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John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints |
US films and television drama series tend to be located mainly in the big cities and to concentrate on aggression, violence and highly unrealistic car chases. There is little or no depiction of small-town USA and Canada where the pace of life is slower, more relaxed, peaceful and civilised. The only US television series to regularly depict life in small-town America was The Fugitive (the original television series of the 1960's, not the recent film) and it tended to be fairly accurate.
All British television travel shows have now been dumbed down to zombie level and aim merely to entertain rather than inform. They tend to be very seriously under-researched and to concentrate solely on the presenter's frivolous antics rather than attempting to provide any information about the location being visited. They emphasise unrealistically expensive holiday packages, hotels, restaurants and clothes. They offer little or nothing in the way of useful information to potential travellers.
British television news and newspapers tend to restrict themselves to reporting politics, violent crime, natural disasters and sensational or bizarre events. They don't give a useful portrayal of the real USA and Canada.
The real USA and Canada, and real people in the USA and Canada, at least outside the big cities, are vastly better than the general impression of those countries and their people portrayed by the UK media.
Some of the wildlife programmes shown on British television occasionally give a useful and realistic portrayal of the US and Canadian National Parks and other wilderness areas. However, you are very unlikely to experience the total solitude depicted in these programmes unless you are prepared take an extended backpacking trip to explore a park's back country, getting well away from any roads.
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Most recently modified 30-Nov-03