MY TV FAMILY

Hello Friends & Family

I’m blogging to you from my couch this lovely Sunday afternoon, not feeling great, think I’m fighing off a sinus infection. Friends are out Cherry Picking, or going to the beach or having yard sales, and well, I’m watching TV on the couch. But I’m making the best of this weekend and have caught up on some of Season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and also some Mad Men Season 2 and I also watched 2 episodes of Alias as well. And I decided I wanted to blog a little about my Favorite TV shows of all time.

A Little Preface before the list. What is it about TV shows that make it feel so different from reading novels or going to see the movies? Is it its weekly format? Is it the sitcom format, the weekly format, the highs and lows, the feeling that there are like 500 channels but really only like 5 things on that you want to watch. IS IT a good way to gather the entire family together. I don’t know… I do know you can tell a lot about somebody and where they are in their life by what shows they are watching?

A little background on my TV watching experience:

I have a lot of memories of watching TV with my family as I grew up. I remember getting home from school and watching cartoons and ridiculous live shows like the MICKEY MOUSE CLUB and MTV and then getting dinner and then TV with the family until it was time to sleep. Was this how it was for other people? Then I remember realizing one day I wanted to go watch my own shows at night, because I wasn’t interested in what my family was watching. I’m pretty sure I was kind of into doing my own thing even at the young age of like 8. I remember eventually getting like a little portable SONY TV and then breaking the antenna and sticking the CABLE jack into the Antenna and getting Cable in it. Amazing, and I would watch a Lot of sports and a lot of VH1 and MTV and anything else I could find, like bad tv shows on USA like Silk Stalkings and stuff, I was like a SPONGE for TV, little BJ staring at the TV. I remember having this meta moment while watching HBO'S Dream On, about a guy who watched so much TV as a kid, he can only relate to life through TV, and realizing oh god I could turn into that, maybe that would be terrible, but maybe not.

Eventually, I remember how TV became a community event. My buddies would come over to watch weekly shows like X-FILES and we would scare the bejeezus out of each other and stuff. And some other show became events, and even now can be a good time to watch some shows with others, when it's not too emotional or important to the arc of the show. But the TV watching cycle went on and on, until around 2000, where I stopped watching TV shows, and then watched a ton of movies… I mean I still watched some shows like Friends (really, wow, Friends?) but I had nothing to be invested in, nothing to set my week up around. Anyway….

So I guess what I’m saying, in a haphazard way is that a lot of my life has been spent around a TV, watching television shows, and maybe that’s why I only reserve TV time for sports, movies and specially chosen programs which I will run down here in a bit. And maybe that's why I'm not kind of not sure if TV is such a good thing, but whether or not it is, I think it's something we all kind of need, the serialized story telling, I mean. Like isn't Homer's the Odyssey like a long ass tv show, just told over a few nights...

In answering my question, from earlier, here’s what I have loved about TV which made it different from some of my other forms of entertainment. (God I need an Editor. Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I kind of have a headache.) I let these characters into my lives. I see them more then most people in my life, which is why I’m really picky about what I watch, if I don’t want to hang out with these characters I will not watch the show, and which is why MY List may have shows your list won’t, with a lot of overlap.

I don’t know, I, you, maybe you, develop a sort of relationship with them (see also Serialized Novels, Comic Books.) I mean, I feel kind of lame saying this, but like I would be really pissed if someone ragged on Buffy, you know… Really. Really. Pissed. And this is why I feel like you can learn a lot about someone by their shows. Do they crave romance, adventure, the humilation of others, a family they never had, the life they never had, is it all escape? Think about your shows? Hmm…

Here is the list of Shows that I’ve loved, cared about, and you know, think are worth giving your time, because they were definitely worth my time. I some order, but not really, other than Buffy, you know… And then there are all the other shows that didn’t make the top 10. I love them, well some of them, but you know… this is a retrospective look, how can I put some that are new or fresh in, when I’m not sure if they’ll hold up, or if I will forget about them.

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

- Like a stupid shining star. My brother likes to tell about this one time, he was just chilling in his room and then I came roaring in like a Mad Man, raging on and on, without making any sense, until he realized that I was talking about how HE turned record off on my Buffy Episode in the last 10 minutes. Then he started laughing.

- I thought the X-Files was good until I ran into a bunch of kids my age taking on Vampires & Demons while growing up. The relatability factor was way high. And it was so moving and not in a cloying way. It was never “On a very special episode of Buffy The vampire Slayer, Buffy deals with Sex.” No, every episode was a very special episode, but you didn’t know it. It was written for teenagers, it was written for everybody, and at the time I had no idea How Incredible this show truly was. Maybe it wasn’t until I realized that like all the other WB shows weren’t really this good or half as good, maybe that’s when it kicked in. Amazing.

