So the Writers Guild is on strike, and scripted TV has a definite drop dead point. All of your favorite shows are just burning off their remaining episodes and then: nuttin’. Reality TV, game shows, and good, old fashioned reruns.
So, I’ve started cutting back on some TV. First to go: Las Vegas. Las Vegas had a good run a few years ago, but now it’s just trash. The scripts suck, the interaction is infantile, the characters are flat and pointless and often annoying, and the premise is so fatally flawed it’s laughable. Also, I wish somebody would shoot Delinda already, she’s the most annoying character on TV. So Las Vegas got the boot from our DVR.
Next is Grey’s Anatomy. Admittedly, this one is primarily due to my wife – I would have dropped this show mid-way through season 2 if it wasn’t for her. In the meantime, the show is absolutely horrible. Meredith is the whiniest, second-most annoying character on television, and needs a good slap in the face. George is lame, and Izzie is utterly annoying ever since the “I ate an entire tub of butter” speech from last season. Christina is cold and uninteresting, the Chief is one dimensional, Callie is a mess. In fact, the only characters I don’t absolutely despise are Sloan and Bailey, but they are pretty much relegated to minor side-roles.
By all accounts, everything about Prison Break should disqualify is from my like-list. It’s got plot holes so big you could walk in, dance a jig, have a drink, smoke a cigarette, and walk out with no one noticing. The entire premise is silly and should never have lasted longer than one season, if that. And yet, I’m addicted. Despite the fact that a company who knows no limit on spending, rather than simply buying a man out of a corrupt prison with totally corrupt guards in a foreign country, would rather find a wily fugitive, track him down, put him into said prison, let him devise an escape plan in 4 days and pray he gets your man out. Did they not realize it took Michaels many months, along with what surely was several thousand dollars in tattoos, to break out of Fox River? But alas, I love it. Even though it’s got plot twists for the sole sake of screwing with the viewers, I dig it.
Heroes was losing it until recently and the House staff shakeup is getting a little tiring. In my opinion, the best show I now watch is Criminal Minds on Wednesday nights. It’s not even close to my favorite. I prefer The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Howard Stern weekly sneak peek on Mojo… hmmm…. all shows that are primarily improv!
