Thoughts on summer TV viewing

Last night I watched the premiere of Under the Dome, a new CBS summer series based on a novel by Stephen King. Everyone is trapped in a relatively small space and they all have secrets that could potentially piss each other off. ABM liked it but I can already tell that it is too tense for me. TV scenarios like this make me squirm. There is only one mystery in the show that interests me, so I will probably let ABM fill me when they finally solve it.

Shows that don't make me squirm are the roster of USA Network originals. ABM watches practically everything on their schedule, but my favorites are Necessary Roughness and Royal Pains. The USA shows have been criticized for being fluffy and without substance, but I like having a few shows on my viewing list that aren't trying to be edgy or push the envelope.

Besides the USA shows, summer wouldn't be complete to me without a few reality shows. A new one we've picked up, The Hero, has the vibe of Survivor except no one gets voted off. One that I am watching without ABM, Marriage Boot Camp: Bridezillas, is a perfect way to remind yourself that your spouse's little annoyances could be so much worse. Then of course there are the competition shows that are summer staples: So You Think You Can Dance and America's Got Talent.

At this point, you may be saying, "Too much TV! Go outside!" I'm working on doing that more, but as long as the outdoor temps are in the 80s I will be staying inside in front of my television.

Falling for Korean dramas

My daughter M, who is currently a sophomore in college, has been meeting with me on Sundays via Google Hangout to watch streaming videos. Being the weirdos that we are, we can't just watch indie fare on Netflix. We have discovered Korean dramas and fallen into like with them. The otherness of watching TV from another culture makes even predictable melodramas seem exciting.

Like British TV shows, Korean dramas (they seem to call all TV shows "dramas" even if they are funny) have a definite beginning and ending. Another difference is that they air in Korea twice a week on consecutive days: Mon-Tue, Wed-Thurs, or the weekend, all at 10p. They typically have 20 to 30 episodes, although the first drama we watched completely (Gloria) had 50 episodes. 

I think that Korean dramas, or K-dramas, might be another option for people who think that American TV has become too smutty. Outside of the Koreans' weird obsession with poop, most of what I've seen has been fairly conservative. There is no graphic sex and the bad characters tend to get their comeupppance. A lot of the plots revolve around someone using a career path to make life better for herself and her family. There is usually a family honor component, as well. Of course, you still have to be a discerning consumer because there are dramas that are more adult than others. 

There are three options for watching K-dramas in the US, as far as I know.If you have the Netflix streaming service then you already have access to a smattering of the more popular K-dramas like Boys over Flowers. Once you sample a few on there and want more, there are a couple websites that have a larger library. Crunchyroll is all Asian, with access to anime shows and K-pop shows as well as dramas. Dramafever focuses on dramas alone. They are mostly from Asian countries but if you dig deep you can find a few Spanish-language telenovelas, too.

If you start watching K-dramas or if you have been a fan for years, let me know what you are watching!

My Renewed Love of "The Waltons"

I'm of the age that remembers watching The Waltons when it originally aired on CBS in the 1970s. I've always had fond memories of the show, but I hadn't watched it in years. With my recent injuries, I've had a chance to watch the show again on the Hallmark channel. This may come as a surprise to those of you who think of me as brassy and too-cool-for-school, but The Waltons is exactly the type of show that I need right now.

This tale of a family living in the Virginia mountains during the Great Depression was simple enough for me to understand as a 10-year-old, but it means even more to me now as a 45-year-old wife and mother. The stories of long-lasting marital love and loyalty are a relief to me at a time when every other show on TV seems to feature infidelity. I watched an episode last week where Grandpa Walton had a heart attack, and  watching Grandma Walton talk about how she couldn't bear to lose the man that she had slept next to for 51 years nearly had me in tears. 

The Waltons is not a show with grand speeches or wild plot twists, but it isn't as corny as some make it out to be. It is a simple show about hardworking people trying to live by their principles, and it is the best sort of escapism for me right now.

The Voice: Battle Rounds, Night 1

I don't think I have ever written about The Voice on this blog, which is a surprise because it is possibly my favorite competition show at the moment. I'm even playing The 5th Judge game on Facebook. The show is currently in its second season, and I like it as much as I did the first time around, if not more.

