Thrash TV

Posted by ESC on March 12, 2004

In Reply to: Thrash TV? posted by Word Camel on March 12, 2004

: I came across this in a book I am reading. It seems to mean excessively emotional TV, maybe 'reality' tv? I can't find another reference to it. Does anyone know the term? I'm pretty certain it has nought to do with heavy metal music, by the way.

: Thanks,

: Camel

From these two passages, it looks like it is "thrash" as in 4 a to go over again and again. Thrash the matter over inconclusively. (Merriam-Webster online.) Confessional TV.

The rise of self-disclosure television - Oprah Winfrey, Geraldo, Ricki Lake - exemplifies the mass transmission of streams of emotion. Yet, thrash TV, along with its more elevated literary cousin, the new genre of self-revelatory biography, mirrors new cultural norms about notions of intimacy and private space. It seems that everybody wants to talk or write about themselves. In the 1990s, confessional auto-biographies and semi-fictional accounts expanded beyond the usual "I was an addict" stories and adopted themes that were far more private than before. What the American critic Laura Miller has characterised as the "illness memoir" became one of the most distinct literary genres of the late 1990s. Books such as Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation and Ben Watt's Patient have fulfilled cultural critic Andrew Calcutt's prediction that memoirs of addictions, cancer, post-natal depression and a variety of other afflictions were likely to turn into a growth area in British publishing.

Ah, the blessings of thrash-TV! I was searching the airwaves for entertainment and found it. Accidentally I stumbled into "Jack Vance vs. Judas Priest". This fine programme was a true story about some idiot who blew most of his face off, survived and along with his parents sued Judas Priest.
www.totse.com/ en/media/televisionary_film_vidiots/thrashtv.html

I couldn't find it at Word Spy or Buzzwhacker. Maybe you could nominate it at those sites.

• Thrash TV Barney 12/March/04