What To Watch, What To Watch???

Korean television. Wow. What can I say? To call it random would be an understatement. To call it rediculous and stupid may be a tad bit too on the mark. So, what can one hope to see on Korean television? Here are your choices... pay attention.

Yes, I've seen it. Spongebob Squarepants speaks Korean!! Who knew?

There is one channel that every time I flip through is apparently a gameshow (I use that term loosely) of the board game Othello (the one with the white and blacks circles). It's just two people playing the game, nothing else. Yeah, that's all that it is. Morning, noon, and night. Very popular game apparently. Update: it's actually a Chinese game called GO. Still seems pretty boring to have an entire channel devoted to it.

Home shopping. Lots of home shopping channels. These account for about one third of all the channels. They all appear to be selling the home massage/exercise device where you stick electrodes to yourself and electrocute yourself. Seriously, it's always on and always for sale.

The cheeziest pop-singers that you have ever seen. Very popular. They are on about one third of the channels here. Their music all sounds the same, and they all look the same. Men with spiked up hair, shirts with the sleeves ripped off. Women with the biggest hair you've ever seen. Think 1986 but with bad elevator music.

Various reality and drama shows. So, we have the very worst that culture has to offer in the reality show... and the very worst that culture has to offer in the soap opera. Everyone is dumber for watching these.

Educational TV is popular too. There's a channel teaching you math, and one teaching you English. They look like they cost about $12.50 to produce.

Lastly there is the English programming. Thank God for minor miracles. There is the AFN (Armed Forces Network) which shows everything really, from E.R. to Law & Order to 20/20. Instead of commercials there is propaganda. There is also the Discovery Channel. Many an hour of my life is wasted watching this. It's nice after hearing something you can't understand all day, coming home to English. Who cares if the subject matter is boring, you still get a small island of sanity.

So, don't touch that dial, because you have yet to buy your self-electrocution device or to win the great Othello challenge game show. The choice is yours. Maybe it's best to choose a book.