Two aspects of The Voice that set it apart from other shows in its genre are the level of talent and the camaraderie between the judges. The show runners do all the screening off-camera, so they don't subject us to the truly horrible singers. It can be more difficult for contestants to make themselves stand out when everyone in the room is good, but at least I don't ever have a reason to cringe when I watch the show. As for the judges (Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, CeeLo Green and Blake Shelton), they may not have met each other before signing up for this gig but they have managed to build up a rapport that makes the team competition aspect seem friendly and playful rather than mean-spirited. Those of you who watched US version of The X-Factor last year know what I'm talking about.

Last night's episode was the start of the battle rounds, which I think is a good time to jump in if you are new to the show. Each coach has 12 contestants and they pair them off in duets. A duet sings, all the coaches give their opinion of which singer in the duet did the best, but the duet's coach is the only person who has the final say on which person in the duet is eliminated. My top two performances were by a male/male duet and a female/female duet. The gals sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and the guys sang "If I Ain't Got You".





If you have a hole in your viewing schedule and these videos piqued your interest, there are full episodes on Hulu.

The Talk: My New Evening Wind-Down Show

I'm sure that a lot of people make comparisons between ABC's The View and CBS' The Talk, and I don't blame them. On the face of it, the two talk shows look a lot alike.Each one has a panel of famous women of different ages and at different life stages discuss pop culture topics. However, as a former fan of The View, I can tell you that The Talk is what The View used to be: a light daytime show for people who enjoy panel discussions. 

While their hosts do address the latest headlines, the discussion never degenerates into a shouting match with apologies being made the next day. Perhaps it is because the cast hasn't been together long enough to get on each other's nerves, but these women act as if they genuinely like each other rather than just tolerate each other.  Maybe having Sheryl Underwood and Aisha Tyler (two stand-up comedians) and Sharon Osbourne (a naturally funny woman) keeps the show happy and fun. I don't know. All I know is that it is the perfect show for me to watch in the evenings after work when my meds have laid me low.

I Thought I Liked Sitcoms

I grew up watching sitcoms. When I was a kid, they practically dominated the airwaves. I remember watching four 30-minute shows from 8p-10p, then being told to go to bed because anything after that time was for grown-ups. Many of them had predictable plots, but they made me smile: "Happy Days", "Mork and Mindy", "Laverne and Shirley", then later came shows like "Night Court" and "The Cosby Show". Gradually, sitcoms all but disappeared, making way for reality shows, hour-long dramas, and the hybrid called the dramedy. I've enjoyed a lot of what has been aired over the years, but when "Big Bang Theory" came on the scene I realized how much I missed comedy and sitcoms.

Unfortunately, I'm still not getting as much comedy as I would like. Many of our current TV comedies, whether critically acclaimed or popular with the masses, have left me cold. A few of them, like "The Office" make me so uncomfortable that I can't even sit through an entire episode. Most comedy, at least in part, hinges on laughing at the embarrassing situations that the characters get themselves into. Modern shows really seem to be pushing what I call "the cringe factor".

My favorite shows, like the Britcom "Gavin and Stacey", walk right up to the cringe factor line but then they pull back before I start to dislike the characters. The writers of that show in particular balance the embarrassing moments with scenes that make me still care about the characters. Other shows, like "30 Rock", have admittedly made me laugh harder than "Gavin and Stacey". However, I have to sit through a lot of uncomfortable scenes to get to the laughs. There was a cumulative negative effect, too; the more episodes of "30 Rock" I watched, the less I looked forward to watching it, even though I did laugh at least once in every episode. There are other shows like "Arrested Development" and the new "Raising Hope" where I didn't even laugh once.

So what does make me laugh? I think I'm more attracted to verbal wordplay than all-out comedy. Shows that technically aren't comedies, like "Firefly" and "Glee", have had lines that made me do a spit take. I like pop-culture references and unexpected twists on words, but I also want to have an emotional investment in the characters. On so many of the new sitcoms that are supposed to be so great and clever, I don't like the characters at all. For instance, the big bad on "Glee" is Sue Sylvester. On the surface, her character is rude just for the fun of it. However, viewers have found out over the run of the series that she has a mother who abandoned her and a sister with Down's Syndrome that she lovingly cares for. That doesn't excuse Sue's bad behavior, of course, but it makes it easier for me to laugh at her instead of totally hating her. On another show, the writers wouldn't have bothered to humanize her at all.

