The 'adult' standards of cable have seeped into the groundwater of broadcast television.
Television
Mark L. Taylor 3-01-2003
"We believe in heaven and that Tim is with God," says a Catholic woman who lost her husband in the 9-11 attacks.
Teresa Blythe 7-01-2002
The Truth is out there. In these postmodern times, when the very nature of truth is called into question, it has been great to know that someone believes the truth actually exists. As extraordinary FBI agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder keep the faith, so do we.
I want to believe. A poster with this slogan hangs in the X-Files office. Kind of a modern take on what the father of a demon-possessed boy said to Jesus before the healing: "I believe. Help my unbelief." The desire to believe is sometimes the best we can do.
Trust no one. Reminiscent of Jesus' statement to the rich young man, "No one is good but God." The spiritual lesson here is not the imperative to "trust no one," because often on The X-Files trust is crucial to survival. Even though there were plenty of people and entities not to be trusted, the real spiritual lesson from the series is "be careful who you trust."
Government denies knowledge. In X-Files mythology, the government is in cahoots with a powerful secret cabal that hides "the truth" in order to keep the public from becoming panicked or disillusioned. The X-Files exaggerates, but there is a lesson here. Those who joined the civil rights movement to fight government-sanctioned racism, or gave sanctuary to refugees fleeing U.S.-backed insurrections in El Salvador, and who now plead for restraint in the new "war on terrorism" know that government PR cannot be taken at face value.
Teresa Blythe 3-01-2002
A frequent comment by political pundits after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was that the United States lacks "good old-fashioned human intelligence" against terrorism.
Rose Marie Berger, Jodi Hochstedler 1-01-2002
Recently, Turkish TV launched the hottest new program in virtual voyeurism: Who can survive on the country’s minimum wage?
Rose Marie Berger, Jodi Hochstedler 1-01-2002
Karmen is an animated building whose mission is to harbor peace within her dilapidated walls.
Teresa Blythe 11-01-2001
Although a "show about nothing" may seem to offer us little to ponder theologically, we need only look at the Jewish tradition of seeking wisdom to see connections to Seinfeld.
Rose Marie Berger, Susannah Hunter 7-01-2001
"Curse Free TV" is a new invention that automatically filters out profanity and other offensive language in television programming.
Danny Duncan Collum 9-01-1999
By now the Littleton, Colorado high school massacre has become the cultural Rorschach test for the new millennium.
Danny Duncan Collum 9-01-1998
When I began writing this column, way back in the second Reagan term, I held a certain spirit of optimism about the possibilities of American popular culture
Danny Duncan Collum 1-01-1996
I confess to being a year behind the curve on this whole ER thing. I know it's supposed to be the bright hope of network drama-dom.