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COMMENTARY: Sharknado IV

Jun 20, 2016 at 01:00 pm by Bryan Barrett


MTSU Professor of Journalism Dr. Larry Burris is looking forward to Sharknado 4, coming out in July. Why? Here he is to explain...

When I'm talking to community groups about television, and someone says there's nothing good to watch, I remind them of all of the educational and cultural programs available. But I guess it's time for a true confession: I'm looking forward to Sharknado 4 in July.

Even more of a confession: I watched the first three episodes with friends and family. Multiple times.

Now I haven't seen any trailers for the latest iteration of the SciFi channel's over-the-top franchise, and at some level I encourage you to watch the upcoming installment. And better yet, get together with some friends and make a game out of it.

First, immediately after the program starts you have to figure out if the latest sharks are going to be the result of nuclear testing, environmental mismanagement or simply nature gone wrong. Then, how many people are going to die in the first five minutes? And will the deaths include the good looking high school student, the drifter or the blue collar worker.

Now comes the tricky part: will there be a broken family, a dysfunctional social group or a collection of dissatisfied worker. And how long will it be before the separated group members get into a fight, but then get back together?

Will the two nerdiest characters get together at the end, or will one get devoured and the other get to date the class president? And in every case, you'll see some characters have a big "V" on their foreheads. That "V"stands for "victim."

But, here's something really strange: when the creature feature "Sharknado" first aired years ago, it got some of the lowest ratings in network history. Then, when it was shown for the third time, it somehow managed to get some of the highest ratings.

So laugh all you want, as bad as Sharknado 4 will probably be, you can't argue with success.

Sections: News