We might be in a Golden Age of TV, but I'm missing most of it. I used to download and stream certain shows religiously, but now my TV-watching only happens when I'm drained from work and need a mindless police procedural to dull my aching brain. Anything in the CSI/Criminal Minds/ Law And Order camp works well, I find.
When it comes to decent stuff though, or at least shows that keep the punnage to normal levels, I'm way behind. Some people don't read books. I find that weird, but I shouldn't. I'm the same person. It's just that instead of putting down Anna Karenina after a few pages because it's so long and heavy to lift, I never watch the Wire because it looks complicated and takes so long to download.
In fact, I think my TV-watching has become a victim of that medium's development over the past years. Now that nearly every series has ace writing and intricate story arcs, TV has started to compete for the mental consumption I'm used to pledging to movies and books. And it can't be relied on to fulfill its old function of shoveling enjoyable, untaxing fluff into my brain. I feel like all the series have polarized into two camps: unwatchably mindless or exhaustingly engaging. And when the choice is between Two And A Half Men or another dreary series about a drug-addicted nurse or teacher or whatever, I'm taking the third path of watching neither more and more often.
But, as the husband said to his soon-to-be ex, I can change! I think this is just a matter of re-training my brain to like the delayed gratification of decent TV. Just don't expect that to be The Wire, at least any time soon.
4 comments:
The Wire. Seriously, it's worth the effort, I promise you. If nothing else think of it as a way to get to know Mirah better.
I know what you mean though, it's hard to work up the effort to get into those types of sprawling TV epics. I spent months working up the nerve for The Wire and then breezed through it in like a month. Once you get hooked it becomes all consuming and the effort disappears, but until that happens it's just so easy to watch mindless fun shows. I've never been much for CSI but How I Met Your Mother has been a favourite lately. This also led directly to my deep love of Futurama.
Wait, does this mean you haven't watched Battlestar either?
Gaaa... Good TV requires time and effort! I spent four years of my life with BSG. I am officially still worn out from good TV...
Now in terms of bad TV... I have the first six seasons of CSI: Las Vegas on DVD if you ever need to borrow it :D
In any case, I prefer books as well. I don't like waiting for good TV. You need to find a way to watch it, time to watch it, a place to watch it and then you have to keep up with it! I can take a book to a cafe and I don't have to wait four years for it to end. Unless I am lazy, but then it's my own damn fault :D
I will trade you my tv-learnin' for your book learnin' any day! (a.k.a. i can lend you the entire series of the wire, or the sopranos, or firefly, or buffy...oh does the list go on, and no downloading time required!) But you have to give me some books to read because I'm sadly behind in that regard!
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