The article on Television Addiction that I reference can be found here: https://www.ielts-exam.net/docs/Reading/IELTS_Reading_Academic_10_Passage_2.htm
This video is based off of these blog posts: http://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2013/01/television-addiction-part-1-confessions.html
http://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2018/12/vlog-scripted-book-reviews-i-ramble-on.html
...it is also an extended apology for what is going to come next, which is me making a bunch of subpar videos in which I try to talk about TV shows I barely remember.
So why am I doing this? I'll try to explain my thought process briefly here:
As I wrote in this post, my so-called "scripted review" project went through a few evolutions in my mind before I started doing them.
It started with a realization that most of my Youtube reviews were rambling and incoherent, and were difficult for people to watch. I didn't want to stop doing the rambling videos (I have an indulgence for my own spontaneity) but I got the idea that I could supplement each rambling review with a scripted review, in which I actually planned out ahead of time what I was going to say. And, since I was writing blog posts for each review anyway, I could use the written blog post as a basis for a scripted review.
My original idea was to just film supplementary "Scripted Reviews" for all new reviews going forward. But then I thought about it, and I realized there was nothing to stop me from going back through my archive and making scripted supplements for all the video reviews I had already filmed. (The blog posts were already written, and just waiting to be used.)
And then I got the idea to go all the way back through my blogging archives, and make Youtube videos out of all my old book and movie reviews. I started formally reviewing the books I read on January 21, 2006, and I started systematically reviewing the movies I watched a year later on February 9, 2007. But I had been informally jotting down thoughts about random books and movies even before then, and eventually I got the idea to just go all the way back to the start of my blog and make everything into a Youtube video--every thought I posted on the blog about a book or movie or TV show, it could all be a Youtube video.
...it is also an extended apology for what is going to come next, which is me making a bunch of subpar videos in which I try to talk about TV shows I barely remember.
So why am I doing this? I'll try to explain my thought process briefly here:
As I wrote in this post, my so-called "scripted review" project went through a few evolutions in my mind before I started doing them.
It started with a realization that most of my Youtube reviews were rambling and incoherent, and were difficult for people to watch. I didn't want to stop doing the rambling videos (I have an indulgence for my own spontaneity) but I got the idea that I could supplement each rambling review with a scripted review, in which I actually planned out ahead of time what I was going to say. And, since I was writing blog posts for each review anyway, I could use the written blog post as a basis for a scripted review.
My original idea was to just film supplementary "Scripted Reviews" for all new reviews going forward. But then I thought about it, and I realized there was nothing to stop me from going back through my archive and making scripted supplements for all the video reviews I had already filmed. (The blog posts were already written, and just waiting to be used.)
And then I got the idea to go all the way back through my blogging archives, and make Youtube videos out of all my old book and movie reviews. I started formally reviewing the books I read on January 21, 2006, and I started systematically reviewing the movies I watched a year later on February 9, 2007. But I had been informally jotting down thoughts about random books and movies even before then, and eventually I got the idea to just go all the way back to the start of my blog and make everything into a Youtube video--every thought I posted on the blog about a book or movie or TV show, it could all be a Youtube video.
This is, on the face of it, an objectively bad idea, because most of the thoughts I post about stuff on this blog aren't very good and don't deserve to be made into Youtube videos. But once I start a project, I get fixated on the idea of doing it completely. (This is the same reason I review every book I read and every movie I watch instead of just doing a select few.) I'm a completist. It's always been my quirk.
(And, if I were completely honest with myself, perhaps I could admit I'm also a completist because it takes away the intellectual labor of making decisions about what to include and what not to include.)
(And, if I were completely honest with myself, perhaps I could admit I'm also a completist because it takes away the intellectual labor of making decisions about what to include and what not to include.)
Besides, the philosophy behind this blog has always been quantity over quality. Or, perhaps the more apt idiom is "throw everything against the wall and see what sticks." And that same ethos has been imported over to my Youtube channel. As long as I'm happy with the quality of some of the videos I make on Youtube, I never worry about whether all of them are good. If a video turns out bad, I just shrug, publish it anyway, and figure I'll try to do better next time.
