Trust Your Audience

"There are 2 types of people in this world: people who can extrapolate from incomplete data"

Stop explaining the joke to us; trust that we get it!
Stop giving away the plot in the trailer; trust us that we can follow along during the film!
Stop writing a character whose sole arc is to give exposition; trust us that we can pick it up otherwise!

I'm currently watching Broadchurch on Netflix and those damn producers write a joke into every dramatic scene and never feel the need to explain themselves. They barely give a single hint of what the hell you're about to watch in the trailers; and the give you 37 storylines to follow and don't pay a single one off until the final minutes of the final episode.

Come on American content makers, take a page from the old Motherland's book and figure it out! We can be smart, I promise!

Christmas is Changing

Everybody's saying it: "Christmas starts earlier every year." This year there were Christmas trees decorated in halloween candy and pumpkins - presumably to buy time in the 9 hour change-over between trick-or-treating and when shopping doors open wide to the masses at 9 the next morning. I know the corporate Christmas world has always been about making money, but it wasn't always so pervasive, ever-present, and flat out greedy!

"Some cell phone providers ask family members to share their data!" 

                                                                                          - T-Mobile

"Happy ThanksGetting!" 

                      - Verizon

The above are actual taglines from commercials. Retailers have literally lost sight of everything the holiday season is about. It's about sharing, loving, spending time with family and friends, eating yummy foods, and to some, a dash of religion thrown in. The "stuff" isn't going anywhere, and it will probably be on sale again pretty soon. How and why have we created this culture of buying and upgrading?! It's not healthy, it's exhausting, and it's clearly never-ending.

Bah Humbug, I'm old. Just give me my family and a few days off so we can make Welsh Cakes, watch a cozy movie, and hang out together. No more commercials yelling at me to come in before 10am for the best deals of the year!