Empty House

Emma left yesterday morning after more than two weeks of staying with us, and it was very sad to see her go. She is charming and lively. For those of you who don't know, she and Xopher are going together, or dating, or whatever it is that young people call it when they are cute and sappy together.

Emma spent quite a lot of time watching tv shows and then joining in spirited discussions of all the things wrong with them and who is sekritly gay. I quite like analysing and discussing shows. Fiona's good to meta with too, and she's caught up with House now.

Speaking of meta: has anyone else noticed the class messages in Doctor Who? It could be related to the fact that we watched Status Anxiety recently (Alain "Philosophy: a Guide to Happiness" de Botton's show about why we're rich and unhappy), but it seems to me that there's a thread of "the lower classes are happy with their place" in the first few episodes. Specifically, Rose's mum, the blue skinned plumber and the psychic maid from the first three shows are all quite aware of their status ("Oh, yes, Miss."), and happy with their lot.

I'm not sure how much weight to assign this class message as a "cultural sign" though; it's hard to say if the presence of these characters reflects current British culture. Doctor Who is more quirky and independent than most (American) tv shows, but the latest series is also more slick and produced which would imply that the opinion of executive producers (i.e. money monkeys) has more impact on its direction. However, since Russell T. Davies (a brilliant writer, responsible for the original Queer as Folk amongst other things) is also the EP, perhaps the low class message is just something that Russell has on his mind at the moment.

How much can tv shows be said to reflect their originating culture anyway? It's all very well to view each show as a beautiful and unique snowflake which should be appreciated solely for what it is, but clearly doesn't account for the fact that Captain Kirk wouldn't be written now, and House is far too misanthropic to be a good doctor on an eighties show. (Although, can you imagine Kirk and House? Bwahaha. "Well, it looks like you caught a disease from the green-skinned slut you slept with. I can't say I'm surprised, can you? Take two of these twice a day and try to keep it in your pants.")

However to say that each tv show is a clever piece of social engineering designed to change the behaviour of the general populace is also over-stating the case. I think some shows are genuinely a message from their creator to the viewer (aforementioned Queer as Folk) and some are ways of just making money (Survivor). In between are the vast majority of shows which try to be good entertainment but are also constrained by what "right thinking" people are willing to watch (and thus, how much money advertising for the show can make).

Sadly it seems that I often disagree with "right thinking" people. For instance: House <3 Wilson 4 Eva.