I've Watched Some TV Lately

I've watched a little bit of TV since the summer started. It's weird because I NEVER watched during the school year. But one of my teachers showed us an episode from the second season of Lost, which reminded me how much I loved the first season, and so I started watching the second season. I intend to finish before I leave for Israel, but because I'm only on the 3rd disc of six, I might not get to do that. But Jesus, what a show. I sometimes think it's one of the only good shows on television, until I remember I've been lying to myself. I know there's lots of great TV. The Wire, Weeds, The Sopranos, Flight of the Conchords, Dexter; I've heard great things about all these shows. Not to mention standards like SNL or The Daily Show, and my own personal favorites, Metalocalypse and Mythbusters. But many of these these shows are serial, and have left me too far in the dust to ever hope to catch up. Several of these shows run on Showtime, which I don't get, and others simply don't occur to me to watch. I don't really have an explanation for why TV doesn't interest me despite full knowledge that I'm missing out. It could be because I'm too lazy to wade through the chest-deep sludge of reality shows, bad sitcoms, cliched dramas and stupid rip-offs of other shows (I'm looking at you, MadTV). It could also be because I prefer a slightly more interactive entertainment experience, but I kid myself when saying that. Interactive often means listening to music whilst playing tetris, hardly harnessing the power of the digital age. Even Netflix, a brilliant, wonderful, neigh-on-messianic invention, has only gotten me to watch two episodes of Weeds. The disc still sits in my living room, I hope to watch the other four episodes on it, but I know I'll just send it back after one or two more. I can't get into it, and don't have the time to catch up. I guess I just wish that TV was easier. I know, I know, "watch it on your computer," "watch it on DVD," "watch it instead of sitting on the computer," but that just isn't good enough. Lost is the ONLY show that manages to engage my attention enough to want to watch more than a single episode at a time. I really do wish I had the patience to follow every show; I wish I could engage in Lost conspiracy theorizing, or Weeds gossip, or collective masturbation about how godly The Wire is. But for some reason, I can't bring myself to sit down, pick up the remote, and stare passively at the screen for 22/30/48/whatever minutes.

Another thing I don't watch are movies. Sure, I watch more now that I have Netflix, but I still lag far behind the average consumer of film. I almost never go to the movies. The last two movies I saw in theaters were The Forbidden Kingdom (Awful, but hysterical) and The Bourne Ultimatum (Wonderful). Still, TFK was at least a month ago, and Bourne was in August 2007, almost a full year ago. As with TV, I like movies. I really do. I like them even more than TV.But I rarely watch them, and I have a much better idea why: most of them suck, and they're too expensive to be worth it. Good movies come through, but getting to the theater, paying the $8.75 (or higher at Sundance Cinema, where more arty movies play) and finding people to go with is just too much for me. Netflix, then, has been a godsend for me. Though I share the list with my family and still do not watch many movies, I've watched more since getting Netflix a few months ago than probably the whole year before that. The next movie I'll watch is by a left-wing gay Israeli director, something I'd never get to see in a theater here. I adore Netflix.

More on movies later.

Edit: I've since watched the rest of the Weeds DVD and it's REALLY GOOD. Any criticism of Weeds in this post is hereby retracted. Thank God for perseverance, eh?