Thursday, October 18, 2007

It's been a good run but

television and me might be finished. I watch two or three episodes of a show, quickly see where it's going, and get bored. This wasn't as likely to happen when each episode of a series was self-contained. But now with these arcs, boy it gets tiring once you see where you're headed. Those Darlings on Dirty Sexy Money are tedious. How many scenes of them frolicking and being thoughtless do we need? And since they've assigned characteristics to characters, wow, do they drive it home. Does Sharon Gless have to smoke and whine in every frame of Burn Notice?Chuck, are we going to watch the same dynamic play out each week? He flashes through his computer chip of a brain, spots the enemy and the stalwart three go after him. Those are three shows I'm done with.
Pushing Daisies, cute as all get out. Right? But the two leads are immediately in love--BORING. And the cursed voice-over--which doomed Earl for me---is driving me mad. A little of that guy's voice goes a long way. It's too soothing. Reminds me of a voice-over from a children's movie. This one I may try once more because it does have terrific visuals. And that Chuck is so pretty. We sure are loaded with Chucks right now. Two at movies and two on TV. The Curse of the Chucks.
So I'm left with Mad Men, 30 Rock and The Office. And Mad Men's last episode is tonight. My tv past has had its ups and downs, but it's all down now. At least until The Wire.

17 comments:

Sandra Ruttan said...

I know how you feel. I watch tv when I need completely brainless activity, but there isn't much really worth the investment of time.

Anonymous said...

I stick with The Weather Channel-- been watching it for years and never seen a rerun.
John McAuley

pattinase (abbott) said...

Yeah, but the panic the WC manages to create over any storm coming along is too much for my aging heart. Give me a good old murder anytime. And give me a scripted show. They never get it right.

Anonymous said...

I love Mad Men and the Office. I just don't get 30 Rock. I want to like it, but I find it smug and frankly, not funny.

Dexter on Showtime is awesome.

Monk is always pretty good.

But, most of the time, most television is a waste of time.

r2

pattinase (abbott) said...

30 Rock isn't quite where it needs to go for me so I know what you mean. But it has a few inspired minutes most weeks and I'm easy nowadays.
Monk is great if you don't much care about solving the crime. Tony Shaloub is a genius in creating a character--like Kelsey Grammar in Frasier and Carol O'Connor in All in the Family. I love Dexter but don't subscribe to Showtime. Another masterful acting job. So different from his character on Six Feet Under.

Christa M. Miller said...

How do you feel about The Shield (FX)? We've watched all but the last season.

pattinase (abbott) said...

My husband loves it but I just never got into it. Something about the protagonist turned me off from Day One. Funny because I'm a proponent of interesting is more important than good in a character but he always struck me as such pig.

Anonymous said...

Showtime is really coming on...and I've only seen bits of DEXTER, MASTERS OF HORROR, and BROTHERHOOD so far. But I genuinely like THE L WORD, CALIFORNICATION and WEEDS, even if they're not up to THE WIRE (but better than most of HBO's other new drama, even if I do enjoy the sitcoms ENTOURAGE and CURB).

Anonymous said...

More episodes like tonight's, and NUMB3RS will be worth catching whenever possible.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Switching to Showtime would probably be a good idea although hate to miss The Wire.

Anonymous said...

In our current reckless abandon, we get Showtime, HBO, their little siblings TMC and Cinemax, and Starz/Encore. We also get Current, but I don't watch it much...for our gay abandon, there's Logo and Here, which are also a bit light on interesting programming. But it is nice to get C-SPAN2 back and have BBC America and C-3 for the first time. And on-demand is very useful, indeed.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Love On Demand and the DVR. Why watch a show with its 20 minutes of commercicals any longer? Although why watch most show at all. I am afraid I have fractured my attention span on the Internet. These two minute bites of people's minds spoil me for the longer haul.

Anonymous said...

LIFE, btw, has been pretty suprisingly engaging to me, but I had low expectations (and came into it as a Sarah Shahi fan).

pattinase (abbott) said...

What's "Life?"

Anonymous said...

NBC crime-drama that runs Weds. at 10p ET/PT, against DIRTY SEXY MONEY and CSI: NEW YORK. The one involving the cop who was unjustly convicted of murder, exonerated and returned to the force but exasperates his partner Shahi, who is mildly stereotypical no-nonsense cop, with his rather (but not strikingly) unusual approaches. Not groundbreaking, but intelligently-done, so far, and well-acted.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Now I've never even heard about this one. Have to DVR it. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I missed last night's LIFE. Any good?