Acting

Turn on the TV, see what’s on. You will immediately be able to tell if the thing you are watching is drama or real life. That means, pure and simple, the acting isn’t good enough. It’s not the production values or the music, it’s the acting. What’s wrong with it?

Well, actors, virtually all of them, have a tendency to over-act – to try too hard. (This is even more the case for radio, when their exaggerrated delivery can be very annoying and seems to be intended as some kind of counter-balance to the fact they can’t be seen.) This is really bad acting, but I think actors are probably encouraged to do it by producers and directors.

If it was really great acting you should be able to turn on the TV and not know whether what you are watching is real or not. Incidentally, human beings are very sophisticated at detecting acting and we can detect it in normal social interaction too (which is why it’s always best to just relax and be genuine!).