Network: Or How TV Kills Everything

May. 11, 2010

By David McMillan info

David McMillan is a writer, filmmaker and video blogger.

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Howard Beale (Peter Finch)
The Network

Related Content: The Wire and the promise of television.

Now, not everyone may agree with Network’s premise—I’ll admit, even I don’t agree with it entirely. (Not everything about television leads to death, in my humble opinion. Just certain TV shows.) However, I believe Network “argues” its premise quite powerfully and rigorously, and has as much prophetic relevance today as it did 34 years ago—perhaps more so. It predicted our increased obsession with reality TV; it predicted the trend of exploiting and co-opting people for the sake of ratings; it raised the important if uncomfortable question of “who owns the media?” and what impact that answer might have on the free press and American democracy; it even predicted the rise of future “mad prophets of the airwaves” like Glenn Beck. And as television faces its most challenging business model crisis in decades, the quest for ratings, the influence of corporate interests, and the impulse to turn everything into mass entertainment and must-see-TV, could potentially lead to some pretty monstrous results.

Just how monstrous? Only time will tell.

However, for all its biting outrage at the institution of television, Network still remains a satire. For the moment at least. Let’s hope the day never arrives when all of its prophesies come true. TC mark

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