Weeding

I think that by now it is a well established fact that I watch far too much television. Go ahead, take a moment to collect yourself, I know you're shocked (insert sarcasm mark here).

Part of the reason for this, I think, is that I truly enjoy stories, and television is a vast resource of stories. Sometimes you have to work pretty hard to find any tales that are actually good, but there are times when you just want a story on in the background to engage part of your mind while the rest of it is focused on something else. Very few of the shows I watch drag me in enough to really, truly, actively engage with them. For the most part when I do want that level of engagement, I will pick up a book (or dive into a strongly story-based video game).

If I am being honest, and generous, most of what I watch could clearly be categorized as pulp. That doesn't make my enjoyment of it any less, certainly. But lately I have been trying to weigh that against whether or not the show is worth my time any more. For now, at least.

As my daughter gets older and more interactive, the actual number of hours I spend with my television a day are shrinking. Part of this is due to the need to share the television, certainly. I by no means subscribe to the belief that the television is a suitable babysitter, but it can be a valuable distraction occasionally, and at best a tool for creating shared experiences between parent and child. There are a few shows that my daughter watches each day (Super Why and Sesame Street, mostly) while I get my own ducks in a row. It gives us each our own time when we are both awake, so she knows it is okay to spend time playing and exploring on her own, while I can get things done and also be close enough to keep an eye on her. But beyond sharing the television (and far more important) is just spending quality time with my kid as she grows and learns and develops new skills. Well, that and making sure that my budding gymnast doesn't decide to do a belly flop through the sliding glass door.

So, with less time to actually watch television, I have started trying to reduce the actual number of shows I watch. I'm using a two-pronged approach to reach this goal. The first is to be more selective about what new shows I watch. I have a long track record of jumping on board a new show just because one or more actor I like is in it. While this has led me to discover some real gems I will admit, it also has led to me watching some truly dreadful television. So, I am trying to only add a new show if it looks like it is something I will actually enjoy for its own merits. This is why, despite my love of Summer Glau, I opted not to watch The Cape when it premiered mid-season. The released plot details just weren't doing anything for me, and none of the trailers I saw leading up to the show's first episode changed that impression.

The second prong is to start weeding out the shows that I currently watch and really could live without. I have finally found a use for the networks' screwed up scheduling schemes! Moving a show around to different nights or long hiatuses in between parts of a season, or even just the summer break, are giving me a chance to gain perspective on whether or not I am really engaged enough to keep watching a show or if I am just watching it out of habit. Case in point, when the current season started, I decided not to continue watching V, because while I enjoyed the first season more or less, and love many people in the cast, I just wasn't even remotely excited about the new season. If I couldn't be bothered to be interested in the coming episodes, I really didn't need to be watching them.

Sure, maybe I am missing out on some really good television these days, but I am willing to chance it. That's why nerds invented DVDs (and, subsequently, YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu). After all, I still haven't seen any of Lost, and my world has continued to move forward.

All of this is to lead up to the fact that yesterday I realized that The Event is about to resume from its mid-season hiatus soon...and I really just don't care. So I went ahead and deleted it from my list of series for the DVR to record. Bye bye Jason Ritter and crazy alien conspiracy theories! Sorry, you just didn't do anything I really hadn't seen before.

Now I have a whole extra hour in the week coming to me and I'll admit, I am pretty darn exited about that!

What I'm Not Watching

So the second season of V starts airing tonight.  I have a suspicion that many of the viewers from season one will not be coming back for season two, and I have to say that I am going to be included in that number.

It's not that the show did anything wrong exactly (though I may be harboring some resentment that it got renewed while Flash Forward was axed), I just realized over the weekend that I really just did not care at all about the new season.  I vaguely remember what happened in the season finale, but I honestly have no urge to find out where things go from there.  So Sunday I pulled up my recorded series listing in the DVR and went ahead and just deleted it.  I won't lie, it felt kind of good.

