It's no secret that I'm a TV fanatic. Give me basically any genre of show and I'll give it a go! I don't really know when I started to veer towards TV more than movies but I certainly have my reasons! In fact I had an interesting conversation today with my physiology seminar TA about TV versus movies. He was definitely on the 'movies' side of our conversation and needless to say I was pro-TV. Indeed it's easy to see why people love movies so much! A-List celebrities, big budgets, great screen plays (calm down there Michael Bay, I wasn't talking to you) and of course international publicity (for the Hollywood blockbusters), these all contribute to what make movies so great. BUT! I am not here to discuss movies! I like movies and I have several favorite movies (including basically anything from the 80's to Pirates of the Caribbean) but TV tends to win in my opinion and that's what I feel like ranting about today.
Again it'll come as no surprise to you my dear Reader that I tend to obsess over certain shows. What better example than March this year when I decided to watch 'South Park'. At the time it had 14 seasons (containing about 210 episodes) and I finished it within roughly three weeks. This was including all my school work, labs, extracurricular and what have yous. I'm not bragging or anything (I'm not the American Dragon geez Madi) but I'd say that's pretty darn impressive. I recently watched season one of 'Breaking Bad' on Netflix in one night. Only seven episodes but they were each a full hour long. So what's the point here? I can fly through shows like nobody's business? Well yes and no. That is definitely something I pride myself on but it also goes to show why TV is so great. After an hour of watching, the characters are still there! They don't come to a conclusion in a two hour time frame like movies do, you get to watch them slowly progress throughout the series! It's for that reason that I can watch so many episodes without getting bored (unless the show is not appealing).
'But Victorialune, what constitutes a good genre of show?' Well my Reader, I'm glad you asked. As I mentioned earlier, I am not biased by genre and I will give you some examples. Let's take '24', the amazing action series following in 'real time' the life of Jack Bauer. What a guy! But I digress... Action is not usually my thing. In fact before '24' I'm not sure I had even watched an action show. Not because they were all bad before '24', but because none had really sparked my interest. Now that I've seen how good action shows can be (again, there are definitely bad ones out there), I'm more than willing to give one a go! Well what about teen drama? Surely there can be no 'good' examples of this! Although many of these 'highschool' related soaps fall flat I still defend 'One Tree Hill' (seasons 1-6 of course). It was an amazing show! Science fiction? Reader, I have seen every episode of Star Trek the Next Generation as well as Voyager and Enterprise (I know, don't ask). Anime, comedy, reality, drama, you name it and I will probably watch it. As long as the story's good, who cares what genre it is?
Now I'm not trying to convert any of you movie lovers out there! That's not what I'm about at all! Again as I mentioned earlier I do like quite a few movies (more than quite a few I'm sure)! All I'm saying is that TV brings so much to the table. The proverbial 'water cooler' in the work place will forever be plagued with chatter from last night's episode of 'Survivor' or back in the day, 'Lost'. This is because certain shows develop intense fans (I'm not excluding myself here...). 'Lost' and 'Survivor' are PRIME examples of dedicated fans. Although I didn't much care for seasons 4-6 of 'Lost', I stuck it out to the end just so I could figure out what all the hype was about (but to me, the ending was not satisfying, don't get me started here Reader). 'Survivor' has been running for 23 seasons and a 24th is to air in February! People often ask me how this show can STILL be on the air and I simply reply, 'demand'. There is obviously a demand for this island reality show or the networks would certainly not be airing it. And yes it has been a bit 'lack lustre' these past few seasons but hey, it's 23 seasons old! Give Jeff Probst and 'Survivor' a break!
Anywho, there's my little rant about TV. It was bound to happen eventually Reader! I'm surprised I didn't do it sooner. Speaking of TV, I'm about to watch this week's episode of 'Dexter', a show that EVERYONE should give a chance. Michael C. Hall, you had me at 'pulled pork sandwich'. :)
