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Catherine Deveny: “I no longer love television.”

Age columnist ends her TV reviews by suggesting watching TV is like staring at an old lover across the table thinking ''What did I ever see in you?"

death-of-televisionAge columnist Catherine Deveny, frequently the bane of television execs and publicity teams but enjoyed by readers for her acerbic style, published her last television column in the weekend, in an up-front lament on Television’s fading glory.

Deveny, also a sometime panellist on Q & A, says television used to be an escape but now looks at the box with indifference.

In recognition of a closing chapter on television criticism, and to raising a fiery question, here are some select paragraphs from a longer article you can read here.

I loved telly because it was an escape. Flicking the switch was a portal to another dimension. Full of my other friends and families. My other life. Escaping the frustration and monotony of a being a four-year-old who wanted my own chat show into Play School, Here’s Humphrey and Young Talent Time. Escaping the early morning emptiness of a Saturday morning into a box of Fruit Loops, Hey Hey, Thunderbirds and Donnie Sutherland’s Sounds. Escaping the afternoon sick home from school all Disprin and Continental Chicken Noodle Soup with Ivan Hutchinson’s Midday Movies and Days of Our Lives.

Watching TV is now like staring at an old lover across the table shaking my head and thinking ”What did I ever see in you? Have you changed? Have I changed? Or have we just grown apart?” I’ve been doing a lot of remember-whens in recent columns. It’s like flicking through old photos and letters trying to get back that loving feeling.

I no longer love television. I’m indifferent. They say hate is not the opposite of love, it’s indifference. It’s no longer one of my conversation topics, landscape of my dreams, place I go for entertainment or comfort. I have said everything I want to say. Which is why this is my last television column.

Television was the great escape. An influence far greater than we will or ever can appreciate. In the last three years, it has changed beyond recognition. And so has my life, thanks to this column. But it’s time to go. And it’s heartbreaking to think of no longer sharing the Saturday morning sweet spot with you. I loved it: thinking about making you laugh, making you think. You have been my muse. The audience I’ve wanted to shake up and say ”You’re better than this”. Sharing this journey with you all has been a joy.

Source: The Age

24 Responses

  1. On 14 December in this very thread I posted: “If it was Marieke Hardy that decided to stop writing about TV then that would be cause for upset!!”

    Now my worst fears have been realised… she is leaving….

    theage.com.au/news/entertainment/tv–radio/2009/12/16/1260639216356.html

  2. It sounds to me,she’s to old and not with it anymore.She said that she has wanted to shake up the audience a bit and say Your Better Than This sounds like to me you enjoy TV shows that don’t rate,maybe you should take on your own advice.But then after all you did work for The Age,and there has been quite a few stories i have heard about in the past that were laughable,one comes to mind is The AFL Footy Show always cops alot of rubbish,for no good reason saying the show should have be axed over the years,and it’s one of the best rating shows Channel 9 has.Herald Sun for me anyday

  3. Jason, just regarding The Wedge, Deveny actually trashed the show in her column not long after it premiered, claiming the producers constantly rewote and toned down the writers work. Anyway, I love Deveny, even if I don’t always agree with her. If I had to review the sheer volume of trash amid the treasure, I’d be jaded and apathetic too.

  4. To be so consistantly negative and hateful (more bitchy I guess) – I feel sorry for her. I don’t think anyone reads her stuff with anything more than mild amusement and pity.

  5. Ms. Deveny is just a few years older than me. I grew up with the same fond memories of such programmes and have to say there is nothing that currently inspires or excites me about television. I was a TV addict throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Now I can go a couple of days without turning on the box, safe in the knowledge that I’m not missing out on much. There’s more choice than ever but I am now a much more discerning viewer. There’s too much crap being passed off as entertainment by the networks. I can live without it.

  6. I’ve read it previously somewhere previously (possibly on this site) – but it went something along the lines of:

    theatre reviewers love the theatre
    film reviewers love film
    tv reviewers hate television

    sure there’s more to hate on the box (should I say flatscreen) in the last few years, but there are still some diamonds in the rough out there.

  7. Not really much else to add that hasn’t been said in previous comments except, yeah I think it’s time Catherine Deveny got out of the house to get a life.

  8. Longing for Bewitched? Please. Television has never been better. Sure there’s a lot of dross– there always was. But the best of today can beat the best of yesteryear.

  9. I can identify with that. My TV viewing has dropped quite significantly in the last few years. I no longer just sit and watch, I will browse the TV guides and TV Tonight, identify what I want to see and not bother with anything else. These days I’m much more inclined to watch a movie or TV series on DVD than watch it on broadcast TV. Some nights the TV doesn’t even get switched on. I’m not really sure why my attitude to TV changed, but I think it was the constant time slot switching and sudden cancellations of shows I enjoyed that was my tipping point.

  10. Did she ever love television in the first place, or just love slagging it off?

    Maybe their next TV column writer could be someone who, oh I dunno, actually likes television and might know something about TV production?

    Heaven forbid someone should be qualified to write about it.

  11. I think she’s being a tad dramatic (Deveney? Dramatic? No!). There’s not much on Australian TV, no and there is probably a greater percentage of crap than there was, say, ten years ago. That’s a subjective judgement based on me sticking my finger in the air, basically.

    There is some terrific stuff ‘available by other means’ and the reason it doesn’t make to Australian screens regularly or not at all are weak-kneed programmers who won’t allow a show a chance (30 Rock, Arrested Development, The Wire).

    Jason got it right. Mediocrity wins. 20 eps of Hey Hey ,mean anything?

    Anyway, if you take Deveney’s entire demeanour over the past couple of years, she’s a woman in search of meaning and she’s just not getting that buzz out of TV anymore. She has bigger fish to fry. And more incendiary columns to write.

  12. I love CD. Her writing is so acerbic and absolutely hilarious. And I love the way she gets people going. Religion, Chadstone, big prams. You name it. Don’t stop!

  13. There is still good content on television, it’s just a lot harder to find nowadays. Unfortunately too many viewers will settle for mediocrity and this has resulted in the numerous crime shows (mostly American) riddled with plot inconsistencies and fake crime fighting technology which doesn’t exist, quite a contrast to a well produced and researched show like The Bill which has good continuity, good acting and good chemistry between characters. Other shows such as Big Bang Theory which fits that criteria also make for good viewing. Good cinematography is also a bonus too i.e Top Gear.

    It would be safe to say that the majority of TV viewers aren’t television enthusiasts and the producers are catering to that.

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