What is it about television and movies that draws us to it, gluing us to the screen, making us sit unmovable for an undetermined length of time?
Is it the fact that the characters on the screen seem to speak to us, like good friends that are telling us of the rare adventures they had recently? Not the friends that don't require a response because they won't let you get a word in edgewise, but a friend that requires an emotional response--joy, pain, tears, laughter, anger, timed confusion, etc.
Or is it that we see ourselves in the characters? Do we ask ourselves, "Is that the way I would handle that?" "What would I do in that situation?" "Oh, I've had that happen before?" "I'm sure I told someone about this on the subway and the writer got their ideas from me because the must have sitting near me." "Oh yeah, that happened to my Great Aunt Mabel's next door neighbor's son-in-law's friend."
Is it that the people on screen look ideal--like we want to look? Their clothes look pressed to perfection, fresh off the runway; their smiles bright, white, and straight; their hair combed perfectly into position that does not change with the outside conditions; their words perfectly tactful and eloquently expressed; their projected outlook on life as though everything is okay--consequences are inconsequential? Is it the fact that true reality is just off to the side watching nodding or shaking its head every now and again?
How is it that entertainment can play an enormous part of our lives or a very little part depending upon our circumstances, work ethic, busy-ness, etc.? What makes us sometimes put everything else on the back burner, as it were, and do nothing for long stretches at a time?
Why do so many story lines seem so similar--yet we keep watching them again and again. How many different ways can the classic writers have their work rewritten into so many different yet similar ways?
Does the music draw us to it?
What is it? What do you think?
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