Let's face it, I watch too much TV. I spend so many hours every week watching TV that it really doesn't leave me enough time to do all the other things I want to do... like watch more movies, go to more concerts, or write this blog.
The problem is once I start watching a show, I tend to stay loyal to it far longer than I know I should. It's the reason I watched GLEE well into its third season, probably two seasons after I should have stopped watching. You know, when the show went from entertainingly bad to disturbingly awful. It's why I continue to watch THE OFFICE even though it's been on a four-season-long downhill slide, though at least that show has rebounded a bit in its current, final season.
It's gotten to the point that I now greet the news that a show I like has been cancelled with a sense of relief (ahem, LAST RESORT, FRINGE, 30 ROCK). As much as I hate to say it, I'll breathe a sigh of relief when PARENTHOOD gets cancelled, and I love that show to death.
Just off the top of my head, here's a list of shows that I am currently watching every week: THE WALKING DEAD, THE TALKING DEAD, HOMELAND, THE AMAZING RACE, THE SIMPSONS, BOB'S BURGERS, CATFISH: THE TV SERIES, TOSH.0, NEW GIRL, THE MINDY PROJECT, HAPPY ENDINGS, DON'T TRUST THE B- IN APT. 23, PARENTHOOD, TOP CHEF, KEY & PEELE, AMERICAN HORROR STORY, MODERN FAMILY, MYSTERIES AT THE MUSEUM, 30 ROCK, THE OFFICE, PARKS AND RECREATION, ELEMENTARY, FRINGE, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, THE DAILY SHOW, THE COLBERT REPORT, and BILLY ON THE STREET. And this isn't even counting the shows that I'll just watch on a whim, mostly reality stuff like AMERICAN PICKERS, STORAGE WARS, HOUSE HUNTERS, and anything involving ghosts.
That's over 22 hours per week! Well, 16 hours if you cut out the commercials, which I do diligently. But 16 hours! Every week!
And then there are the shows that are about to begin their new seasons: DOWNTON ABBEY, JUSTIFIED, COMMUNITY, GAME OF THRONES, BREAKING BAD, GIRLS, ENLIGHTENED, SOUTH PARK, VEEP, THE NEWSROOM, and probably many more I'm forgetting right now.
Here are some shows still on the air that I used to watch, but have stopped watching: REVOLUTION, LAST RESORT, BEN AND KATE, FAMILY GUY, RAISING HOPE, DEXTER, and of course GLEE.
Obviously, if want to continue devoting time to this blog, I need to add some more titles to this last list. It shouldn't be too hard. I somehow managed to abandoned WEEDS, HOUSE, CAPRICA, and E.R. while they were still on the air, and I never looked back.
There are some shows that I'll continue to watch, but which I can just keep on in the background while I do other stuff. I've been doing that with THE DAILY SHOW and THE COLBERT REPORT for years. I can add THE TALKING DEAD, CATFISH, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, and MYSTERIES AT THE MUSEUM to that list. Those are all shows that don't demand much attention. I've even taken to doing other stuff on my iPad during THE AMAZING RACE, TOSH.0, and TOP CHEF.
I need to drop some scripted shows, though, if I'm going to make this work. The first show on the chopping block is AMERICAN HORROR STORY... but not until the end of this season. I've just invested too much time in the current season, and I have to see how it ends. The first season was entertainingly awful, but awful nonetheless, and I'd originally intended to quit the show at the end of that season. But then I watched the second season premiere out of curiosity and got sucked right back into Ryan Murphy's web of gleeful awfulness. Well, no more. After this season, anyway.
The remaining shows I've decided to cut are a bit more painful, but here they are: Goodbye, NEW GIRL, THE MINDY PROJECT, and DON'T TRUST THE B- IN APT. 23. Goodbye, occasionally amusing Zooey Deschanel quirkiness and annoying Schmidt subplots. Goodbye, cartoonishly stupid and ever-shifting side characters surrounding Mindy Kaling. And I guess if I want to see more of Dreama Walker, I'll have to go and watch COMPLIANCE again.
That just leaves about 8 hours of programming a week that requires my undivided attention. I can live with that.
Maybe I should go delete the Season Passes for those shows from my DVR right now. I really should do that if I'm really going to stop watching them cold turkey. Or maybe I'll let the DVR keep recording them, and maybe I just won't watch them. Maybe.
Some of you may be wondering why I don't just give up on THE SIMPSONS. If you have to ask that question, then you really don't know me.
I estimate that this is my view during 25% of my waking hours:
I should probably also mention that I still have Ken Burns' THE DUST BOWL sitting unwatched on my DVR. And the DVD box set of THE WIRE: THE COMPLETE SERIES, which I haven't even started.
#ReclinerPotato
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