Finally, we’re living in the future. What on Earth is it doing to us?

At their recent sold-out shows at the Tate Modern in London, Kraftwerk revisited its eight studio albums in neat, chronological order. At first glance, it’s rather jarring to think of such forward-looking sounds having earned a retrospective. But then they were never really about the future, anyway. With songs like Autobahn, Pocket Calculator and Trans-Europe Express, it’s clear that Kraftwerk was actually interested in the technology that already surrounded them.

A few years ago I had the chance to be a Nielsen “family” (though I live alone) and catalog, for all posterity, a detailed record of my TV viewing habits. Eventually—I assumed— this raw data would be processed and reported to the masses, with my viewing choices powerfully impacting the national viewing audience. Tough work, but someone’s got to do it.

“If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.” That’s been the battle-cry, the perennial response to objectionable TV.  I don’t know exactly when it began: perhaps it dates back to TV’s earliest days, and the advent of the off/on switch, when someone was offended by Queen for a Day or Candid Camera. Whatever the case, it seemed to have gained its greatest traction during Tipper Gore’s lyrical examination and condemnation of rock and rap music in the ‘80s, which crossed over to the TV debate via MTV (which, by the way, was not exactly straight up censorship, though MTV, trying to cultivate a rebellious image, liked to act like it was.) Regardless of when it began,“If you don’t like it, don’t watch it,” as a supposedly viable solution to objectionable TV and its problems, is still very much with us.

TNT’s Southland kicked off its fifth season on Wednesday night with the carefully crafted, intense drama that has made the show a favorite among its diehard fans and critics of crime television alike. The show picks up with the storyline several months after season four ended, offering us an intimate look at how policing changes our society—and the police. This episode’s opening voice montage was particularly haunting: We hold cops to a higher standard because we give ‘em a gun and a badge. The only trouble with that is, they’re recruited from the human race.

With American Idol withering away to obsolescence in its twilight years; The X Factor failing to take hold in the States; and The Voice plateauing into background noise, the moment is ripe for a new singing competition show to ascend to the top (or bottom) of the heap. Something brave and brash and incisive, a new popcultural watershed and bellwether.  A show that says as much about what we’d like to become as what we’ve actually become. A show that addresses directly what we (de)value most as a society; that addresses the concerns of what it’s like to be alive right now, in 2013, in America; and, mostly importantly, a show that addresses and answers the singular vital question of how much humiliation and torture an individual is willing to endure for a chance at winning, at most, ten grand.