TNT Wants to Insult You…

Within a few days of arriving in this wonderful country it became sadly apparent that American TV was all about money. Not intellect, education or [heaven forbid?!] entertainment; Just money. How much advertising can be crammed into every frame of a show without the viewers collapsing in a sensory coma?

The subtlety of this widespread and inglorious compulsion has been declining for years, but starting next Monday, TNT plans to abandon any trace of restraint and begin almost beating their six loyal viewers over the head with the pitch.

On Monday they will launch a new series called, ‘Trust Me.’ based on the lives and dramas of a fictional ad agency in Chicago….But the products the agency sells will be real.

In the first two episodes alone, the list of brands due to be jammed into the eyes of anyone unfortunate enough to witness this brainless display of crass disrespect includes Apple, Green Giant, Hallmark, Frosted Flakes, Nike, Pillsbury, Potbelly Sandwiches, and even Starbucks.

In the industry, this dangerous new strain of intellectual insult is known as ‘branded entertainment,’ and was designed with the sole purpose of denying you and I, the viewers, any chance to skip over the ads or cut out commercials. Apparently, such displays of choice and free will might upset them; But for them to insult us like this is okay.

As it’s on TNT, the potential audience should only reach double figures in their bosses wildest delusions. But if [and please God, it's a big if !] it attracts an even mildly respectable rating and is not immediately and quite rightly shredded by the critics for such insulting greed, we could be looking at a very steep and extremely well-oiled slope: Once they see that patronizing the audience to this level actually makes money, the real networks will produce ‘branded’ dramas like weeds and American TV will devolve forever into a tasteless, relentless and utterly unwatchable billboard.

If you want to make money by making TV, you make a good show so people will watch, then add some commercials so you make a fair profit. What you don’t do is beat that audience over the head with the ads, then sit around in the Boardroom, knee-deep in Kleenex, trying desperately to define why your ratings are jammed in the low single-digits and your precious network’s in Chapter 11.

This shameful production is either the desperate act of a greed-driven and increasingly irrelevant medium, or the most creative promotion for the benefits of Netflix ever conceived by a sentient mind.

I shall leave all of you to decide.