The pendulum will eventually swing back in the other direction, I suppose. Until then I will have to turn to movies and TV reruns for the lighthearted viewing I crave.

Thinking of Cutting the Cable

For the past several years, I've been planting the idea with ABM that perhaps we should get rid of cable or at least reduce our package. Until recently, he didn't give the notion a second thought. ABM doesn't really have any hobbies and even if he did, he wouldn't be in the mood to engage in any of them on most days. He is so wiped out from work that all he wants to do when he comes home is zone out in front of the box. Before services like Hulu became popular, the only option ABM would have is to sleep. Nowadays, however, getting rid of cable doesn't mean doing without TV altogether.

Right now, we are paying $180 a month for cable, not counting taxes and fees. We can't find a better deal around here on the internet, so we will probably stick with Time Warner for that. We can cut the phone portion almost in half if we switch to Vonage, and ABM has no problem with that. The biggest issue ABM has is giving up the TV. Even though I've shown him that practically all of the dramas and comedies we watch are available online, he isn't sure that he wants to give up access to channels like HGTV and DIY Network. There are only two reasons he is giving it any thought. First, our neighbor came over and told us that his family has been without cable for over a year and they are happy; sometimes ABM attaches more importance to an idea if it comes from someone else, even if I've told him the same exact thing. Secondly, the TV is the largest portion of our bill at $102 a month. That's not counting the $18 a month we pay for Netflix. If we got rid of cable TV and signed up for Hulu Plus, that would cut our TV bill to $28 a month.

ABM wants to get a TV tuner for his laptop ($79) and see what it would be like to watch shows through other means before we actually have the cable TV turned off. Now would be the best time to try this experiment because with his current work schedule he hasn't had time for much TV, anyway. I'll let you guys know when we start and how it goes.

Could it be that I've lost interest in "Mad Men"?

Last week it hit me that I was three episodes behind on the current season of Mad Men. I got behind at the beginning of this season, too. This is strange because I never piled up unwatched episodes in past seasons. I looked forward to each episode so much that I usually didn't wait for the DVR to finish recording it; I let it record long enough so I could fast-forward past the adverts and then I would jump right in. With this season, though, once I got past the first two episodes, I felt a strange reluctance to watching the show. I even deleted three episodes from my DVR to make room for other shows, telling myself I would pick them up on demand later.

What is wrong with me? This is the only show that gives me my early-1960s eye candy. Why am I avoiding it? I think perhaps the direction the show is going it right now is bothering me. I'm not kidding myself. Mad Men has never been a light, Doris Day-esque show. This season, however, the drunk barely-in-control Don Draper is uncomfortable to watch. There have been a few scenes where he has come so close to hitting on girls too young for him that I thought to myself, "If he tries to pick up this girl, I'm not watching this show any more." The descent that Don is taking is like watching a plane taking a nosedive; you keep watching and praying, "Pull up! Pull up!"

Are there any Mad Men fans out there that are up-to-date on the season? I don't want any spoilers (I've only watched episodes 1-6) but if there are signs that Don Draper is pulling out of his spiral, I'd like to know. I don't want to give up on my favorite show.

Jayma Mays and Her Strange Coincidences

Have you ever noticed something weird on TV, but no one ever mentions it? Unfortunately, I have the type of brain that notices these things and sometimes I just have to let them out. Bear with me, or move on :-).

The first time I saw Jayma Mays, she played a character named Charlie in the show Heroes. The next time I saw her, she was on Ugly Betty and her character's name was Charlie. Now Charlie isn't exactly a common name for a girl so I thought this was kind of strange. Anyway, the Charlie on Ugly Betty cheated on her boyfriend with a dentist. Fast forward to the present day where Mays is playing Emma on Glee. I just found out that in season 2, Emma will start dating a guy who is a dentist.

Weird, huh? Do these show writers do this stuff just to see if someone will notice? Or am I the only one whose brain works that way?

Extreme American Idol Fan

I found this video via @ebertchicago on Twitter, who found it on a blog called eject. In a nutshell, it shows a fan's extreme reaction to the outcome of the American Idol finale.

