What I'm Watching on TV

An effect of the Writer's Strike has been to force me to watch new shows since by late January, I had seen reruns of anything which was new in the fall. In most cases this has been a benefit, but in the whole I find a strong new trend emerging and I cannot imagine that I am the only person doing the same thing-- I now like to get whole seasons of series on DVD and watch them instead of waiting week after week for new episodes with commercials I have to fast forward through.

What happens is that I find an episode of a series, like it, and get the DVDs. I hardly watch any "new" (first season) shows except for The Big Bang Theory, and that is because of the Johnny Galecki character. If only I could meet someone like that! But I digress. I especially appreciate that they have added the Sarah Gilbert character, to show that females can also be smart/nerdy-- and strong and attractive.

One of my first finds was Rescue Me, the Denis Leary show where he is a troubled post 9/11 NYC firefighter. It is a great ensemble cast, and every character draws the viewer in. I was really annoyed that its new season started right after I began watching the series. I got caught up on the previous seasons only to "start" the new season in the middle. It is hard to imagine how they will follow the astonishing season finale in which the "baseball as life" metaphor was explicated in the best way I have ever seen, especially as counterpoint to Leary's character's last outing with his father.

I have seen possibly one episode of The Simpsons and that is fine with me. I don't really like cartoons and the voices on this one are very grating. Plus, I am naturally opposed to anything that popular. I have been told, ad nauseum, how much I would like it, it is just my type of humor and so on. That's okay. I did stumble upon an animated series that I do like- Family Guy, because of a Star Wars episode they did. Since then I have gotten hooked. The snarky Stewie and the sardonic talking dog Brian, idiot Peter and his best friends- they are great entertainment and occasional strong political satire.

Because of this horrible thing called a budget, I have also watched Six Feet Under in this manner. I loved the series but I am not sure if I would watch many episodes twice- maybe those featuring Jeremy Sisto. The storyline of David (one of the sons) and Keith got more overwrought than I could take, and Claire and her art school adventures were just too reminiscent of art students I have known and loathed.

My latest "beat the budget" (thank heavens for DVD) is The Tudors. I could spend hours writing about it alone. In a word, it is ravishing. Purists may decry that liberties are taken with history (and usually I am first among them) and costume, but this is not Marie Antoinette (horrid, horrid movie). The Tudor period is challenging because of the way people spoke and there are a lot of things going on and for a reason that many historical periods are- you don't have a sense of the people. Many times historical figures seems exactly that- not actual humans who got cold or sad or introspective, who had to pick out what to wear. Once one remembers that these are people with motivations and specific attributes it becomes a lot clearer. The actors in the series bring alive Henry VIII and his court so vividly that it will be impossible to not see the era differently.

I finished the Tudors (Season 1) with regret and moved on to Bones. It had two things which drew me in- the premise and one of its stars, David Boreanaz. The premise is about a forensic anthropologist working at a thinly disguised Smithsonian who assists the FBI with crimes. Any type of anthropology and almost any type of forensics (I won't watch the CSI series) and I am there. I watched David Boreanaz for several years as the brooding character Angel on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and later the spin off, Angel. There was not a lot of opportunity for range as the character was either bummed out or mad most of the time, though he did it well. He also did shirtless extremely well. In any event, the character here has many facets, which Boreanaz takes on effortlessly. His counterpart is very analytical and a good foil. I find myself identifying with her constantly in her occasional social missteps with "regular" people. It is great- along with Big Bang- to finally see some of the true difficulties educated people face treated in a sympathetic manner.