Television I'd rather be watching television... (not) ?

What's that? Oh, yes, that one-eyed thing in the living room that Jebu perches upon.

I don't know, somewhere along the line, I just got out of the habit. I don't even have cable now, even though the house was cable-ready when we moved here. (It isn't cable-ready any more -- an ash tree took care of that during a windy February party in 1992, not incidentally damaging a couple of cars afterwards...)

I watch less than 20 hours of TV a year, and that includes news and the occasional captivity in front of someone else's television set. Last year, I voluntarily turned it on for updates during the blizzard, a few fast-breaking news items, small segments of the Olympics, and a smattering of X-Files episodes. If I had cable, I might watch the Discover and the A&E channels, oh, perhaps, an extra hour a month, maybe. Doesn't seem cost-effective.

I don't hate TV; I'm just not interested. I just never get around to it. The last show that really captured my attention was Max Headroom -- not for the cartoon character, but for the retro-futuristic cyberpunk look, the irony, and some of the story lines. And the main character, Edison Carter, had a certain understated flare that made him different than most television protagonists I've seen.

Oh, and I liked those episodes of The Prisoner that a friend lent to me a few years ago. I guess I go for the skewed, if and when I discover the skewed that may be on the tube.

No, I've never watched Seinfeld. I've never seen Roseanne. I never witnessed the slow-speed Bronco highway chase, even in rerun. The only episode of Letterman I ever caught was when Richard Thompson was the guest musician. Whole cultural worlds of inference fly over my head. Maybe I'm missing something valuable. I can't know, until and unless I've seen these things. And, well, there's always something to do that precludes TV.


Culture Victim | Movies seen in 1996, 1997 | Movies seen in 1998 | Videos | Music (now, I do lots o' music) | Books (lots o' books)
Diann's Home Page