I'm not going to be as rude as some of the commenters on YouTube, but I must say that I have never understood this level of fandom. I mean, I consider myself a big fan of So You Think You Can Dance but I have never voted and I don't get emotional over the outcome. As a matter of fact, with most reality shows I tend to lose interest as the pool of contestants dwindles. With The Biggest Loser, I rarely stick around once it gets down to the final four. For me these shows are more about the performances (or in the case of The Biggest Loser, the dramas) along the way than who ultimately wins.

Remembering Why I Used to Like Soaps

Today I stumbled across a Guiding Light tribute site that had a timeline of one of the show's power couples of the 1980s, Quint and Nola. Reading through the site and watching a couple YouTube videos reminded me of why I was hooked on soap operas back then.

Many people think of soaps as being hokey, but there was a period of time when there was serious drama going on in them. Even though I criticized soaps in my last post for dragging out storylines, the flip side is that meaty stories were given a generous amount of time to develop because the writers had five hours a week to fill. Soaps don't have seasons, so writers didn't have to worry about wrapping something up in 22 episodes or about keeping actors from spoiling the cliffhanger over the summer.

Everything on TV has to be real these days. A lack of realism or believability is considered a big criticism. For me, though, I enjoy a good bit of melodrama and scenery chewing. Companies and their dirty dealings, manipulative mothers, women begging their men to stay -- I think there is still room for that sort of storytelling in the TV schedule alongside overly tanned men sitting in a house talking about how great they are.

Feeling Nostalgic for Soap Operas

I'm a little late seeing this news, but I read today that CBS is cancelling As The World Turns. This wasn't a soap that I watched regularly as I did Guiding Light, but I think of it as the one of the iconic soaps that I grew up with. I would also include in that group All My Children, Days of Our Lives, One Life to Live, and General Hospital, as well as dearly departed shows Edge of Night and The Doctors. I'm old enough to remember when The Young and the Restless was considered a newer show, at least among my mother's peers. I

I've heard that several more daytime soaps are on the chopping block, and my feelings about this are conflicted. My interest in soaps waned years ago because I got frustrated with the endless star-crossed lover plots and every character sleeping with every other character. Since I don't watch soaps any longer, I have no right to complain about them being cancelled because I contributed to their demise. Still, I have a soft spot in my heart for anything -- TV show, restaurant, family ritual -- that manages to keep going for more than 25 years.

Lately, I've found that I am not totally opposed to all parts of the daytime soap model. I enjoy following characters for a long period of time and through several storylines. To scratch that itch, I've turned to book series like the Southern Vampire Mysteries. I also wish there were more radio serials like The Archers from BBC Radio 4. It gives me family and village drama in daily 15-minute bites. It may be too gentle for some, but it is a refreshing change from some of the oversexualized TV shows I watch.

Time to Catch Up on my Brit TV; TNT's Mini Holiday Season

--One of the great things about the BBC is that they still have fresh TV and radio content over the holidays. When someone tweeted about the Doctor Who Christmas special, it reminded me that I have fallen behind on my Brit TV. Since I have to be off my feet, anyway, I've lined up a list of faves to watch:

The last three Doctor Who specials
The third and final season of Gavin and Stacey
The third season of Skins

--TNT seems to be taking a page from the BBC's book. They gave us three new episodes of The Closer and Raising the Bar. They also premiered a new series that didn't take a break this month, Men Behaving Badly. I'm not sure how these episodes did in the ratings, but we watched them. I'd be willing to bet that other people did, too. There is only so much bonding you can do over the holidays before people start reaching for the remote. That's why video stores are open on Christmas day.

Beelzebubs' Cover of "Right Round" on The Sing-Off

The finale of "The Sing-Off" is tonight. NBC showed a perfect sense of timing in scheduling this talent competition. Fox's dramedy musical "Glee" is riding high on good buzz right now, so slipping this show in while people are still jonesing for show choir goodness was a smart move. You can go to Hulu if you are interested in catching up on the competition thus far. There have only been three episodes so it won't take you long.

I am rooting for the Beelzebubs from Tufts University to win. I've been a fan of college a cappella for several years and I am glad to see a college group in the finals. I picked this performance to post because I find the incongruity of preppy white boys doing hip-hop to be entertaining. The expression on the lead singer's face kills me! Go Bubs!

