Uncomfortable TV

[Paul Mackin]

Though tending to be skeptical of the power of a few TV shows (all of
which I personally like) to "subvert" or "discomfort" ANYTHING, I
can't help but question this perhaps too smug position in the face of
the film (soon to be shown on televison? dare They?) "INDEPENDENCE DAY". 

The White House _does_ get blown up, doesn't  it?  And the 
aliens, at least some of them, do go unpunished? 

Am basing this all on hearsy. Have walked by the local theatre several times
(for me the Uptown, in the very shadow of the hallowed W.H.), but the 
line is still prohibitively long.

The above is of course a joke, but I DO have a serious question. 

What exactly is there out there that there is any prospect of subverting?
Capitalism? State Power? Popular Culture? Public (In)decency? 

For me, any one of the above would do. But these institutions are the air
we breath in the final years of the 20th Century. 

					P.