February 23, 2011

Two by Two, Hands of Blue

On the radio, there has been a commercial for Comcast. The gist of the commercial is "TV is good. Only jerks claim to not watch TV. They're missing out. So you spend 7 years' worth of your life watching television–so what? Before TV, people probably just stared at gravel."

I'm not sure how flagrantly dishonest something has to be before you're not allowed to air it. I'm guessing the qualifying word "probably" makes that last statement okay.

I haven't had access to live tv on a regular basis for the last 9 years. Sure, there's been the occasional house-sitting stint, the weekend stay in a hotel room. And of course there's the magic of my dad's DVR. But most of the time, no tv.

I'm not disappointed. I like not having access to regular television most of the time. This is not because I think I'm above it, but because it keeps me from putting my foot through a flatscreen when good shows are cancelled. One season of Studio 60. Half a season of Firefly. And yet a jillion seasons of The Bachelor? WHY!?

I didn't know Studio 60 or Firefly existed until well after they'd been cancelled. My frustration with their respective television networks was nothing—nothing!—to my likely reaction had I become invested in them as they were airing. It's different, watching them on dvd, knowing how many episodes are left, rationing them out.

When I visited the Rake a couple years ago, we watched episodes of the Dick Cavett Show on dvd. Some hoity-toity author was on the show saying that what he did was more valid because his books would be around forever, while Mr. Cavett's show was airing this one time and would soon be forgotten. I can't even remember his name now, and I've certainly never read any of his books.

1 comment:

  1. Ha! The ironic thing is that I watched The Bachelor yesterday morning during my weight training. It was so dumb I didn't even get to the end of the episode. That's when you know it really sucks. When a guaranteed elimination can't even keep me watching.

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