So, with that ethos in mind, I've made a lot of scripted review videos that weren't very good because they were based on blog posts that weren't substantial enough to make a video out of. Probably the preeminent example is when I made a series of scripted review videos based off of my April 2006 summary of the movies I'd been watching that month: Oh, The Movies I've Seen Part 3. Which included my 17 second review of The Lady Killers based on a couple sentences I had written back in 2006.
So, with that ethos in mind, I've made a lot of scripted review videos that weren't very good because they were based on blog posts that weren't substantial enough to make a video out of. Probably the preeminent example is when I made a series of scripted review videos based off of my April 2006 summary of the movies I'd been watching that month: Oh, The Movies I've Seen Part 3. Which included my 17 second review of The Lady Killers based on a couple sentences I had written back in 2006.
I know this movie got a lot of bad reviews, but I enjoyed it. Tom Hanks was a bit over the top at times, but it was still a really funny movie.
...I know, not my finest moment. But that was way back in February 2019. It was a much different time. Besides, I think my channel only had like 100 subscribers, so I didn't worry too much about it.
But now it's 2021, I'm up to 1,240 subscribers on Youtube. And I'm a bit more self-conscious about making a series of crap videos.
But at the same time, I've slowly been working my way through my backlog of blog reviews on my scripted review series--starting all the way with the beginning of the blog in 2003, and now I'm up to 2013, when I published a massive post summarizing all the TV shows I'd been watching in Cambodia up to that point.
I've known all along that this blog post was coming, and I'd been thinking for the past few months about what to do with it. Skipping it was never really an option (see my completist obsession above). I debated trying to get it out of the way all in one video, but it was too massive to cover in one video. There was nothing for it but to break it into a series of small videos--one for each television show I mention.
But now it's 2021, I'm up to 1,240 subscribers on Youtube. And I'm a bit more self-conscious about making a series of crap videos.
But at the same time, I've slowly been working my way through my backlog of blog reviews on my scripted review series--starting all the way with the beginning of the blog in 2003, and now I'm up to 2013, when I published a massive post summarizing all the TV shows I'd been watching in Cambodia up to that point.
I've known all along that this blog post was coming, and I'd been thinking for the past few months about what to do with it. Skipping it was never really an option (see my completist obsession above). I debated trying to get it out of the way all in one video, but it was too massive to cover in one video. There was nothing for it but to break it into a series of small videos--one for each television show I mention.
The problem is, most of the television shows I talk about I only wrote one or two sentences about--and usually not very good one or two sentences at that. Of course I could always try to expand those few sentences into more thoughts, and try to make something longer, but...
...the truth is, even at the time I wrote this blogpost (in January 2013), I barely remembered half of the TV shows I mentioned. The blogpost covered two years of TV watching, and during that time I had done so much binge watching that my brain had turned to mush, and I had trouble remembering in any great detail individual episodes I had seen. And now that it's another 8 years later, it's even more of a challenge to remember these shows.
I've done my best with these videos. Before filming each one, I tried to refresh my memory of the show in question by watching clips on Youtube, or reading the Wikipedia entry. And then, I turned the camera on, and did my best to try to say something intelligent about the show.
For these series of videos, I've temporarily changed the name from "Scripted Review" to "Television Addiction". (I can't possibly call these reviews scripted. They're based on just a couple sentences from the original blog post, and then I adlib everything else.)
Look, no one is under any obligation to watch these. I'll be posting these on the blog in the coming days, but feel free to ignore them.
Playlist is HERE:
...the truth is, even at the time I wrote this blogpost (in January 2013), I barely remembered half of the TV shows I mentioned. The blogpost covered two years of TV watching, and during that time I had done so much binge watching that my brain had turned to mush, and I had trouble remembering in any great detail individual episodes I had seen. And now that it's another 8 years later, it's even more of a challenge to remember these shows.
I've done my best with these videos. Before filming each one, I tried to refresh my memory of the show in question by watching clips on Youtube, or reading the Wikipedia entry. And then, I turned the camera on, and did my best to try to say something intelligent about the show.
For these series of videos, I've temporarily changed the name from "Scripted Review" to "Television Addiction". (I can't possibly call these reviews scripted. They're based on just a couple sentences from the original blog post, and then I adlib everything else.)
Look, no one is under any obligation to watch these. I'll be posting these on the blog in the coming days, but feel free to ignore them.
Playlist is HERE:
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