27 May My Open Letter to PixL TV
This is a letter to the executives at PixL, a television network with which I recently became familiar. I have a bone to pick with them. I understand they are based in Dallas, but I’m sure they get the Standard-Journal. Who doesn’t?
To Whom It May Concern,
About two weeks ago I was flipping through our 500+ channels, looking for something to watch in the evening with my wife. The on-screen directory showed a program titled “Soda Springs”. I had avoided watching any programs from your network because the program descriptions seemed rather boring, and I didn’t recognize any big-name actors. But being from eastern Idaho I wondered if there might actually be some connection to the local community by that name and was interested to see that the vehicles did, indeed, have Idaho plates, though it looked like it might have been filmed at least in part in Montpelier.
I was tuning in late but it didn’t take long to pick out the basic plot (with the help of the on-screen guide). Some guy was returning from a stretch in prison and trying to get his feet back underneath him, when someone set him up to be falsely arrested and sent back. It seemed the local sheriff was part of the plot when he conveniently showed up to arrest the guy…yada yada. I’d seen this plot a thousand times.
Then a local do-gooder (played by some washed-up actor) got involved. He helped someone to confess that the main character actually went to prison by taking responsibility for a single-mother’s drunk-driving accident. He was not guilty of any crime in the first place (besides perjury), but had willingly sacrificed his own freedom, future and reputation to allow a woman to care for her family when he could think of no other way to help.
But the real surprise was that the sheriff and other locals cared and were responsive enough to work together to resolve a very serious problem. Even the “bad guys” in the film weren’t that bad; they were just like normal people who were misinformed. At the end of the show I was not left with any angst or irritation that someone got away with something horrible. They were pretty much just decent people who had made mistakes, and had to work together to make something better.
I wasn’t expecting that.
So I started flipping through the program guide, and over the past two weeks have recorded and watched several of your shows. Not one of them demonstrates the edgy sophistication I’ve come to expect from a television network. Your promos between claim you show family-friendly programing without commercial interruption. I’ve kept a skeptical eye on you.
On about the third program I chuckled as I noticed that every program had at least one actor who used to be rich and famous, but had not done TV or movies in some time. I thought to myself, “This must be where has-beens go to get their faces on the screen one last time.” But I have since noticed that few of these former stars’ names are in the program guide to promote the films, and most of them played pivotal—but small—parts.
Out of curiosity I went online and found your website, where you call yourselves “the first true family-safe movie channel”. You claim to air “wholesome comedies” and programs that “lift the human spirit and span generations”. Sure, that seems consistent with the several programs I’ve seen.
But I have to ask myself, “What are you up to?”
You carry no “reality shows” that give viewers voyeuristic access to contestant’s shameful behavior. You don’t carry titillating commercials to make your network profitable and to make husbands blush. You don’t have a single program aimed at pushing the boundaries of decency to bring in the viewer bored with daily life. I saw nothing there that I could not watch and discuss with my children or grandchildren. It’s almost like your network is out-of-touch with what media does today. And for that I have only two words:
Thank you.
Michael D. Williams is a licensed psychotherapist, a Marriage and Family Therapist with over 25 years’ experience. For copies of the research cited, additional information, or to offer feedback and suggestions please view his blog: MichaelWilliamsCounseling.com. Or con