TV. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

My family and I have very different tv watching habits. (Heck, HUSBAND and I have different habits, but I will get into that in a minute.)

At home, the TV is on. Mom uses it like I use music. Background noise. Something so the house isn't quiet. Dad watches movies a lot since he's retired. (They have cable, so they get movie channels.)

I have come to the conclusion that the title above can fit my TV watching.

The good. Obviously, this is me, and others (coughHusbandcoughcough) wouldn't agree, but that's why they have Nielson ratings, right?

I like Criminal Minds, CSI: all of 'em, Law & Order, Perry Mason. (Detect a theme here?) While they are 'cop' shows, several of them have puzzles, or I guess the whodunit part. I try to work out the 'bad guy', and how they came up with it. I get "The Cleaner", Mom records it for me, as we don't have cable. I just like the story line. (The main character, Benjamin Bratt, has absolutely nothing to do with it, either. Ahem. Nothing. Am I protesting too much? No, he is not the reason I watch the show. Now... Heh... ) I enjoy Nova NOW, Merlin, Mental, House, Lie to Me, and probably one or two others, that I catch as I remember to record. (I get up early, so staying up to watch shows is really not possible. I would doze off before ever they showed the opening.) Most of these get recorded, and watched later, as I find it nicer to watch when I have time, rather than trying to get them watched on any sort of schedule. This can lead to a week or three of no TV, than a marathon weekend when I watch several in a row.

The Bad. I probably watch more than I should, but my preferences seem to be... sharpening? Narrowing? Something. I try and watch a program or two that friends talk about on shows they watch. For example, one of my friends loves "reality tv". (A mis-named item, if ever there was one.) To humor her, I watched "There Goes the Neighborhood". To sum it up:

Bunch of folks stuck inside of a walled area, the houses seem to be lacking electric, and they do silly little games, and who ever wins said silly little game, gets to pick two families to be eliminated from the group, whereupon, all the others vote between the two to get rid of them.

Yeah...

What, may I ask, is the point?

During the episode I watched, they kept saying, Oh, it's just a game, but were plotting like they were going to be executed by torture, not just kicked off a show. One gal was just over the top crying because they'd eliminated her family.

I guess I don't understand the idea of everyone working against one another. This is... stupid? short-sighted? idiotic? I don't even know if I have the right word. I just wish they would have one where the point is working together. Have all the groups work to win the money. I do understand competition, but does every game on anymore have to be so backstabbing? Let's just say, I watched it, I know what it is now, and I have already erased the dreck from my DVD.

If you, dear reader, love these shows with an all consuming passion, would you please leave me a note in the comments as to why? I am serious. You have to like it, or you wouldn't watch. Obviously, I am in a minority, as the shows not only are popular, it seems like there is more of them on the TV of late. (I will not even go into the Marry the Millionare and other ones, my stomach has its limits. Not going there, not even wanting to sit down and watch a show.)

Several members of my family (guys and gals) watch soap operas. I have nothing for or against them, I only put them on bad, because I don't get into romances all that much, and it seems like that it's almost all who is with whom, what they are dying of, or who found out her 3rd cousin had a sex change and is now dating a goat.

You know, the usual stuff.

In all seriousness, I have sat down and watched a couple that I used to watch, and it just strikes me that stuff I watched back in 8th grade, during summer vacation, is STILL GOING ON. When I was in college, a bunch of friends and I would watch soaps. However, we would watch it, by turning OFF the sound, and adding our own dialouge. Some days were hilarious, some were, well, disgusting, but I think our group had a lot more fun. Except for the days when someone would come in and really want to watch the soap. All good things must end, I suppose.

The ugly. Remember what I said about Husband and I having differing views on TV shows? He likes This Old House, The New Yankee Workshop, Motor Week, that kind of thing. (I don't mind them, so I might or might not watch, depending on if I have a dying need to find out what the host will do with 2 x 4's and drywall patch.)

Anywho, he, on the other hand, rarely, if EVER watches my 'cop' shows. (Notable exception, we are both Perry Mason nuts.) He is not a blood and gore type guy. I find this sort of funny, I can watch most of the goriest episodes, see the autopsy with no problem, Husband is out of the room, and on the computer within seconds. I, in fact, warn him if I am going to sit down and watch one of these shows, the poor guy will turn white and look like he's going to lose his lunch. He has even thought me by turns, goolish, or crazy, as I would love to be one of the dead guys on one of the CSI:'s. (Or Criminal Minds, either would be cool...)

This not to say my husband is squeemish, however. He's the one that showed me how to butcher chickens, he has hunted deer in the past, and some of the movies he and I have watched together are definitely not Disney-esque. But the odd thing, show a plane crash on the news, and he can look at it, and not have a problem. I am ready to barf any and all contents of my innards. I guess I know that the folks on the table on the 'cop' shows are going to get up, wash off the gore 'n goo, and have a beer. The folks on the news, not so likely. So.

The point of this? If you invite me over for TV, don't make it Survivor. Or I will vote myself off the island.