My Love/Hate Relationship with Television

Some folks may say I watch way too much television.  I might say that myself from time to time.  But the truth is, I have been entertained by what came out of that black box from the time it was a 1952 10-inch snowy tube, until now — when it might be 50 inches wide and weigh 5 pounds.  (The latter doesn’t describe the TV that is in my living room. It has a nice large 28-inch screen, but it weighs 200-300 pounds.  Just ask my sons and grandsons who moved it in for me.)

I still love television, and would probably watch more,  it’s just that much of it is no longer entertaining. I do not like reality TV. I tried Survivor the first season it was on, lo those many years ago, but when they were forced to eat gross things to “survive”, I decided that was too much reality for me.

I love to watch game shows and situation comedies. But nowadays most of the “game shows” are actually reality TV (see above paragraph), and most of the sit-coms are inane.  (I like to see if I can answer the questions on Jeopardy and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. I don’t want to hear the sexual innuendos on Baggage or The Newlywed Game.

I don’t watch blood and gore, so that eliminates many of the current drama series and hospital-based shows.

I still enjoy courtroom drama, Law and Order, Harry’s Law and The Good Wife and cozy mysteries like The Mentalist. I also like Parenthood, though it is a little ‘soapy.’  Notice a couple of those are missing from the current network line-ups — they can be found in re-runs on cable.

A small aside: I find it amusing that over the years some almost cliched events crop up on television dramas.  For instance:

If they order carry-out, it’s always Chinese and they always eat with chopsticks.

The female police officers always have long beautiful hair that they never contain in any way. (However the perp never takes the opportunity to grab her by the hair, like one might think.)

If a man and woman are attracted to each other, they start ripping clothes off regardless of time and place. Slow steamy lovemaking has been out for several seasons.

If there is a funeral, it is always held at the graveside and someone always plays Amazing Grace on the bagpipes.  (In New Orleans? Seriously?)

And so I continue to watch, hoping things will get better.  This season, with the help of Netflix, I will be viewing Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a really good show that lasted only one season, and West Wing. It’s been several years since I’ve seen this excellent drama series starring Charlie Sheen’s Daddy.