Watching too much damned tv

Archive: Watching

I watch too much TV. Partly I can fault Charles. Sadly Charles reads very little.

What are we watching?

I'd never watched an episode of Friends before. For a few minutes once many years ago I paused to enjoy looking at David Schwimmer. Now I watch it regularly with Charles and we've rented the DVDs of the first two (or three?) seasons. Lisa Kudrow is clearly the most talented member of the cast.

There was a Law & Order marathon last July 4th. I've become a heavy watcher of reruns. I've liked Sam Waterson since he played Dr. Robert Oppenheimer many years ago. I don't make an effort to catch new episodes. According to Michael Kinsley many professional women do likewise. Not sure why I'm addicted. The show is tightly presented, the development of the store is almost always satisfactory and there's fine since of completeness when the episode ends.

Will & Grace I ignored even though it was the first prime time TV show to star an openly gay man. The first week I spent with Charles we watch an episode. Now it is a ritual we share. I'll admit that the Jack Macfarlane character won me over first. Over the last couple of years it seems that Jack and Karen have been pushed to the limit of their cartoonishness. And it seems that Grace has been consciously made stupider since she married Leo.

A science fiction and horror movie fan as a kid I'll always look at something like Stargate SG1. As with Law & Order I know it only in reruns watched wholly out of order. Part of the appeal is that the stories are very straightforward. The assorted Star Trek franchises have had more than enough touchie-feelliness. The Sam Rami shows had too much bad humor. I did like Earth the Final Conflict for a time. Once they found out they had a successful show they threw the consistency and distinctiveness away in hopes of keeping the show going by focusing on mediocrity.

I have a weakness for Dharma & Greg reruns. Probably because of the way copes with Dharma's zaniness reminds me much of some of my days with Charles.

Charles love Six Feet Under. All I see it a bunch of fucked-up people I'd hate to allow near me. So I tend to focus on the gay characters. Mostly I watch it because Charles is addicted to it.

Soul Food is a surprisingly strong soap opera. I'm of two minds about it. Despite the all black cast there is nothing strongly African-American about most of the story lines. For the white audience it is healthy for them to see black families as living just as they do. If I were black I might be annoyed there's nothing in the program that portrays the life of African-Americans, racism is never seen. Of course black Americans don't have the same lives as the millions in the projects.

Would I watch Queer as folk if I weren't living with Charles. I'm not sure. The only characters that I like are Emmett and Ted. Admittedly I'd like to dandle Emmett on my knee. Michael I despise, most of the rest I'm indifferent to. I might watch it as a form of news: how gay people are portrayed in the most gay-friendly TV show around.

I grew up on Roger Corman and Hammer horror movies. Only explanation I can think of for watching Charmed (although Alyssa Milano is nice to look at when she isn't looking merely idiotic). I dropped the show at the end of a storyline. Same with Angel: the acting is contemptible. Nobody that I wanted to look at, I quit once a story arc came (or fell) to earth.

I grew up with the original Star Trek. Hard to remember how exciting it was back in the 60s. So I watch Enterprise sometimes. If it weren't a Star Trek show I know that I wouldn't. I try every science fiction TV show and rarely watch any of them more than once.

I may quite watching Smallville tonight (season finale). Clark and Lana are as cute as their genders get. A few of the stories were entertaining but more were just exasperating.

I hadn't planned on watching Penn & Tellers' Bullshit but Charles liked it. I've read it all, know it all but the stories of human gullibility never tire.

Very late in the day I did discover The Simpsons and King of the Hill. They've proven agreeable ways to pass time.

If every TV network and station burnt to the ground I wouldn't miss anything.(One of my AOL screen names was AtheistHatesTV.)