With all the hardware we’re already packing in our pockets and shoulder bags (cell phones, iPods etc.), it might seem inconvenient to start carrying a hammer.
But I often wish I had one handy when under assault by the valueless drivel displayed before me on those back-of-the-seat TV screens in New York City taxicabs.
The screens blaring their obnoxious advertorial “content” are part of a larger trend you’re seeing these days as flat-screens are installed in stores, restaurants, elevators and even hospital waiting rooms (where their noisy intrusion is especially thoughtless).
But that’s a wider issue. Plus, those screens are usually too high up on the wall to do anything about them.
The cab screens are a different story; they’re located right dead center in your field of view, and there’s no way of avoiding the jarring sight of Al Roker (on the ones sponsored by Ch. 4) or the Ch. 7 news chopper and the “Eyewitness News” theme music (on the ones sponsored by WABC) if the on-off button is unresponsive.
That is the one feature this new generation of in-taxi TVs have over the old version, which came and went back in 2003 (they went because people hated them, particularly because they couldn’t be turned off).
Generally speaking, you can usually turn off the new ones (by touching a filthy screen, unfortunately), but increasingly, as the sets age, the on-off function doesn’t function, which leaves you held captive to a bunch of chirpy, promotional nonsense about movies and restaurants produced by local station “news” departments that have no business trafficking in this kind of non-news material.
Should you put a hammer to the screens? That’s up to you, but I’ll bet your driver won’t care because he probably hates the screens even more than you do.
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And now, the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen on a TV show (and that’s saying a lot, given everything that’s permissible nowadays): A castration scene in “Sons of Anarchy,” the FX series about a California motorcycle gang.
It occurred earlier this month in the third episode of this series which has just been renewed for a second season.
The victim happened to be a child rapist, but as odious as that act was, the punishment and its graphic depiction (including the bloody aftermath that was truly the most shocking image I’ve ever seen on TV) came across as grossly gratuitous.
It was another TV “milestone” not worth celebrating.