I am a product of television
I am a product of television
I have a love/hate relationship with television. I like to rail about how much I don’t like it, don’t find it worthwhile, etc. The last year or so has changed that for me. I think I must have watched a lot of television shows growing up. Captain Kangaroo was my favorite for way too long, i enjoyed Davey and Goliath on sunday mornings (now being wonderfully parodied on Adult Swim’s Moral Orel), Abbot and Costello Movies on Sunday mornings, cartoons… I was a huge fan of the Six Million Dollar Man (that seemed like a lot of money back then) When I was in a relationship with someone who watched a lot of tv, I developed a strong aversion to it, to the point of self-righteousness, as though I was somehow better because I didn’t watch TV. It became a point of pride that my television was used only to play movies (but yes, I still owned one of the one-eyed monsters) But really, I didn’t even own a TV for the mid 90’s. Then I bought a small TV/VCR model that allowed me to play movies. I finally broke down and started recording X-Files and Milennium and fast-forwarding the commercials. That was the beginning of a slippery slope for me, and eventually there was cable in the house I lived in, and television in the bedroom, etc. (did I mention that I have a strong aversion to a television in the bedroom? it’s hard enough to block out commercials when you’re conscious, I dont even want to think about what I could be induced to desire in my sleep) While I was dissing television, there were still some shows that I wanted to see, things like southpark, etc. Oh, and I kept hearing about the Sopranos, but not only did you need a television, but you needed cable for that. Until you could start renting them. I think that was the start of my current TV mania - we rented Sopranos from Blockbuster and watched the first 3 seasons which were available. The following season I was watching it on videotapes that a coworker made so we would have something to talk about while out working on jobs. This led me to start renting Oz, another HBO show. I hadn’t done anythign with torrents, althoug I had heard about them. I mentioned Oz to a friend, and before I knew it, he had downloaded the whole series, many seasons, via torrents and watched them. I got copies of them and we spent most of a month watching several hours a night on my computer. Not the most comfortable position for watching tv, and it sorta precludes snuggling. Since then, I’ve been on a TV watching binge. In the last year, I’ve watched all seasons of 24 (and now watching it eagerly each week as a new episode comes out), new Doctor Who (BBC is doing a really really good job with them, IMHO, and the inside of the TARDIS is awesome). BBC has created a spinoff series from Doctor Who called Torchwood, which is a little bit like X-Files in that they deal with aliens, but it’s about learning to use the technology they keep leaving around on Earth. I got introduced by a fellow bus rider to a canadian tv show called Corner Gas (which just finished its 4th season and is about to be shown on WGN later this year or next), NPR pointed me towards another canadian show called “Little Mosque on the Prairie”, which is about a rural town in which the local Muslim community is renting the meeting hall at the local Anglican Church, etc. I have learned a fair bit about muslim culture as a result of this show. Another show I’m enjoying is called Ideal, which is a British series about a pot dealer. We’ve downloaded but not watched all 8 seasons of Good Eats, we’ve seen many movies new and old. Michelle has downloaded the whole Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel series and she’s watching it as well as making her kids day by giving them copies of it. We’re collecting (eventually) the whole doctor who backlog; we’ve got all of tom baker, sylvester McCoy (havent watched too much of him, he was doctor #8, not impressed so far). I’m really enjoying HBO series: we saw Big Love last year, watched Rome’s first season (holding off on watching season 2 until i have the whole thing), Carnivale is another new favorite (too bad there’re only two seasons)… Old series that I never got to see all of: Max Headroom (you cna’t even buy those on DVD yet), Highlander (never saw most of the first season apparently) I have justified my excess to myself in the following way: It has been said that nicotine isn’t that horrible in and of itself, but the delivery mechanism is a killer. I have thought of television (network and otherwise) in a similar way, except that the offensive tar substitutes for the commercials, but the actual shows themselves aren’t that harmful. At least not in quantity. But it’s still addictive. When we have gone home and started watching tv right away, not much else gets done. And the lack of commercials.. who’da thunk that I would download a torrent of JUST the commercials from the Superbowl? but I did. (they were particularly lame this year, weren’t they?) Watching all this tv is useful, i believe, because this is the background conversation of what’s going on in our culture. If you don’t watch Survivor, you might not have understood “voting someone of the island” for a while.