Yeah, I don't ~mind~ CSI and the ilk, it's just when you click on the TV and your options are CSI, NCIS, CSI Miami etc etc. It's like...man, would you like a side of grit with your grit, grit and grit?

Competition shows are rubbish. If I have to hear anything about one more season of celebrity got talent on x-factored ice with a top-model jungle I will scream.

Except Master Chef. That somehow manages to be brilliant.

I agree. There is little real about reality TV anymore. Therefore I don't watch it.

The sheer volume of programming on American TV means I don't have to watch any type of show I don't want to.

Do you only have 4 channels?

Japanese television has its flaws, just as American television does. But your not pointing out a flaw I'm familiar with when it comes to American television. Sure, we have our fair share of reality TV and dramas, but there is so much more than that. Maybe you need to fill your time watching less of American dramas, and watching more adventure, sci-fi, fantasy, etc. American television, just like Japanese, has these genres to balance out there dramas/whatever you're labeling as "reaistic".

If American television is too realistic to you, then why do you think Japanese television is not flawed by being not realistic enough? They're both equally flawed with this argument in my opinion. But I personally think that both find a decent balance between realism and fantasy.

I don't watch very much television at all, I find most of TV land boring. But when I do feel like seeing something I wait until a series/season is complete and then I rent the whole thing. That way I can read reviews and get feedback from friends before I commit time to watching a show. I prefer slightly gritty shows if that's what you mean by realism, I don't like too much fluff, romance or comedy (unless it's Arrested Development).

I like quite a few shows that have come out in the last few years. Right now the only continuing shows that I'm keeping up with are True Blood and Dexter. I have a pretty low tolerance for "Reality Shows" and only watch Project Runway faithfully. I have been know to enjoy an episode of RuPaul's Drag Race now and again. >_>

I think if you find yourself deeply bored with TV, it's best to shut it off. I took a ten year break from TV and it was good.

I find Japanese dramas incredible corny, boring, and flat out laughable most of them time. Instead of actually looking at anything that might really be happening or that could occur - they tend to choose an insane plot device and then find the absolute WORST actors and actresses to make it even worse. Instead of making a story that is engrossing or interesting, they jump to latch on to anything that has gotten good ratings in the past and combine it with a new "fad".

Traditional high rating getters;
A character sick and going to die.
A character dead but "returning" in some way.
Ultra-popular working woman.
Super teacher/doctor changing their community.

Add any new technology or fad to one of those and you can hit most of the dramas.
A character sick and going to die, and the boyfriend/girlfriend works in a popular profession/has a very popular hobby.
A character died, but is communicating with family via the newest cell phone or laptop.
Ultra-popular working woman with 50 followers in her company is using one of the newest online services to get more work qualification certificates.
Super doctor is sent to small town in (insert area that has had recent interest), changing the lives of everyone around there.

Whenever there is a new drama coming out, if there is any sort of relationship scene in the commercial my husband will whisper 「死ぬにゃ～」... And 99% of the time the drama ends up being about one of them dying or having a terminal illness. This has to be THE number one plot device in Japanese dramas and movies. It`s EVERYWHERE.

US dramas, on the other hand, may start out with a great idea but as they don`t usually have a fixed run it seems like somewhere along the line turn into filler and "stretch this out so we can make more money" contrived bits.

This is starting to change. Thanks to dramas like Lost, people are appreciating a beginning, middle and end. The drama "Persons Unknown" followed this model, and was only 12 or 13 episodes, much like Japanese dramas. Hopefully we will see more of that in the West.

Many American dramas are like Japanese detective shows, where every week is a stand-alone episode (like CSI or Law and Order).

Shocking isn't it. Actually, we have 10 BBC channels, one of which is in welsh and gaelic, two of which are news channels, two of which are kids channels and one we can't watch as it's HD and we haven't signed up for it. We also get 18 other channels through free-view, several of which don't work because we live in a valley and the signal is bad, several others which are temperamental, 5 of which are dedicated solely to repeats of old shows, and one of which is nothing but game shows.

So yes, we pretty much end up rotating between BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4, with occasional dabbles into the rest. It is like having 4 channels that have a lot of hats.

I guess I forgot about the Documentaries. We get a lot of them. Tonight I could watch about orphaned children living horrible lives in Zimbabwe or Sex trafficking. Or The Bill, or CSI Miami. I'm not even going to mention The Deep, because it is awful.

Something that's occurred to me though, is that probably people enjoy asian dramas because they can cherry pick out the ones that are actually good. If you can do that even with western TV, suddenly the whole lot seems much better. Nyororin, conversely, just gets whatever is actually on TV right then, which I imagine involves a lot of pap.

I think it is a combination of this and of not actually understanding the language. If you don`t know the language, you only get a translation done by someone at the bottom of the screen, so you don`t get the full force of the corny lines and pitiful acting. Some of the dramas I have heard praised like mad outside of Japan are ones that have the absolute poorest acting - which totally ruins whatever story they might have.

I guess if you`re only reading the story, you don`t have it ruined by people who sound like they`re reading from a card just off camera and who are in every other drama and on every other television show doing the exact same crappy acting.

Mmm, that's true. A lot of the ones I hear raved about (by non-japanese people) are adaptions of manga/anime as well, which is pretty much why they're raving.

I think I'm at the stage where I can pick up when the Japanese is cheesy and unnatural, and to me bad acting is pretty bad wherever, but yeah, that must either fly right over the heads or else be very easily forgiven by of a lot of viewers. I seem to have avoided the worst of it so far I think...

Having said that sometimes I watch things exactly -because- they are cheesy and plot-stupid like how some people watch endless reruns of Friends. Like if I work friday night, I know it's going to be full of angry drunks and it's going to suck big time. I could come home and watch whatever's on TV to chill out, but it's likely to be a depressing documentary, a screechy reality show or an equally morbid cop show, which just isn't what i want really. So I watch some Jdrama about dogs or a farm or high school sports or something and yes the whole show might be -incredibly- dorky and ham-acted but that's exactly what cheers me up.

It sounds like for you the problem is not that the American dramas are too realistic and gritty, but you are looking for something more uplifting, which your television stations are not programming.