I don’t really watch much TV anymore. In fact, I don’t even have cable. Bascially, I don’t have the time, and having fallen out of the habit, I find I lack the discipline to tune in every week. The only shows I’ve made the effort for over the last few years have been Arrested Development–which has been cancelled–and The Amazing Race, which I watch over at Techmaster Paul and Holly Smith’s house.
Other than that, I haven’t found anything that has managed to sustain my interest. I was watching all three alien shows last year. Surface fell first, as I found I didn’t like any of the characters. Threshold started exhibited episode template-itis, and then was cancalled anyway. Invasion–I just starting missing shows and gave up on. I couldn’t even tell you if Invasion or Surface were still on the air, or are due to come back.
DVD has encouraged me in this. If a show is good, I can always catch in on disc and burn through an entire season in a weekend. (Of course, that makes the experience more like watching a movie, since the months-long time investment is what really makes TV what it is. Oh, well.)
The new (Jan 13th) issue of Entertainment Weekly covers the slate of new shows due this mid-season. A number of these are spotlighted, and of those the only one of those that excites me is The Unit, an anti-terrorist show, and that only because I learned it was being produced by Shawn Ryan of The Shield (great show!!) and David Mamet. It will be interesting to see how Ryan functions under the additional restrictions of broadcast TV, since The Shield really pushes the content stuff, but good writers are good writers and I don’t think restrictions are bad in and of themselves.
Other shows mentioned include the usual generic dreck, nearly all of which will be off the air soon anyway, and other shows whose concepts I just don’t find interesting. Emily’s Reasons Why Not, with Heather Graham, is being pushed as the new Sex & the City. Well, I never liked Sex & the City, so that’s not exactly hauling me in.
Thief on FX stars the superb Andrew Braugher as a bankrobber living a double life, so that is going to make my list. And the WB show The Bedford Diaries is basically a TV version of The Harrad Experiment: “Students at a New York university keep video logs of their randy thoughts for a sex course taught by Matthew Modine.” If only the show would prove half as funny as Harrad was, I’d be there every week.
Oh, and there’s a review of the returning (after being delayed) fifth season of Scrubs, also a show I will tune in to watch (except when I forget). I have to admit, though, I thought the first two episodes last week seemed to indicate the show was beginning to show its age.
