I have a simple question for all of you. When it comes to nonfiction TV, what do you really want?
If you follow me or my show, you’ve heard me rail constantly against the kind of sensationalist pseudoscience and pseudohistory programming the networks provide: HISTORY, NatGeo, Discovery, all the usual suspects. Going by the old credo that half the population is below average intelligence (please don’t go pedantic and tell me it’s median intelligence — that just doesn’t sound as good), I guess it’s to be expected that Ancient Aliens and its ilk are right about at the sweet spot. It’s the model for all this programming: it promotes old disproven bullshit ideas as if they are new and cutting edge. It suggests there’s something much more incredible going on than what “mainstream” scientists will admit. It relies on the comical old trope that scientists’ grant funding will be threatened if they dare to explore these fringe ideas. It suggests to viewers that what they’re seeing is one of the most dramatic revelations in history.
And it’s bullshit. It’s all bullshit. Moreover, most of the viewers are well aware that it’s at least partially bullshit. They still find it fun and entertaining, and they watch, and the ratings go up, and the genre goes on.
But I wonder if there was an alternative — would they watch it instead? Obviously there are already pure science shows: there is NOVA; there is a lot of other PBS broadcasting that has a pretty good fact:propaganda ratio; there is plenty of fluff fact-based programming like the stuff David Attenborough narrates.
The gap that I notice is something that explores real questions that people ask, such as what’s really going on with the subjects badly presented by the Ancient Aliens shows. Some of these shows pretend to do this, like Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, by manufacturing anomalies and pointing blinking electronic gadgetry at them, like all the other ghost hunting TV shows, trying to persuade viewers that they are doing science to analyze the mysteries Ancient Aliens and Ghost Adventures create. It’s a whole subculture that is simultaneously incestuous and masturbatory.
So I put it to you, readers, and I’ve left comments turned on should anyone wish to offer an alternative. What kind of nonfiction shows would you like to see? Give me a brain dump.
What kind of television shows do you want?
I’d like to see a takedown show. One that would challenge the pseudo science shows that we are bombarded with. I think the example of format would be John Oliver’s Last Week.
A non-insulting treatment of what really is going on, or what COULD be going on, seems like it would be great fun, but of course that's Skeptoid in TV clothing. Engaging thes less critical thinkers into being INTERESTED in the process of reliable knowledge--that would be a great mission. And a VERY tough one.
I marvel at my inability to move a flat earther's needle in spite very civil discourse. I've got ideas for the next time, though. Fingers crossed. This is your stock in trade.