- I stopped watching after Season 4. My life and their lives became so drastically different, it stopped meaning much to me. But now that I’ve gone back and watched it all, I can safely say, “My Bad.”

- I remember having Buffy & Felicity evenings with my friends. Amazing.

2. How I Met Your Mother

- This is my “Friends.” These are the people that remind me of who I hang out with and of my life as a late 20 early 30 year old. I bet I’ll be able to look back on this show when I’m like 40 and say, oh my god, my life was sooo much like that…

3. Veronica Mars

- This show made me want to go back to highschool in a bad bad way. It was like if I had been a mid-twenty year old watching Buffy at the time it came out. It was so well written. The characters were so so awesome and relatable. I think everyone could use a Veronica in their life.

- I speak only of the first 2 seasons. After that you’re on your own.

4. Bones

- The First 3 or so Seasons of Bones is fabulous. Wrenching, suspenseful, funny, great stuff. A little bit of something for everyone. Not like other procedurals, this show was rooted in character. The Team on this show feels like such a fantastically well rounded family, its like being at the best/worst job you could ever have. I will rewatch these seasons again at some point. Such good stuff.

- Of course now it’s just weird, weird with good ratings.

- Oh Bones. To see you lose your shine, is well, heartbreaking. Hopefully, you will return next season.

5. Battlestar Gallactica

- Damn You Battlestar. For being so good and sneaky. You started off as this bleak, adventure show that had a little fun and a lot of twists, and you ended up being ONE OF THE MOST DEPRESSING SHOWS ever, but I was hooked in, because if I had known, if I had known. The topics this show hit up, actually made you think. It was really really solid. A Show built on black and white that bled into grays, lots and lots of grays.

- For all of you who had problems with Season Four. Please rewatch Final Episodes of Lost and then rejudge the end of Battlestar. Just saying.

6. Arrested Development

- If you ever think your family is weird and fucked up, please see this show for something more. If this show wasn’t funny, it could have made the most heartbreaking, ridiculous soap opera ever. But this is hands down the Funniest 3 Seasons of Television, I’ve ever seen. I have never laugh/cried at a show as often as this one.

7. Firefly

- A Show about a rag tag of Space Cowboys going through time. I passed on it, when it came out. I’m A MORON. I truly believe that this may have been the synthesis show for Joss Whedon. The show he took everything he learned from Buffy & Angel and put together into a Haven of Awesomeness. But science fiction cowboys & girls was not something Fox or the mainstream public was into and so it died.

- Now OF Blessings and Curses, and the inability to change the past, I am in the camp that it’s a Blessing that the show ended after 13 episodes. Because there are an AMAZING/MIGHTASWELLBEPERFECT 13 episodes. They are so rewatchable its sick. I’ve watched them all like 3 or 4 times. And Serenity. Do I care that it’s flawed, no. Do I care that it tonally is different from Firefly, no. I just feel incredibly grateful that Universal is stupid enough to have made it. J

8. Alias

- The Show that brought me back to watching Television Shows.

- I have never devoured seasons of tv like Alias. I watched 22 episodes in 30 hours once. It was devouring done only on a level of New Harry Potter books.

- It’s a blessing and a curse that Season 4 started off with it’s own jump the shark moment. Because if you had loved the show through the first 3 seasons, you could instantly see and say to yourself, “Nope that’s it. I’m out.”

9. The X-Files

- The first show I really really liked. On my Own. In my Own way.

- How bad would this show have been without Mulder & Scully. Just think if it had been those other agents who took over late. What if they had been the agents at the beginning?

- For those who think that then end of Lost was terrible, please see the end of the X-Files and reconsider what Bad Is…

10. 30 Rock

- How I love the ridiculousness of this show. It’s so weird. And yet oddly relatable. From the genius of Season 1 Tracy Morgan, to the sustained awesomeness of Alec Baldwin, and the adorable, weird, and uncomfortably similar thought processes of Liz Lemon. I hope they keep coming and never slide into the abyss of well that dark place Tv shows can go. You know like… well… there is no need in being bitter, but suffice it to say, if the show goes to hell, I’ll still watch it.

So that’s it. If you have any questions about the shows, cause I’m super vague about what they are about, feel free to hit me up, or if you would like to add some of your favorites, post them up.

I’m gonna take a nap now…Hasta!