My New Vice

My New Vice

vice-logoAdmittedly I’m late to the party on this company, but Vice has a new show that has caught my attention.  I was always aware of Vice as I’ve seen their “office” more times than I can count on my many walks around Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but never read their publications. I heard about the new show via my regularly viewing of Real Time with Bill Maher. The shows already had 4 episodes (it takes me awhile to add a new show to my rotation) and I recently watched all 4 in a span of 2 days. This binge watching was not planned but I got hooked pretty quickly.  I’m not savvy enough in the field of production to nail what works so well for this show, but to put it simply Vice stays out of the way of the news they’re reporting.  It’s refreshing to watch news that you don’t have to translate in your head because of some form of political bias. In the 4 episodes I’ve watched there was barely an opinion ever stated aside from opinions that essentially can be considered facts, as in North Korea is a terrible place.

I give Shane Smith a ton of credit. He and his team of journalists put themselves in some very hairy situations to really immerse you in the story. Situations like Shane meeting with a high level Taliban member, or tip toeing the Pakistan, Indian border. Even though I know the episodes aren’t live, and that Shane is alive and well, still being so close to the danger zone of all these stories do give a bit of an anxiety as you watch.

I consider myself in the know for the most part. I tend to stay on top of the news, and read a good amount.  However Vice has brought it to my attention that I’m merely getting the cliff notes on a lot of my knowledge. For example the episode where they dive deep into the rising right wing political party in Greece; I was well aware of the civil unrest and some of the protests that have been occurring in Europe; what I was not aware of was the seriousness to which this rising “party” parallels that of the Nazi Germany.  Shane makes the observation, of which you’re already thinking the minute you see the flag, of just how close it resembles the red swastika flag of the Nazis.

All in all Vice puts together a concise hour of TV loaded with a ton of details, visually and verbally. They do what all good journalism does which is put the story first.  I never felt like Shane or any of the journalists were attempting to make a name for themselves. They weren’t “breaking” news to be the first to say it, and as we’ve all realized recently with the reporting from Boston, that can happen rather haphazardly.  No instead these are journalistic stories that have been there for a while, and aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.  After each episode I found myself asking two questions repeatedly.  Ashamedly, how have I missed this amazing thing known as Vice, and how come no one else has reported on this. I guess I now have my solution to both these questions as Vice is now a part of my circle of media outlets, and I will keep its website favorited, and after I’m done writing this, I will subscribe to their magazine.  I guess if I had to hypothesize how I might’ve missed Vice, I can probably admit that a part of me assumed it to be part of “my generation’s” media outlets, where seemingly the news is less important than the characters reporting it, but I’m a big man and can admit when I’m wrong.  Even the little things such as Shane knowing when to switch out his black t-shirt for a proper suit and button down to show some respect for his subjects, lets me know this isn’t just MTV revamped.  This guy cares and is fully aware of his place in all this.  It shouldn’t have been the case but Bill Maher signing off on this show and being the executive producer clued me into the fact that I should take this seriously, and 2 days and 4 episodes later, I’m happy I did.

If you haven’t already, you should definitely head over to their website and check out everything they have.  Promoting another site’s publication?  Seems mad I know, but as editor in chief of Rookerville, my goal isn’t to monopolize your time and keep you from the other good stuff.  No that would be a disservice to the reader in my book. Instead we just hope to become part of your more refined circle of media outlets you trust, and maybe even show you a few others that we trust.

http://www.vice.com/en_us

Matt Cargile

About Matt Cargile

Matt Cargile is the Editor in Chief of rookerville.com. He also works in finance, but refuses to read any news printed on pink paper. He is a child at heart with adult means. His childhood dream was to either become a magician or the leader of the next great empire and somehow both these things make complete sense. He's contradictory in nature, but is always consistent.

Comments

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: