(reposted from an earlier thread, thought it would make for good discussion)
I don't watch TV. Simple enough. Most made-for-TV programs are bullshit anyway, especially in America where everything has to be sensationalized.
There is a TV program in Japan called Sasuke. It's a show in which contestants run through a challenging obstacle course in a limited amount of time and it takes incredible skill to run this course in all its parts completely in the time allotted. In Russia, the show is called Путь ниндзя, which means something like "Way of the Ninja". In America, you may know this show as Ninja Warrior. I've watched it both in America and in Russia and it's cool as shit. They don't do any voice-over of the announcers, so its original language is only supplemented by subtitles. Pretty cool stuff.
Of course, then comes American Ninja Warrior, a complete sham and a mockery of the original program (the original is one which I regard as a masterpiece of television). They turned the whole damn thing into a gameshow rather than a test of one's skill. Now there's no time limit and the course is much easier.
There is a lengthy introduction to each contestant taking up a majority of the show. In the original, the announcer spends fifteen seconds saying the person's name and their job unless they're a previous winner in which case they're applauded, but the introduction is still short. Even for people you've never heard of in American Ninja Warrior get a lengthy introduction. The American version takes so much longer to do anything at all and only a few people run the course. In the Japanese original, nearly 100 people are able to run the course in the length of a program and in the nearly hour-long American episodes, barely anyone runs the course. Bullshit.
The worst part though is that they ruined how the course is fundamentally played. In Sasuke, any people who achieve Total Victory (completing the entire course), whether it be one person or many are equally applauded as winners. They each are regarded as champions and no one person "won more" than another, which is indicative of how the Japanese view competition and I respect them greatly for their decision to honor all winners, as each of them very much deserves it.
>inb4 weeaboo; am not one
Of course, in the American version, they fuck it up. In American Ninja Warrior, there can only be ONE winner, as is typical of American gameshows and it's bullshit. There's only one winner even if multiple people are capable of completing the course (entirely possible because of how dumbed down the course was), so if someone goes before you and they win, it's tough shit for you.
That's the fundamental problem with TV and America's culture in general. They have no respect for you and they have no respect for the source material for absolutely anything. They could make a movie about Pushkin's life (as if they care about him) and they'd completely ruin it. I know they would.
TV is bullshit