Parenthood Has Changed My TV Viewing

A couple nights' ago I was catching up on Grey's Anatomy. One of the medical cases involved a little boy with a terminal disease. I knew from the set-up that the kid was going to die. I've seen kids die on medical shows before, but for some reason this story hit me so hard that I had trouble breathing. The actor playing the kid, Khamani Griffin, reminded me of my son DJ and I couldn't take it. He doesn't look like my son, but there was something about him made me think of DJ and I had to turn my head every time he came on screen.

This isn't the first time this has happened. Perhaps I was more callous before I had kids, but I could have watched that story 15 years' ago without a problem. I mean, I would have felt sorry for the parents but I wouldn't have felt such a connection with them. Nowadays, I can't watch anything that involves a kid dying or a kid losing a parent. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age :-).

40th Anniversary of Sesame Street

Anyone who watches news programs or uses Google knows that this week is the 40th anniversary of the first airing of Sesame Street. I have a soft spot for the show; I am part of the generation that was the original target audience for the show. My family lived in NY when I was in elementary school, so the set of the show resembles the neighborhoods I grew up in. Watching Sesame Street is about as close as I get to reminiscing about childhood.

All the talk about Sesame Street and Muppets this week made me think about the only celebrity death that has ever made me cry. When Jim Henson died in 1990, I had only been married for about a year and I'm sure that ABM thought that I had flipped my lid because I bawled my eyes out. When CBS aired a tribute to Jim Henson several months later using Muppets, I cried all over again.

Why did I feel such a connection to Henson? It was mainly because of this song:




Even as a little kid (I think I was five when I first heard it), this song made me cry. I immediately understood that the song was telling me that it was OK to be different. Being shy and quiet didn't mean that I was less important. The song was by Joe Raposo and it has been recorded by many different artists, but no other celebrity has made quite an impression on me as Henson did singing that song in the voice of Kermit the Frog. It makes me wonder what my kids will look back on as influential when they are my age.

One of My Favorite Quotes from "Bones"

"We don't get anything out here. We are about 100 miles past where Jesus lost his sandals."

Biggest Loser Season 8 Premiere

The new season of The Biggest Loser started last night and I must say that they have adopted a zippier pace. For the past couple seasons, the first episode was mainly about how each of the contestants was selected and what their back stories were. This time they went straight into the exercising and sprinkled in info about the contestants here and there. It definitely made the two-hour show feel like it was flying by with very little filler. ABM usually has his finger hovering over the fast-forward button when we watch this show because he can't stand the crying and the drawn-out elimination ceremonies. Last night he only forwarded through the commercials, which is a sign that the show held his attention.

ABM is convinced that Tracey, the contestant who collapsed during the first challenge, is a drama queen. He is sure that there is nothing wrong with her other than her need to be in the spotlight. I, on the other hand, think that she genuinely passed out because she was trying to keep up with Daniel, a contestant who was on the show last season and who exercises four hours a day. Since they didn't show her at all for the rest of the episode, we have to wait and see which one of us was correct.

ABM was also struck by the amount of cursing that was on the show this time around. The network bleeped it, of course, but it was a shock to him for some reason. I've never been as sensitive to four-letter words as he is so it didn't bother me. Jillian Michaels never cursed on her radio show, but there is something about her personality that makes me think she probably does cuss a blue streak in real life.

The only thing I didn't like about the speedy editing was that the viewers didn't get much of a chance to know the eliminated contestant before she was sent packing. I've always said that this show should go through the first week without cutting anyone. That would give everyone more of a chance to develop healthy habits before going home and it would give the contestants a chance to know each other better before they are forced to vote someone out.

Jinxing America's Got Talent Again

Once again, I am bad news for the contestants of America's Got Talent. Every act that I've mentioned on this blog has been eliminated. Yes, Paradizo Dance got cut yesterday. Perhaps next week, I should write a little more about the groups I don't like ;-).

Paradizo Dance on America's Got Talent

This was my favorite performance from last night's first semi-final round. I even felt the need to vote, which is something I never do on these shows. However, I didn't want to see Paradizo Dance eliminated because of the judges' comments. They didn't buzz the couple, but they did say that that the slow balletic routines were better than this one. I disagree; I loved seeing them do an upbeat number for a change.

At any rate, if Paradizo Dance gets eliminated, they could probably make a decent living on the cruise ship circuit. On the last two cruises we took, there was a couple doing this style of acrobatic dance but there weren't as good as Paradizo Dance.