Sturgeon's Law

The power was out here for two hours or more today (I left before it came back on, so I don't know exactly how much), which made it pretty difficult to get work done. Fortunately, I was way ahead. Ugh.

Anyway, Jeff tagged me with this TV list. Basically it's TV shows I like or don't like. I'm only going to list things that are still appearing, so no "old Simpsons reruns" on the list of things I like.

TV shows I like:
1. House: an utterly preposterous show plotwise that's carried by a dynamite lead performance from Hugh Laurie and likeable performances from basically everyone else in the cast.
2. Futurama: the new movies or whatever they are will apparently be out at the beginning of next year. Woohoo!
3. High Stakes Poker: almost all the players are the best in the world, and the interplay between them is even more diverting than the actual cards.
4. The Daily Show: still really good, and I think I like their new generation of correspondents (especially John Hodgman, Aasif Mandvi, and John Oliver) more than some other people I've read.
5. The Shield: there's no way they're going to untangle the current season in just two episodes.

The shows I don't like part is kind of difficult, because there are lots of shows I don't like but simply ignore, so I have no real strong feelings toward. I tend to manage this even with shows I would utterly hate if I watched them. But here are a few:
1. Anything on ESPN: this network has taken the all-flash-no-substance approach of MTV, added in a good helping of journalism compromised by investments in the things it's reporting on, topped it all off with some really annoying personalities, and applied the whole mess to something I give a shit about. Special mention for Around the Horn, one of the most godawful pieces of garbage on the air. Four ugly newspapermen shouting stupid things at each other about sports, and keeping "score." Wow, great.
2. Gray's Anatomy: I watched an episode of this with Shawn and Shanna. Otherwise, it would just be on my ignore list. All I'm going to say is that the name "McDreamy" sets my teeth on edge and makes me want to punch Patrick Dempsey's smarmy face.
3. Neil Cavuto's show on Fox News. I single this one out because it's always on when I'm at the gym, and it combines Fox's hilarious leading question headlines ("Would Hillary Clinton support sacrificing babies to Satan?") with some of the most amazingly trivial entertainment/lifestyle stories around.
4. Mind of Mencia. Another show I see because it's often on right before the one I actually want to watch, in this case The Daily Show.
5. The Sopranos. Okay, I just did that to see if you're paying attention. I like the Sopranos just fine--I do get annoyed by treatises on the cultural significance of the Sopranos, microanalyses of when the show started going downhill, and lengthy discussions of the possible subtexts of this one time Paulie Walnuts said "Fuck him, T!" This is part of my uneasiness over almost any enthusiastic subculture. It's nothing to be alarmed about.

Hmm, there are probably a few others I like or dislike a little, but that'll do for now. How about you? Answer in comments, or feel free to be tagged and write a post.

Labels: not poetry, television