When I get home from work I like to turn on the TV before I go for a run. Enemy of the State was on and I enjoyed the back and forth banter between Gene Hackman and Will Smith as they are getting chased towards the end. The movie ended and I was scanning through the channels and came to Weekend at Bernie’s (1989). This is odd, but I have a childhood memory of watching Weekend at Bernie’s and it being my favorite movie. Considering i was probably 7 or 8, I had a new favorite movie every other week, so I flipped it on and started watching.
Is this a good movie? No. Bernie gets killed early on and spends the rest of the movie getting carried around scene to scene blending in. Frankly, I didn’t even watch more than 2 minutes, I only knew the premise. What I noticed immediately was the movie knew what it was. There was a large chested girl frolicking through Bernie’s house early on and I knew this movie got it. It didn’t take it self seriously considering they had a dead guy go unrecognized for 80 minutes.
I don’t dislike bad. I dislike fake. Bad can still be good if it knows it’s bad. It becomes horrible when it tries to be good. I bring you the Bachelor. I have never watched an episode until this past week on vacation with family where I came to understand people have the opportunity to propose within 2 weeks? It honestly seemed like these people were under a truthful guise that they were going to propose to become in a lasting relationship. The “actors” on this show seem to think it’s real. I haven’t watched it enough to comment properly, but I can’t understand why people like this of this show. To add to the bizarre context of this show, “news” outlets pick up stories that relate to this show like they are “real”. This girl hit her boyfriend while she was drunk and it made national news. I don’t get it.
That brings me to sports and why I watch them (and assume other people like them as well). Sports are unpredictable with talented, physical action. There are arguments made that sports are pointless. These types of people tend to enjoy reading books about history. I understand why history can be worth reading and how learning about events that occurred substantiates its meaning. Understanding the past can help you understand the future. Sports teach you next to nothing, which I won’t argue. It’s the live nature of the event for why they are so popular. When you know that someone planned what is going to happen next, it takes on a different form than sports.
People like DRAMA, regardless of how meaningful it is. Which is why we’re saturated with clickbait article and headlines.
Sports are an unplanned form of drama. When you’ve played sports, grew up watching teams, and gamble on them, then sports are the preferred form of drama.
When you don’t match any of the above, you turn to other sources of drama. The bachelor, as dumb as it is, is still drama. I don’t buy the ‘realness’ of it either, which is why I don’t like it. But the fact that it’s A) possibly staged and B) meaningless doesn’t matter apparently. If you can suspend your thought of reality just far enough then they become the preferred drama.