A place to record the things that my brain comes up with.

17 February 2009

television, television

Today I was reading an article on the New York Times' website, called "Why are there no good parents on TV?"

I liked it. It was a good article. However, what I want to address here is one of the comments posted after the article, by a reader who goes by 'K.'

"Why in the world would an escapist medium like TV bother with anything that was "normal”? I don’t turn on the TV to revisit my boring day. My current favorite shows can be summarized as follows:

  • the human race running from robots in spaceships.

  • a spy who is stuck in Miami.

  • airplane crash survivors on an odd island.

  • FBI agents investigating strange phenomena.

  • renovating old houses.

  • the trials and tribulations of geeks living together, with an attractive neighbor who drops in from time to time.

  • a nearly retarded man who lives in Rhode Island and offends nearly everyone on some level

  • an often fascinating hour of television devoted to some kind of science.

I can’t say there’s anything good in it, but boy is it entertaining (and sometimes educational, as well)"

Which led me to ask, "how would I summarize some of my favorite TV shows?" Since Big Bang Theory and This Old House were done above, I'll try some others.

  • one man's flashbacks to his single days in New York

  • who knew that the crap in the attic was valuable after all?

  • the most dysfunctional workplace, ever

  • the most dysfunctional TV show, ever

  • deeply weird doctors who work in an often surreal hospital

  • In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.

What are your favorite shows?

5 comments:

  1. Well, as CBS refuses to show Big Bang Theory online, I can't watch any shows about dysfunctional nerds. And what other shows we did like have been killed off, I'm pretty much down to:

    - Most dysfunctional boss ever managing an only slightly less dysfunctional office, except for one guy and the receptionist who everyone likes. (oh, and they're getting married.)

    - OCD guy solves murders by noticing tiny details. (But oddly is never asked to help solve anything but a murder) (We've borrowed 4 seasons of this)

    My favorite canceled show is:

    - Lawyer has vision usually involving singing and dancing which tell him to fight for the little guy.

    And this one isn't a TV show, but sucks up my time like it is:

    - Explosive charges strewn randomly across a field, and my strange detection device gives proximity, but not direction.

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  2. Hulu and CBS both have clips of BBT online, but not full episodes. Tragic.

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  3. This looks like fun...I love Clark's description of Minesweeper...

    - Underachieving nerd works with the CIA and NSA to save the world when he's not working with a group of misfits at a big box electronics store.

    - Wisecracking fake newsman offers real insight into the silliness of politics

    - Wisecracking fake pundit offers commentary on the silliness of punditry

    - Exceptionally old teenagers stop having sex occasionally to play football

    - A dysfunctional family which includes a gay lawyer, an overworked single mom, a recovering addict/war vet, a sneaky brother, and a republican constantly butts in on each others' business

    - Grown men ice skate and chase a small black disk around an ice rink, crashing into one another and occasionally fighting

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  4. I want to add something clever here, I like the idea, but I am at a loss. Most of the shows that I want to admit to watching have already been mentioned.

    People run all over the world yelling at their partners and generally making Americans look bad as they race for a million dollars?

    People starve to death, get eaten by bugs, and "betray" one another as they try to outwit, outlast and outplay each other for a million dollars?

    I make these shows sound really ugly, but I wouldn't miss them.

    Fat people try to become less so?

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  5. Hmmm, now that I see my comment posted, the wording in my Survivor description doesn't quite flow the way I had hoped. Commas, more -ings or less -ings should have been used. Those gerundive phrases will get you every time! Sorry.

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