Whenever I have the tv on for background noise – Mike Doughty calls it his electric fireplace – if I look up and discover that entertainment news has come on while I was doing something else, I feel guilty and a little dirty and then I turn it off, quick as I can.
This doesn’t make explicit sense – it is a stupid thing to feel guilty about, for one, and for another, who cares? and thirdly, so what if someone wants to watch that even if I don’t – but it happens every time. I think it is because I am so anti-celebrity-worship.
I feel weirdly conflicted about it because I am a fan of television, and I think that people who take pride in not owning a TV or not watching a TV are brain racists. There’s some very good stuff happening on TV. There’s plenty of bad stuff, admittedly, but the television series has been elevated in the last ten years to a level that matches or exceeds most films.
Being sick over the last few days means I’ve consumed a bunch of television, and I think there are some shows that you should start watching if you aren’t already.
Mad Men: I’m halfway through the first season, and it makes me wish I had skipped politics for advertising. And been my age in 1961. The writing is pretty good and the characters are great. It earns plenty of cool factor for the period setting, and the production quality puts you right into the story.
I don’t know why people say that this show is killing the pocket square. The theme music and opening sequence is boss.
24: I have, in the past, been accosted by liberals for wearing a shirt Diana got me a few years ago that says “JACK BAUER FOR PRESIDENT.” This was at the height of the torture news breaking during the Bush administration and I was called, in not so many words, a tool for Republican propaganda.
Yes, I know 24 is on Fox and yes, I know Jack Bauer shreds the Geneva conventions and federal and international law in his efforts to save the country and beat the bad guys. And I don’t care. Jack Bauer isn’t real and his decisions always advance the story towards saving the world, so I don’t face any moral conflict in cheering him on as he strips wires and breaks fingers. If it were a documentary I’d be horrified, but since it is not I root for Jack and against Red Foreman’s stupid Senate subcommittee.
Because watching 24 can essentially occur in a moral vacuum, I also don’t mind recommending it as a fun and exciting show to watch with great characters and great research. I hate legal and cop dramas but give me an intelligence community turf war and clutch counterterrorism field work and I can watch for hours. I read an academic article the other day about how RoboCop is ‘fascism for liberals’ or at least fascism that liberals can enjoy in entertainment, and I think 24 works the same way on a certain level.
Flight of the Conchords: Flight of the Conchords is some of the best comedy on TV right now. It is a show about Bret and Jemaine, formerly New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo a capella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo. They are trying to make it in New York. The following is a song about a recent night at the club:
Heroes: If ever there was a show that works as an example of how firing all the writers when things go wrong can save the day, it is Heroes, and the new season is proving it every week.
How I Met Your Mother: Barney. Barney. Forever Barney.
I mean, a show that can make this kind of a self-referential joke about a character?
So awesome. Diana thinks we like this show because it is basically about us, and that is probably true. The characters graduated in 1996 – I graduated in 1997 – and I most resemble Marshall. But sometimes I wish I was Barney and could be awesome all the time, so much so that I engage in impromptu suiting up from to time. Totally worth it.
House: I usually don’t like medical dramas but I liked E.R. before it got dumb. House is not dumb, even if it is more or less the same story every episode. This is another one of those shows that are character-driven rather than plot-driven. It could be totally non-linear and it wouldn’t matter because the character dynamics are so good. It isn’t lupus, and it isn’t myelitis.
So there it is – good shows that are well-written and well-made and that you shouldn’t feel guilty about watching.
Conversely:
Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job is not funny.
Thank God, I’m not the only person who thinks Tim and Eric sucks. I usually get blindsided once a week by a Youtube clip that makes me nostalgic for a colonoscopy.
Here’s what’s funny about Tim and Eric: I was watching last week’s episode with the spot about the pants designed for wrangling your diarrhea, and one of my dogs farted in my face and almost made me boot all over my laptop.
I keep trying, I really do. But then the brownie episode comes on and I just want to poke out my own eyes.