I am bored out of my mind. All my television shows are on hiatus. I’d really like to watch reruns but they aren’t on right now, so I’m flipping and flipping and flipping. I’m getting a chance to see some of the other shows on television and it’s just not pretty. Last night, I watched about 10 minutes of Charm School. Good grief.
I’m really an HBO junkie. I love The Sopranos, Deadwood, The Wire, Entourage. I loved Six Feet Under. Never got into Rome, too bloody. I tried John from Cincinnati but my mind drifted away from it. I love Weeds on Showtime. There are a few new Entourages on, but not much else.
I started and stopped several shows this year. I started great guns on Grey’s Anatomy but in the end, I just drifted away. How many times can that blond girl Izzy cry? Meredith is too whiny. For some reason, I didn’t pick back up Desperate Housewives when the new season started. I flipped to it every now and then, but I guess I just got tired of it.
I almost lost Lost. I missed the first season of it. Borrowed a copy from a friend of mine and became hooked. Got through the second season with that underground thingy and the number punching, but that long break mid-season just about did me in. But I hung in and the payoff was well worth it. The end to this last season makes it certain that I will be there for the season premiere.
I was one of the few who liked the ending to The Sopranos. I’m glad Tony and family are all still alive ready to face all the challenges ahead. I didn’t want to mourn them the way I did Nate on Six Feet Under. That ending really gutted me. I just cried and thought about how fleeting life is.
Okay, is Deadwood coming back? I love, love, love that @$$^*%$%* show. I was a little put off by the profanity at first and how brutally violent it could be, but it didn’t take me long to see the brillance. The writing is incredible. Call it Shakespeare in the gutter, which is how they really talked in Deadwood The word choices are so rich. This is a line from one of my favorite characters Mayor E.B. Farnum: “August commencement to my administration, standing stymied outside a saloon next to a degenerate tit-licker.”
What shows do you watch? Do you like any of my favorites? Got any favorite lines. As you can see, I love shows with a narrative. I’m not really into reality shows or game shows. What about you?
Responses to “What are you watching?”
July 2nd, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I, too, love Deadwood. The language is a bit jarring at first, but after a while, you sort of listen through all the profanities. I can’t believe you thought Rome was too bloody, but you were OK with the Sopranos? Different kind of bloody, I guess. I like both those shows, too.
This summer I’ve been watching Traveller, about the guy that sets up his friends and blows up a museum in NYC. When it starts back in a couple of weeks, I’ll watch Eureka (on SciFi) - about a bunch of geniuses living in Eureka (of course), who goof around with their gifts when they are not working on super-secret government projects. Not really much of a narrative, but its a fun show (a geeky show, as my 21 year-old niece calls it). I haven’t gotten in to America’s Got Talent on NBC (haven’t had time, yet), but last year’s show was great. You could use the summer to catch up on Desparate Housewives, or Jerico, or Friday Night Lights, or any other show you didn’t get time to watch during the regular season. Or, subscribe to Netflix and catch up on all the movies you wish you had seen - we do a lot of that in the summer.
~ Barb
July 2nd, 2007 at 9:28 pm
OK - don’t mean to sound all “holier than thou” and stuff, but I’ve pretty much stopped watching TV over the past couple of weeks. You might say “sure – that’s easy now that there is nothing on”, but I really, truly hope that when the juicy shows start back up I’ll resist the urge to “turn-on and tune-out”, because that’s what I realized I was doing. Life is fast and furious and I feel like I’m going a hundred miles-an-hour most of the time. I’d come home at the end of a grueling day, turn on the tube and veg out for a couple of hours (one of the luxuries of being an empty-nester with a spouse who is never home). To be honest, many days I still come home and veg out – but at least I don’t have the background noise and mind numbing busyness – now it is a choice to deliberately take sometime for myself and just “be” in the moment. Amazing what you will learn about yourself when you are all alone… might just find out that you don’t need Tony - you can be your own best friend!
