Hollywood Envelopes

Hollywood and envelopes go together like bread and butter. By "Hollywood" I mean the entertainment industry, wherever they're located. They love envelopes, not just the award show type, but pushing whatever envelopes they can find, no matter what's in them.

This past week I was watching one of the few television shows I view on a regular basis and witnessed an envelope bursting wide open. As a result I took the show off my DVR schedule. I don't need to waste my time on such garbage. Why is the goal to "push the envelope" rather than to offer something worthwhile?

Those who have a voice in determining the awards for those envelope-laden shows seem to value envelope pushing above all other criteria as though that's the only thing needed to be artistic. "And the award goes to ..." the episode that shows the most flesh, because no show has gone that far before; or to the movie that depicts the most despicable acts because to date no one else has dared show such disgusting scenes, etc. What's the value in that? When I get done watching a show I want to feel that my life was somehow enriched by it (even if that means I just got to relax a little), not that I've lost some of my humanity.

And speaking of envelopes, what about the ones that pushed onto the scene from 1978 to 1995 killing three people and injuring 23 with bombs? And the follow-up envelope to The New York Times on April 24, 1995, containing the demand to print verbatim the 35,000-word paper Industrial Society and Its Future? Wouldn't you say Theodore John Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, knew how to push envelopes? Would Hollywood give him an award for his "artistry"? Hey Hollywood, instead of trying to push envelopes, why don't we all do what's appropriate and beneficial for society?

I suppose Hollywood feels pushing envelopes is the best way to get their bread and butter and they're going to Milk it for all it's worth. "The envelope please." And the loser is ... us.