Crime Dramas Will Never Go

You Don't Hear Tv Cops Griping Because They Have To Enforce Some Draconian Law That Shouldn't Be On The Books In The First Place, Or Lamenting Vindictive Excesses In Sentencing. Hollywood, Supposedly A Frothing Cauldron Of Liberalism, Has Always Been Conservative On Crime.

Television's Escapist Programming Naturally Continues To Endorse Living Beyond One's Means As The Time-tested American Way And Rarely Depicts Families Or Individuals Wracked By The Pressures And Miseries That Come With Excess.

In The 500-channel Universe, Which May, Of Course, Contain Many More Channels Than 500, The Fun Never Stops - Fun At Such A Fever Pitch As To Sometimes Seem Threatening, Numbing, Even Agonizing.

Like Sugar And, Oh - Let's Say The Most Tabloidy And Gossipy Reality Television Programs - Credit Is, For Millions, Genuinely Addictive.

Perhaps Western Civilization Is In A Post-decline Phase, Or Maybe The Decline Is Just Taking A Really Long Time, Like The Roman Empire's Did. The Romans Had Gladiators And Christian-hungry Lions And That Sort Of Thing. We Have Mtv.