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:38 am
You’re right Barb. It’s the type of violence. Rome just seems to have big scenes of gushing blood. They sacrificed a cow or something in one of the first episodes and blood pouring down on someone like a waterfall was enough to turn me away.
I really don’t like shows with a lot of violence, but if it has it, I prefer something quick and non-torturous like a gunshot. Knives and swords really ick me out. I always turn away when Al Swearingen breaks out his knife because one way or another, someone’s throat is going to get slit.
I have a general policy about torture scenes in general. I don’t like anything to suffer. If I’m going to kill a bug, it’s quick, no crawling on its one good leg trying to make it to the tall grass!
So, I don’t watch a lot of shows that show torture and you simply couldn’t pay me to watch those torture-porn movies like Saw or Hostel. I like suspense, but I get no enjoyment seeing someone suffer.
Also, Wendi, I could never get rid of HBO. Give me a rerun of the Sopranos or Six Feet Under any day instead of that plot-less reality shows with the big ba-dum music at critical scenes and people who totally play to the cameras.
July 3rd, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I seem to be in the minority, but I really liked Studio 60. I’m sad that it’s gone. Any mention of Paddy Chayefsky in a pilot episode wins me completely.
I agree with Barb about Netflix. That’s absolutely the best way to watch several series. I highly recommend Slings and Arrows–it’s a Canadian series that has come to an end, but the three seasons are available on DVD. It’s especially good if you like Shakespeare or live theater. Mark McKinney from Kids in the Hall has a starring role.
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Cindy,
I’m with you regarding things suffering, blood, and gore. I even had a problem with some of the Planet Earth shows on Discovery that Wendi mentioned (you must watch them if you get the chance, and they are even better if you watch them in HD). I never wanted the leopard to catch the gazelle or whatever. Of course, then I was sad because the leopard babies would go hungry. So, I hid my eyes until the hunting part was over and then got back to watching the show. I actually hide my eyes alot with some movies and shows, such as Rome, or the Sopranos, even some of the CSI shows tend to be a little graphic for me. It helps to watch with someone else who can tell me when it’s OK to start watching again.
July 5th, 2007 at 9:04 am
It seems like I’m always hawking this show to people, but if you haven’t checked out the BBC version of The Office, it’s well worth the time.
July 6th, 2007 at 3:02 am
Kell,
I really gave Studio 60 a try, but I just didn’t like the characters. I guess I thought it was going to be a comedy, but it wasn’t. To me, these characters just weren’t fun to watch. I don’t know why. It seemed pretentious to me. I really like Bradley Whitford, Matthew Perry and Amanda Peet, but they just never clicked for me.
I’ve watched the BBC version of The Office. My friend thinks its the best show ever written. I just don’t get it. I think Dwight Shrute is a classic character. I can’t wait for him to be on the screen, and Kelly with her sing-song voice and vapid conservations.
Tell me more about what you like. I love to debate tv.
July 12th, 2007 at 8:37 am
As a fan of “who-done-its” I spend my summer with Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson and The Closer on TNT. I’m a fan of the Law and Order franchise and don’t miss Cold Case on Sunday nights. Starting to get into Without a Trace as well. However during the summer months all the latter are repeats. Fresh episodes of The Closer make for an entertaining few weeks as we anticipate the new fall season.
July 2nd, 2007 at 4:47 pm
OK, maybe I watch as some sort of insurance policy that I won’t let myself get so big I need bathers to come wash me - but I like Big Medicine and the show at the Andover Retirement Community for obese people and shows like, “I lost 800 pounds,” and “The Biggest Man in the World.”
Now, when I watched that last show, I did notice that not only had this 1,200 pound man been married, but he had a new girlfriend, even though he couldn’t get out of bed. I do believe firmly that everyone needs love - but how did he manage to get in the love line twice and I haven’t made it through once?
Give some of the reality shows you didn’t watch the first time around a try - I like all the weight loss ones, Biggest Loser, and see if you can find The Planet shows that were on Discovery. They were fascinating.
I miss Weeds too, and the Sopranos and am thinking of cancelling my HBO and Showtime because there’s nothing on there that I watch regularly.