There are entire TV series which are disguised as documentaries but really aren’t. “America’s Book of Secrets” is sometimes interesting but rarely factual (and nothing they televise is ever a secret). And those shows about hunting ghosts (which don’t exist) are shot in the style of a factual documentary, albeit in darkness.
The term documentary can be used to describe a lot of media, including some reality shows, but I don’t think narrowing the definition will solve anything. There is a market for badly produced TV, and I suspect there always will be, regardless of its label. On Mon, Apr 12, 2021 at 3:55 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > Totally agree about the bloated run times, as I think we discussed with > the Woody “Doc”. I have had a couple of No Shows today at work, so almost > done with “This is a Robbery”. Clearly it would be much stronger at under 2 > hours than closer to 4. > > Your closing point is my main point as well. I am not in favor of banning > bad or pseudo documentaries, but it is pissing me off to see bad docs > passed off as good ones. I don’t think it would be that hard to set some > basic criteria, then come up with a term that refers to “real” > documentaries, and another, non pejorative term, that refers to the other. > > On Mon, 12 Apr 2021 at 3:23 PM Adam Bowie <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I think that it's pretty clear that quite a few things have changed in >> the documentary genre, but like everything, there are good ones and bad >> ones. >> >> My personal bete noire is the over-extension of stories into multiple >> episodes when the story just doesn't deserve it. I guess that this all >> follows the success on Netflix on series like Making a Murderer, and then >> more recently Tiger King. The former was a well told narrative, made over >> years, and deserving of the series length they delivered. But I believe >> that Netflix only came on board fairly late in the day. It was a massive >> success, at least by Netflix's metrics, where keeping audiences coming back >> for many hours is critical for maintaining subscribers. The worst case of >> this I came across recently was the HBO series on McMillions. It was a >> decent story, but could have been told in 90 minutes instead of six hours. >> I didn't make it to the end I got so frustrated with it. (SNIP) >> > >> I think some of the problem is that the same broadcasters/streamers >> produce both good docs - the kind that win Oscars, BAFTAs and Emmys - and >> tabloid trash. The same glossy "sheen" is applied to all of them, and it's >> really hard to tell in advance, without knowing at least something of the >> makers and perhaps their previous output, whether we're going to get >> something good, or something trashy. >> >> >> Adam >> > >> >> On Mon, Apr 12, 2021 at 6:55 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> I am watching “This is a Robbery...”, like many, I always like a good >>> (sometimes even a not so good) art heist story. >>> >>> The story here is interesting, but there are elements of the documentary >>> style that I dislike (musical and sound effects, and some visual effects, >>> added to create cheap drama). But what is really interesting to me is how >>> this relates to the state of TV (especially cable and streaming) >>> documentaries. After the shit show that was ‘Allen v Farrow’, I did some >>> reading and found that there is a general sense that the skyrocketing >>> popularity of documentaries on places like Netflix and HBO has been >>> accompanied by a plummet in credibility and journalistic integrity. That >>> helped me place the Allen project in a better context: more infotainment >>> than actual news documentary. >>> >>> It does seem that someone, perhaps news divisions at the TV networks, or >>> outside sources like Columbia School or Journalism, needs to define a sub >>> genre of news documentary, and establish criteria and best practice >>> guidelines. Then we could have like entertainment documentaries, that would >>> perhaps contain a disclaimer of something like “inspired by real events”, >>> and news documentaries, that would indicate it was produced based on >>> accepted journalistic standards. >>> >>> I’m only halfway through “This is a Robbery”, and so far think it is not >>> as entertaining as a Ian Pears novel, and about as credible as a >>> documentary on the History channel. >>> >>> On Mon, 12 Apr 2021 at 7:16 AM Mark Jeffries <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>> For the Sunday after Easter: (Snip) >>>> >>>> 2. THIS IS A ROBBERY: THE WORLD'S BIGGEST ART HEIST--The Netflix >>>> original true crime docu-mini about the 1990 theft from the Gardner Museum >>>> in Boston of $500M of art works dropped Apr. 7 and has an 88% RT >>>> >>> -- >>> Sent from Gmail Mobile >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYKUdHTias49H%3D1YLLYdBZnYTnGHEWB5urZmcwLcBofNTA%40mail.gmail.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYKUdHTias49H%3D1YLLYdBZnYTnGHEWB5urZmcwLcBofNTA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAD_sJGDYkgbompChc8qEEa1jksH6LW8O68bMgbgeCvxoesSsEA%40mail.gmail.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAD_sJGDYkgbompChc8qEEa1jksH6LW8O68bMgbgeCvxoesSsEA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > Sent from Gmail Mobile > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYLmkiPTh3UmnyvvCwg37ri_%2B1v1dBOSqZqmWq1sO6xNZA%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYLmkiPTh3UmnyvvCwg37ri_%2B1v1dBOSqZqmWq1sO6xNZA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Kevin M. 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