I watch so frakking much television, it is ridiculous.  I can admit that, heck, I can even own that.  But I am getting to the point where I have realized that I am watching some of it, at least, for the wrong reasons.  I kept watching Smallville for at least two seasons after I got completely fed up with everything happening on that show, because I kept telling myself, "I've put in the time, I can't stop watching now.  I have to find out how it ends."  But before season eight started up, I was watching the season seven DVDs and got maybe a disc and a half into the season and then just stalled out.  I started finding excuses of anything to watch other than the next episode of Smallville.  When I realized what I was doing, I pulled the disc out of my DVD player, pulled all seven seasons of the series off my DVD shelf, sold them (for a really decent price too), and went on to never watch the show again.  I have not once felt the least bit cheated that I don't know what happened next, or that I won't get to finally see Clark don that iconic cape.  The show entertained me for a while and then it stopped being appealing to me.  Sometimes it takes something like that happening to remind me that it's just television.  I take it so seriously sometimes that I forget that simple fact.  It's nice to be able to prove to myself I can just walk away and not look back.  Every once in a while, at least.

I don't know if I can say I was watching V for the wrong reasons--I only gave it a try because there were so many actors in it that I have enjoyed in other series.  It was amusing enough, I remember actually liking it despite myself (I never watched, nor had/have any interest in watching, the original series of the same name).  But I didn't like it enough to get even remotely excited about its return, and as crowded as my DVR is these days, that's enough to get off the rotation I think.  Especially with so many shows coming back from hiatus and the new shows that I am getting excited about.

It was my wont, once upon a time, to watch every new genre show that I heard about or every new show that featured an actor I really enjoy watching.  I have found some true gems that way (Human Target, anyone?), but I have also, like with V, ended up watching a show I just wasn't that into for far longer than was necessary.  Maybe it is the fact that my daughter is getting more interactive with each passing day, or maybe it is that "new year, new possibilities" feeling I've got, but I just don't have the time or energy anymore for that kind of watching.  Flick Filosopher mentioned in a post yesterday that she is going to stop watching new series until they have at least one season under their belts and have been renewed for a second one as well.  I applaud her decision, though I don't think I'll be able to follow in her footsteps completely.  I am going to try to be a little bit more reserved, going forward, about which new shows I choose to watch though--as well as about which shows I continue to follow after the first season.  After all, there's so much good television out there that I really do get excited about watching, there's no point in me watching the stuff that bores me.

I have been waffling on whether or not to watch two new genre shows that are about to start, and I think I have finally decided not to bother with them.  The first is Syfy's adaptation of the British show Being Human.  Look, I'll level with you, I probably should be watching this show.  Not out of any obligation or sense of duty, but because everything about the premise just screams that it is something I would absolutely love.  But you know what, I already gave it a shot, back when BBC America started airing the original incarnation.  I watched a few episodes and then just gave up on it because I really didn't care.  It just didn't appeal to me.  I honestly don't know why, either, but there you go.  Nothing I have seen about the American version tells me I will enjoy it any more than the British version, either.  I know that it is (probably) its own show, but I am just not interested.  Despite my firm conviction that any actual scripted genre show that Syfy comes out with needs to have my eyeballs in front of it so that they keep actually making scripted genre shows...I just can't do it.  (I will, however, be watching Alphas when it debuts, because that sounds pretty much awesome-sauce.)  The other show I have been waffling over is The Cape.  I totally adore Summer Glau, and I really want to give this show a try, but I am likewise completely unengaged by anything about it except for the fact that Summer Glau is in it.  So maybe once the first season is on DVD I'll give it a go on Netflix.  But for now, I'll just look forward to the new shows I actually am excited about--Falling Skies (on TNT), Fairly Legal (on USA), and The Outcasts (on BBC America).  There are certainly plenty of them.

So instead of watching V tonight, I'll be over on Syfy watching as many of the final five episodes of Caprica as I can squeeze in before bedtime, basking in the brilliance and regretting that this is all I am going to get of such a wonderful series.

Now that the holiday doldrums are ending, what are you watching?