply because cost has gotten so high that the companies that find, green light, and sell this stuff are trying to go with the "sure thing"? That would explain the boring sameness that we are forced to endure. There are a few "new" shows out there that are doing new and interesting things, but few of them appeal to me. Its also a shame that so many of them end up listed on Brilliant But Cancelled.

A while back, though, Joss Whedon was allowed to make a movie out of his TV series Firefly. In case you haven't seen it, the movie is called Serenity. That project gave me hope, but its been a while ago that it was made. I think I may be hoping against hope that something will come along that will take up all the time that following the trainwrecks of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears careers. Help....please?