Lowered Expectations?!

A pity that I have to waste my 300th post on yet another bitchfest, but I have to ask:

When did we just stop caring?

Transformers made $300 million last summer, even though it boiled down to 2 and a half-hours of uninvolving action and unfunny jokes.

The new episodes of "The Fairly Oddparents" are hailed by fans (if you count the mouthpieces at TV.com, I mean), even though the humor is as stale as one can imagine and Daran Norris' high-pitched and whiny voice for Cosmo is a lock for the Most Annoying Sound in the World.

Seriously, when did we stop caring? What happened that led to mediocrity becoming the status quo? How did we get to a point where people eat up whatever shit (and trust me, this is in no way a euphemism) is shoved under their noses? I remember a time when people actually put effort into the entertainments they produced. These entertainments gave off the impression that someone along the production line actually gave two halves of a shit about what they would be releasing into the world.

Also, I remember a time when people actually cared about what they wanted to invest such precious commodities as time and brain cells in. People demanded a modicum of quality in the entertainments they wished to view.

Nowadays, if it's a do-nothing baby or a series of half-assed jokes, people lap it up with a spoon.

Now, I'm no snob when it comes to being entertained. One of my all-time favorite movies is the debatably ridiculous but damned fun Hudson Hawk. However, I demand (and, honestly, shouldn't everyone?) a bit of professionalism and respect from the people delivering this stuff to us. After all, we could be reading books, and I know that they don't want that.

Getting back to "The Fairly Oddparents" and TV.com, I vented about the episodes and the people who liked them (that's what's known as 'friendly fire'). Needless to say, they were not happy. One of them even told me that my 'expectations were too high'.

After the infamous 'Cosmo insults the only woman who would have him - Wanda - for God only knows what reasons' episodes, my one and only expectation for these newer episodes was that they be good. If we've truly reached a point where expecting something to be merely good is synonymous with having 'quote-unquote' "high expectations", then, honestly, we deserve to be wiped out by global warming.

I just wanted to get this out. I'll let it go for now, but if someone shoves any of that 'mediocrity uber alles'/'expectations too high' garbage at me, more of that 'friendly fire' that I mentioned will be forthcoming.

And next time, I plan on using actual fire.