Tuesday, January 25, 2011
How do MTV execs sleep at night?
I promise not to keep beating this particular drum, but I can't help but flag what I see as the most persuasive indictment of the deplorable MTV show "Skins" yet. When I criticize the show as dangerously unrealistic, I am too easily dismissed as an out-of-touch middle-aged Puritan. It's not so easy to dismiss the (hardly prudish) Above the Law blog. (I won't offer a link, given that ATL's comments section is virtually always a cess pool.) When MTV recently defended the show as meeting all legal requirements (regarding child pornography) as well as the network's "responsibilities to viewers," that was just too much for Above the Law to take:
Maybe it’s just me but at 17, I wasn’t crushing pills, having orgies or doing drug deals. . . . I was in Les Cabotins, the French drama club. . . . And yet, MTV would have us believe that it is [an accurate depiction of teenage life]. The extended trailer for Skins shows the actors out of character, telling the camera, “Skins is real. Skins is true. Skins is life.” Yes – Skins IS life in MTV’s manufactured Ed Hardy world, where everybody’s 16 and Pregnant, pilled out and indiscriminately [having sex] at 17, at the Jersey Shore at 18 and in celebrity rehab at 20. What’s next? True Life: I’m a Kindergarten Hooker? All of this crap is a hyped up reality that may exist for a few people, but MTV’s serving it up to the masses like it’s de rigueur. . . . They’re sending the message: This Is What Everybody’s Doing, and If You’re Not Doing It, You Are a Loser. That’s a pretty dangerous message to send to teens, especially because it’s untrue. MTV may claim it’s just documenting (or in the case of Skins, scripting) real life, but they’re only showing the most sensational parts of the most sensational lives of people with zero parental supervision. You want to show the real lives of teens? How about a half hour show where someone does homework.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2011/01/how-do-mtv-execs-sleep-at-night.html
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Rob,
I am not sure if you posted it previously, but David Carr of the NY Times weighed in - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/business/media/24carr.html - and noted (among other things):
"I’ve watched the first three episodes of “Skins,” and I have no idea if the show is “sufficiently sexually suggestive,” as the law reads, to run afoul of the authorities. What “Skins” does clearly suggest is that MTV and its corporate parent erred when they decided that conjuring a show out of piles of semi-nude teenagers would be lucrative, harmless fun." (and)
"When I went home on Wednesday and checked the DVR log, the pilot was there, waiting for inspection by my 14-year-old daughter, who confirmed that yes, everybody at school was talking about it."
He does not state, however, whether he allowed his daughter to see it or not.