After all, it's the viewers who decide who will get kicked off the TV island and who will survive to make an easy million. Everything, including the ads, is a lead-up to the next ad. The most troubling aspect of Shmith's damning article is that he was once the editor of the Green Guide . To head the country's premier journal of television writing while holding that medium in such contempt must have been no fun at all. Theatre writers love theatre.
Music writers love music.
Perhaps they are embarrassed. But it's nothing to be ashamed of. TV is the most popular, dynamic and recognised art form in the world. And it's constantly reinventing itself. Opera, much loved by Shmith and co, hasn't produced a popular work in 100 years.