Word: banally
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...byproduct of this subtle attempt to pacify the American public by sheltering it from the harsh realities of life has producing a disturbing, though by no means novel, phenomenon: Americans prefer banal fantasies and mindless mush to unpleasant docudramas or serious theater. Consequently, when film and television producers make the rare attempt to simulate reality, they generally wind up depicting unconvincing, one-dimensional characters, creating predictable, non controversial situations, and producing stories like One Day at a Time or Happy Days...
Ninety-nine percent of the rock videos are musically insipid, banal and worthless. A good song does not need hokey visuals to give it meaning...
...NIXON!" Publication this fall of Peter Hall's Diaries, which chronicles his first eight years at the National (1972-80), has sent Sir Peter's old enemies scurrying to put in their tuppence worth. Playwright John Osborne denounced the book as a "numbing record of banal ambition, official evasiveness and individual cupidity." Opera Critic Tom Sutcliffe of the Guardian argues that "Hall has rewritten the history of the National's early days. It's a matter of setting the record crooked...
...drama revolves around the relationship between Kit (Rebecca Howe) and Milly (Elsie Marks), two school cronies who rival each other inspite of their longstanding friendship. Kit, sophisticated and cosmopolitan, writes quality books that don't sell. Milly, banal and spitefully petty, writes trashy romances that make the bestseller's list. Milly accuses Kit of luring her husband (Jamie Wolf) and daughter Deidre (Nora Jaskowiak) from her; Deidre unwittingly sweeps Kit's boyfriend Rudd (Matthew Haynes) off his feet. None of this, however, is powerful enough to shatter the relationship between the two, which somehow manages to transcend all differences...
...Generation, which comes complete with a detailed family tree, a preface by Edward M. Kennedy, and hundreds of family photographs. Then there's William Manchester's Remembering Kennedy: One Brief Shining Moment, a self-styled "celebration of [Kennedy's] triumph." Manchester's conversational tone occasionally borders on the banal: "The White House is very white...You can scarcely believe that the place is inhabited. It is, because the White House is also a house." Although Manchester's book contains far more prose than the others, it relies as heavily on photographs--almost 200, with sixteen pages in color...