The worthwhile, boring, essential parts of war and life do not make good television. They do not even make good narrative: David Foster Wallace's posthumous novel tries to sanctify boredom (and if I ever manage to slog my way past page 56 I'll let you know if it succeeds; he's a great writer, but come on, I'm only human, I have my narrative needs too), but otherwise writers and filmmakers wisely steer clear of the subject.
I think that's a pretty good summation of the average open-minded person's relationship to narrative. Non-narrative can be good, but it's also hard, and sometimes people have needs.
P.S. I also really love the Economist website's trending topics visualization.
