tv

TV is dead to me. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy a lot of television shows, just not on a television. I haven't owned a TV that could pick up a station in over six years (not that I've tried lately). I had cable for about a year when I was living in an apartment and every time I stay in a hotel with 200 stations, I'm reminded of why I got rid of cable and never returned: I have terrible self control. I could flip through the stations all day (yes, I'm that person). The channels I would linger on featured cooking shows, how candy is made, people redoing their living rooms or house hunting. Not exactly riveting stuff but I could literally spend every moment of my leisure time watching it and feel depressed about it afterwards. Cable was a drug for me and I had to stop.

I still enjoy at lot of television programs. I just buy the season or rent it off of netflix when the DVD comes out. Most big network TV shows you can watch online a day or two after they air if you care to keep up that way. I prefer the season on a DVD option. That way I can binge on an awesome show and then return to the land of the living a few days later.

Because I don't watch TV, I don't "just happen" to stumble on any new and great shows. Most of the shows I end up watching have been hits for a while before I hear about them and put them in my netflix queue. This is normally fine with me since if the show is older, there's multiple seasons to watch and an even bigger DVD binge is in store. There are times of TV show DVD feast and famine. Now is a time of feast. Five new seasons of shows I like have gone to DVD or internet in the past month and a half.

Behold my current time wastes!
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I love Game of Thrones. It's beautifully shot. The costumes, the sets, the drama, the characters are all amazing (I'm partial to the imp and the mother of dragons). I started reading the first book of the series after I saw the first season. I only got to around page 100. At that point, I had a very detailed list in my mind of all the reasons I didn't like the book with supporting arguments to back up these points. That's how much I disliked it: I was treating it like a high school English persuasive paper. I can't remember any of those reasons now except that reading about incest was more disturbing than watching it on a TV show. Which is weird to admit.
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I was inclined to not like Girls just because so many people loved it, but surprise: it's a good show. Lena Dunham wrote and plays her character with an absolute lack of ego. It feels like watching some one's diary come to life. It completely captures the awkwardness and confusion of early adulthood. At least for females. About halfway through the season, I was questioning exactly how well males were portrayed in this show.

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Does every American female love Downton Abbey? As an American female, I am inclined to believe so. Some of the dramas seem forced or a bit convoluted and for me it's an absolute guilty pleasure, but it is still very much a pleasure.

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Community and Modern Family don't have new DVDs out. However, they both just started new seasons and the episodes are available on their network's website soon after they air. They've both been a bit more hit and miss comedy-wise lately (especially Community. I'm not the only one, right?) but when they're hot they're hot.