Job Discussion Forums

cornishmuppet · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 642 Location: Nagano, Japan

Sorry, just had to get this off my chest. I hardly ever watch TV in this country, and for good reasons it seems. Turned on the TV tonight and found some interesting documentary to watch. Then, after 20 min or so, just as it was getting good, the program cuts to some random group of unfunny doosh bag Z-list celebrities who talked about the show for a bit then went off to a ramen shop to share more unfunny, filler-TV conversation. An hour or so later they continued with the documentary, but as before, just as it was getting interesting again, they cut back to the doosh bags. Same old, same old.

I happened to turn the TV on the other night too, and the same group of unfunny doosh bags went on a fishing trip and caught some unspectacular fish which they then took to a restaurant and had cooked into boring, available-in-every-street-corner-restaurant-in-Japan dishes for them. Cue several over the top oisheeeeeeeeeeeees!!!! One guy even went mad over some octopus and mushroom soup, for heaven's sake. This was the kind of cheap, rubbish TV that would be on about 11am in the UK, watched only by students, housewives and the unemployed. And here it was on at 7pm, what I would call prime time in any country where people left work at a normal time.

Sorry, rant over. Not sure if I've spelt "doosh bag" correctly or not either.

Cool Teacher · Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 3:03 pm Post subject: Re: Why is Japanese TV so lame?!?

seklarwia · Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 4:04 pm Post subject: Re: Why is Japanese TV so lame?!?

fat_chris · Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 3198 Location: Beijing

cornishmuppet and seklarwia,

You two pretty much hit the nail on the head in your descriptions of the standard Japanese TV fare. It's rubbish.

I, too, don't watch much TV (well, I didn't watch much in the States either...and for good reason there as well).

I do try to take in a televised C-League baseball game every now and then, but I get frustrated with the aforementioned observation on the tendency to cut out on the action just as the game gets good. SIGH.

My predecessor left me a nice TV and DVD player, but I hardly use them. No mind.

Cool

fat_chris

seklarwia · Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 9:15 pm Post subject:

To be honest, I actually like Japanese TV. I think its amusing to be able to watch Haruna Ai squealing like a pig, trying to skip in a dolls dress or being being chosen over an actual woman as being the more beautiful by unsuspecting foreigners on the streets of Tokyo.

And when I tire of that, I can change over Sasuke to watch people from all walks of life and more than the odd American throwing themselves into some of the worlds dirtiest water.

I even watch some of the comedian shows.

Its all so brain dead that its understandable, even for someone like me who still has quite limited Japanese.

Otherwise I turn to the net:

For my favourite japanese dramas or anime, I really need subtitles with translation notes to fully understand and enjoy them, so I turn to my favourite fansubbers for those.

And I can follow all the TV shows I used to watch back in the UK using torrent file providers like EZTV.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

I can't stand most TV here or back in the States. I get accustomed to it, though, only because I have a wife and son who watch it.

Besides the annoying types (like Haruna, sorry) that seem ever-present, what gets me most is the overuse of written text plastered all over the screen when it is not necessary.

When in doubt, read a book or rent a DVD.

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

Been back in Oz for 6 months now and I miss JTV every now and then. True, I didn't watch alot of it, because of the language barrier. I watched everything for a couple months back here, but I really do find that I only want to watch 6-7 hours a week of it now. Thank God for ABC and SBS.

I think TV is crap everywhere, I just think you've forgotten how bad it is back home.

On the written text I put it down to hard of hearing elderly and public viewing where the sound can't be turned up loud.

flyer · Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 539 Location: Sapporo Japan

yes, I have been to about 40 countries and I have to say that J TV is about the worst.
Far too many owari, as you say, its far too lame, no brainer stuff. A little is fine but it seems to be the main diet here
Too many programs about almost nothing and then they disguss it all
occassionally there are some good interesting programs

I especially can't believe they have adults dressed up like 6 year olds (silly make up) and acting like 12 year olds on prime time, amazing

seklarwia · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 2:26 am Post subject:

TV in China was worse I'd say. Not only did they have J-style shows, but they had these endless soap-operas that all had exactly the same storyline.

And if you kept up with world news via the net (which you could only do using proxy servers since the government blocks access to world news sites) then watched news from in country media, it was enough to make many people sick.

I think the only period of time I regularly watched any Chinese TV was at the time of the quake and that was only to see what had gotten the other foreign teachers all worked up.

The Chinese government often titters on a very fine line between censorship and outright lying. And what was worse is that my students (international cultural and political studies) absorbed it like a sponge and of course they love their country and have been taught not to question things their government says.

starteacher · Joined: 25 Feb 2009 Posts: 237

BBC is good. I mean the one they show in the UK. At least the last time I visited there. All other TV around the world has yet to match up to BBC I think.

BBC World is a boring though.

Does anyone know how to get BBC1 and BBC2 on the net here ?

beach_lover · Joined: 09 Sep 2009 Posts: 11

there's the iPlayer which has BBC programmes but I don't think it works outside the UK for TV, only radio.

not very helpful, sorry!

Cool Teacher · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 4:44 am Post subject:

Hoser · Joined: 19 Mar 2005 Posts: 694 Location: Toronto, Canada

I also don't get all the text on the screen. What the hell is up with that anyways? Does having what was said displayed on the screen actually make it funnier? It's interesting-us North Americans hate a cluttered screen. I know personally that the watermark? in the bottom corner displaying the network logo bothers me back home.

ssjup81 · Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:21 am Post subject:

It's like they put it up there for extra emphasis or something.

Here at home, though, I use closed captioning a lot. I hate not having it on because I miss things when I don't. I blame that on having using it since I was like 11 years old because of my grandmother.

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

Japanese television is so lame because there is no reason to make good television (people are used to crap tv- I think it may be part of why sports are popular, they're semi-interesting) and every reason not to (it's expensive to make half-decent TV, the TV they make is produced in a studio along the lines of 'If we laugh, people will think it must be good, so we'll laugh and make weird 'dramatic' faces when someone comments that they walked the dog last night).

All the extra text is there to give a semblance of interest. It's to take the viewers gaze away from what's actually happening. Without them, people might get bored quicker. And again, it's cheap.