Sunday, October 28, 2007

I Like To Watch

Really, this is a post about what I don't like to watch. Or what I don't watch any more. I've been thinking about the shows that have started without me this news season, like Grey's Anatomy. Haven't seen it once. Don't intend to. Why, you might ask. Let me tell you (sit down, get a beer, draw nigh to the fire and stay a spell).

I seem to have a three season tolerance for TV dramas. The first season I'm in love, I palpitate to find out what's happening to my new friends. I groan and cheer right along with them because they are, absolutely, real to me. I mean, I know they're not really real; I know it's just acting. But I get so into the program that I might as well be part of the mise-en-scene. That's the first year. The second year, I'm still hot and heavy with my favorites. I still care, really, really care. But maybe a shade, a mere tinge of ennui has entered. By the third year--well, by the third year, I could probably be submitting spec scripts for the show, that's how well I know it. And, consequently, the fourth wall has been lowered and I'm not so much in the scene as hovering over it. When I start knowing who's going to do what when because that's what they did the last time or it's the opposite of what they did--then, the show is on life support for me.

Grey's Anatomy died a bit early for me. I suppose I could have taken another season of the pushme-pullme Meredith and Derek arc. I'm marginally curious about the Alex character, although I think they've dragged his mystery out far too long with far too few clues. I like Callie, although what she sees in that weenie George is beyond me. And I'm peeved that Addison has move to LA, but still I can watch her there if I want to. But Sandra Oh--please note that she's the only one whose name I actually remember--she I am missing, badly. But not badly enough to watch the show.

Basically I'm having a one-person boycott of Grey's Anatomy and ABC for firing Isaiah Washington. And I loathe, loathe, loathe Katherine Heigl, who I see as the major irritant urging his firing. I don't think Washington calling George a faggot was cool or right, but hey, in the scheme of things going wrong with our world at the time, was that the best people could focus on? How about Iraq? How about Darfur? How about Health Care and poverty and hungry kids here in the U.S.? Wasn't it interesting--or perhaps not uncoincidental--that Katherine Heigl's constant blathering on camera about how no one could get away with insulting her friend, etc. etc. came at the same time that she was getting a major PR push. Not a bad day when you can get a double whammy of free press coverage to go along with your paid press coverage.

Katherine Heigl is, as we used to say in high school, a bit too full of herself. She should look up the word hubris and write it out a thousand times in purple ink, dotting each i with a little heart, because her day, I'm sure, is coming. However, I won't be there to see it, because I'm not watching Grey's Anatomy this year. Not only because Washington isn't on it, but because Heigl is.

8 comments:

  1. About a year ago, I canceled my cable subscription, unplugged my TV, and put it on a shelf in my closet. About a month later I gave the TV to a neighbor who needed one. I have not missed it.

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  2. Anonymous4:35 PM

    What you should really be concerned with is why Katherine Heigl was the only person prepared to speak out to defend her friend whilst others stood by. That is the real disgrace. Good for people like Heigl, I know who I would want for a friend. Isaiah Washington is not a nice person.

    As for Grey's she is also the main reason to watch the show in my opinion

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  3. nina: ...and I bet you get a hell of a lot more done than I do. good for you!

    anonymous: what you should really be concerned with is why you feel strongly enough about something to comment, but are only willing to do so anonymously. Commenters who hide--that is the real disgrace.

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  4. I stopped watching Grey's because it became unwatchable. The characters were always immature, but without Burke and Addison, the ratio of adults to children dropped too low.

    Even Callie got stupid. And Addison on her new show is stupid, so I also don't watch that. Except sometimes, to look at Tim Daly, who is still a fine, fine looking man. Mrrrow!

    I like Pushing Daisies, which is twee, but sweet.

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  5. ratphooey: the writers' strike will pose no hardship to me...

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  6. I never got into it in the first place. I tried watching some of the last episodes, but I guess since I wasn't investing in it in the first place, I didn't care for any of them.

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  7. ghd: It got sillier and sillier last year, so you haven't missed a thing.

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  8. Dang, you took the words out of my mouth that I was about to post to anonymous...we are all entitled to our opinions but it's good if we own them. I made it through half a season of Grey's Anatomy so you lasted longer than me. I got so tired of Meredith's whining and Mcdreamy's mcdreaminess, and it seemed to me that there was a whole lot of sex going on in that hospital...I worried about all the sick folks waiting for their meds.

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So--whaddaya think?