Over the years I think I've fired a fair number of critical salvoes at New Zealand television and its relentless dumbing down.
But it reached a point when I felt I was just tilting at windmills. Just when you thought New Zealand television couldn't get any worse than it did and just when you thought they couldn't possibly make worse programmes they did.
However I must register my forlorn protest about last nights Sunday on Television One.
There are many important issues confronting New Zealand right now - how about the parlous state of the economy, for example - but Television One's flagship 'in-depth current affairs show' last night screened, believe it or not, a Janet McIntyre piece about women becoming disinterested in sex.
The show featured a sex therapist but I tuned out after about five minutes and watched The Young Ones on Comedy Central. This is the blurb I found on TVNZ's website:
How can a woman save a failing marriage when her libido is on the wane? The advice from one expert is to continue having sex - even if she doesn't feel like it. Sex therapist Bettina Arndt's advice has caused an outcry. But could her advice be the key to eternal happiness?
This sounds like something straight out of the Women's Weekly.
Surely Sunday should be covering substantial and important issues rather than wasting its resources on titillation masquerading as current affairs? This is especially so given that there is so little current affairs on Television One and New Zealand television generally that wasting an hour of everyone's time with last night's dismal effort is just insulting our intelligence.
The Sunday slogan is 'wherever there's a story we'll find it'. This is about as credible as David Brent declaring that 'there is a weight of intellect behind my comedy'.
Bread and circuses, Stevie boy..
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