When I tell people that I don't watch television, their eyes kind of bug out.
"Never?", they say.
Well, no, not never. I watch the odd episode of Myth Busters. The odd thing on Egyptology. Sometimes I watch those real estate shows about flipping houses, and I really did like to watch those 2 British ladies who barge into people's houses and tell them off for being lousy housekeepers.
My problem is not so much that I don't watch television, it is that I don't watch enough, and I don't watch what everyone else is watching. I have, for example, never seen CSI, I haven't viewed House or Grey's Anatomy, I haven't watched Mad Men, and I have seen 3 minutes of Desperate Housewives (but that's a rant for another day). I haven't seen Glee, and I likely won't.
Mostly I'm ok with this failing of mine. I don't involve myself in discussions about Lost (which just sound confusing, I'd like to point out). I have both moral and philosophical opinions about the amount of TV we watch, and what it is doing to us, but frankly, my bigger problem is the time. I don't have the time. At all.
My other problem is the shock. I happened to be in another room, about 4 years ago, and CSI something or other was playing, and I was listening a bit to the dialogue and I won't lie, I was shocked. I'm easily shocked these days. I find scenes in movies to be too intense, I find our preoccupation with death and disease, with sex and rape and force and brutality to be bewildering. I couldn't get anyone around me interested in Darfur, and there was CSI, and the subject that night was a serial killer. Serial killers are entertainment, and the rape and murder of our fellow earth dwellers, that which is happening to those around us, and no one seems to care. But, I'm getting into my Desperate Housewives rant. . .
Every so often, a show comes along, and I think I should watch it. For instance, I thought I should watch Corner Gas, I thought I should watch Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, I thought I should watch Mad Men, and this year, I think I should watch The Tudor's.
I realize that the Tudor's is in it's 3rd season, but really, I'm pretty sure that I can catch on. I, ahem, know the story a bit. . .
And then I think about it. I think about trying to remember to turn on the TV every night. Really, I think about trying to figure out how to turn on the television at all. I think about being stuck. I can't do this, and I can't do that on Wednesday night, because the Tudor's are on. And frankly, it sounds really overwhelming. It sounds like something that becomes a chore.
And so, sad to say it though I am, I probably won't wind up watching the Tudor's this year either.
What are you watching these days, and why?