and other than seemingly making some of us dumber
It is a bit more that that it is a sort of passyfier that saps the will and reduces the ability to think clearly and critically. I find a night in front of the TV makes you a lot more tired than almost any other activity.
I have done a lot of work for digital TV companies designing set top boxes and distribution systems and sometimes looking at the channels that were being distributed I felt like I was a heroin dealer.
I think it was Marx who said that the Church was the opiate of the people, that's nothing to TV.