Wasting The Wasteland
Posted on | February 22, 2007 at 6:10 am | 6 Comments
It should surprise no one that I watch too much television. One look at all the television-themed blog entries should be enough to convince anyone. So much good stuff to watch, so little time. Even before I had a steady girlfriend, it was hard to keep up with watching it all. And now that I’ve found more fulfilling ways to spend my time, it’s become impossible. I have something like 60 unwatched events saved up on the DVR. Although to be fair, a number of them are shows the gf wanted me to record for her and which I may or may not watch with her (episodes of Frontline and American Idol, for example). And a great deal of them are things I recorded which we were going to watch together and have not got around to yet (mostly umpteen episodes of The Real World: Denver, but there’s also some Ebert & Roeper and a few other things). But that still leaves a lot of my normal fare unwatched.
As it stands now, I’m caught up on most of the one-hour dramas I watch (aside from Veronica Mars, ER, and Masters of Horror), though I’m lagging terribly behind on sitcoms and other half-hour shows. I think I’ll always be caught up on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, since I watch them the next morning as I do my post-run stretching and other morning rituals.
I started realizing a little while ago how out of hand this is getting and decided to drop some old shows that I had lost interest in (Desperate Housewives, The L Word) and some new shows that never quite jelled with me (Jericho, Ugly Betty, Dirt). But that’s still probably not enough. I’m thinking of dropping ER after all this time. And some more will have to go too, I guess. I have to say that I don’t really miss the stuff I’ve dropped, so that tells me I can probably drop more. If Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is really gone for good, that will help. Although new episodes of The Shield start in April, and I’ll have to watch that.
Hmmm, I wonder if TV was filling some void in my life that no longer needs to be filled…
Latre.
Comments
6 Responses to “Wasting The Wasteland”
February 22nd, 2007 @ 9:57 pm
Maybe some do use TV as an emotional crutch, but frankly it’s also a perfectly good way to simply fill time. I lived alone for a lot of years and for the most part my surplus time was spent online (until the web came along in the mid-90s and I sorta wandered away for a few years), but before I had computers I’d watch just about anything on TV. I’d watch 10-12 hours a day as a teenager, even without cable – the TV listings were committed to memory, and my standards adapted to my needs…
But now I have a wife to watch TV for us both. Apart from Stewart, Colbert, and Letterman (oh, and a couple of excellent new shows on Comedy Central – especially Sarah Silverman!) I can’t find very much on our 150+ channels worth paying attention to most days.
Fahey, however, will even watch the Anna Nicole trial proceedings, if only to scoff at the judge… that is, when she can drag herself away from the cooking channel. Or the home-redecorating shows. Or the medical oddities documentaries. I just pray to the Mayor of Television they never come out with a shoe channel, or she may have to be put on a feeding tube.
February 22nd, 2007 @ 10:15 pm
Good thing there’s no Kabaddi Channel!
February 24th, 2007 @ 5:17 am
I only watch about 7 shows (Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Studio 60, and MustSeeTVLite aka NBC’s Comedy Night Done Right) and I can barely keep up.
February 24th, 2007 @ 6:16 am
You still watch ER? I thought it jumped the shark when Paul McCrane and that helicopter.
February 24th, 2007 @ 8:38 am
yellojkt, I watch all those 7 and more.
Jestaplero, ER probably jumped the shark long before the infamous helicopter/Romano incident. Poor Paul McCrane – just look at what happened to him on 24 this year.
February 25th, 2007 @ 1:50 am
Oh there’s a Kabaddi channel…
Earl is a must see. As is the new Britcom we’ve stumbled across, Hyperdrive. Now, if I can just get one of MY OWN shows on the air then that’s all anyone will need to watch…
FSY xxxx