I don’t ask for much from a television show. After I’ve spent all day reading dead philosophers and existentially intense Russian novels I just need something with which to wind down before bed. I do not need brilliance (Breaking Bad, The Wire, West Wing). I just need “not inane.” Alas, there are not nearly enough shows that pass such minimal muster. Turning to political news, which has now also become an inane reality television show, does not help. And thus a lament about the state of our culture rises in my soul; perhaps it rises even to insights about what it means to be a church. Let me explain.
A few nights ago, I tried to watch an episode of New Girl. The show used to be pretty decent; it reminded me of various loony antics with roommates from my early 20s. But as I expect would have been the case if I were still doing the same random things with the same roommates several years later, the plotline has gotten thin. They have run out of things to talk about. There are only so many gags about a roommate’s sloppy laundry habits that you can do. Why have they not grown up yet? Why are they still doing the same things over and over again? It’s not very funny anymore.
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