Turn Up the Volume Please – Maybe Not

                                      By Lisa Martin

These communication blogs are becoming quite challenging. I watch a good deal of television, but this week I had to watch a show I had never seen, without sound. The only thing I like to watch without sound is some ball games because the commentators are annoying. I was also not interested in watching a new show. I chose a program called Family Tools, because an actress from an old show I liked stars in it. It is a thirty minute sitcom, and after a great deal of rewinding this is what I deduced without sound.

The show begins with an older man lying on kitchen floor with his hand on his chest – perhaps he fell or is having a heart attack. A younger man and woman go about getting breakfast, all while an intense disagreement is taking place. I know they are arguing because the old man is yelling and the woman is using exaggerated facial expressions to convey her disappointment and disgust, her nonverbal cues include eye rolling, head shaking and finger pointing. She is also doing some sort of negotiating with the older man as I see paramedics waiting for ok to enter home, and she holds up her hand in a wait gesture and looks to old man for a response. I never knew I could read so much from the body language and facial expressions of others. I see the sarcasm in the woman’s face, as well as the exasperation in the man’s face.

As I continue to watch the program, I deduce that the older man is reluctantly handing over the family business to his son due to health issues. He does not seem to have much confidence in his son, and they do not communicate, the aunt is always playing arbitrator. They have a handy man type business, and between the few employees and potential customers they are surrounded by some interesting and eccentric characters. The son’s assistant is of little help, as in one scene he is holding a puppy, which I think the son is trying to get him to get rid of, while the truck is being robbed. The attractive young woman who works in the shop flirts with the son. Of course, I would have had a much better idea of what was happening were this a program I had seen before or better yet watched regularly.

I actually did pretty well without any sound. The younger woman is the old man’s sister and he is having a heart attack. She is denying him medical attention until he agrees to retire and take care of himself, so I was correct about the negotiating. The old man reluctantly hands the repair business over to his son. The son and the assistant are a pair of incompetents, who constantly argue; rather than really communicate with each other they talk about the other in their presence to third parties via cell phones, pretending they are talking about someone else. The sister is extremely sarcastic, and because it’s television her facial expressions are overemphasized. I found the show to be stupid and far from funny, and expect it to be canceled quickly.

On the other hand, I learned people say a lot without speaking. The affect displays, kinesics, and illustrators seemed magnified, but that may be a by-product of bad acting. A horrible show is equally bad with or without sound, actually it was a bit better in silence, as you can only guess at the corniness of the lines being spoken.