Primetime television season roundup

[dougo]

Last fall, I asked what new shows I should watch. I didn't get much of a response, so I ended up trying out a bunch of new shows, and ended up with six that I liked enough to keep watching: Karen Sisco, Arrested Development, Two and a Half Men, The Handler, A Minute With Stan Hooper, and The Lyon's Den. (I'm not counting The Apprentice, even though I did watch the whole thing and I will probably end up watching it again next season. It's still more of a stunt than a show.) (I'm also not counting K Street, which was a thing on HBO with ten episodes but seemed more like a miniseries (midiseries?) than a regular show.) Well, only Two and a Half Men and Arrested Development made it through the full season, and it's still not clear whether the latter is coming back next season. TV Tome has the full roundup of how this season's new shows did. Not a good success rate.

Meanwhile, of the other shows I listed in that post, five of the fifteen won't be back next season (Friends, Frasier, Ed, Boomtown, Good Morning Miami), and I stopped watching 24 (after accidentally missing an episode, not being able to track a copy down, and realizing I really didn't care anymore about the plot's ever-increasing ridiculousness without the artiness that the show first drew me in with). And I'm pretty sure that That '70s Show and The West Wing will be ending after next season, as the '70s and the Bartlet administration both come to an end.

Comments

Re: I've said it before

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I'm watching more TV than before I got the Tivo. I'm not under any illusions about that. But I'm certainly getting a lot more out of it than I used to.

Largely, the content on the Internet is mindless. Most books and magazines are stupid too. It really just sounds like pretension to say any and all TV is bad for you.

Re: I've said it before

[mshonle.livejournal.com]

OK, I conceed the point that TV isn't bad for everyone. Descriminating PhD students asside, I think TV has largely lowered the quality of our epistemology.

Anyway, I ended up being happier without the TV. And a former roommate of mine started exercising and lost 70 pounds after we both stopped watching. (I will say that TiVo was fun, but the latency with the channel changing or other buttons being pressed on the remote was a little too high... maybe it's faster now.)

My main point is, without TV, you really aren't missing much at all.