By “different situation” I mean this: When I was active in television I made it a point to watch every new program, especially the comedies. At the time I also knew a lot of the writers on these various shows. When I was starting in the biz I watched everything and memorized entire writing staffs.
But now that I’m no longer writing for TV it takes me a lot longer to get around to pilots. It's no longer homework; it's pleasure viewing. And I now have the luxury of not having to sit through everything. At least in a timely manner. I finally saw GHOSTS last week. I didn’t love it, but I stayed for the entire show. My wife left in the middle.
The other factor is that now with streaming services there are so many more options. It used to be that you’d watch entire episodes because there was nothing else on. Now, five minutes in you can say “this isn’t for me” and go exploring the thousands of other shows and movies available at your fingertips.
I must admit, that’s what I do.
But putting myself in the showrunner's shoes— that places a huge burden on him or her or them. You have no time to adequately develop your show. You gotta wow ‘em in the first five minutes. You also have to introduce the premise, the characters, their relationships to each other, start the story, and establish the tone. Pilots were not easy before.
It’s the new reality, however. And it’s never going back.
So my viewing habits have changed. How about yours in this regard?
55 comments :
I'm a GIANT Star Wars nerd who loved the animated Clone Wars series. The same group made a direct sequel called The Bad Batch that I quit on after 5 episodes. It just didn't click the same way.
I haven't watched a network comedy in years. There is just nothing funny out there anymore.
We have the luxury nowadays to wait to see if a show is worth watching since with all the different platforms we can easily catch up to a series if it has legs and if word-of-mouth stays strong. I wait and see if it looks like it's going to last before investing my time. Of course this involves letting OTHER people be the guinea pigs!
Also, it's funny you mentioned Ghosts as my family and I were discussing it yesterday due to the several promos CBS ran during Sunday football. My guess is that it must be doing pretty well if it continues to be promoted. None of us have seen one episode, however!
Weirdly, I don't have the feeling more shows are trying to cram everything into pilots at all, even though that would make sense (marketwise) in the streaming age. Rather, I find myself getting fed up more and more with shows that absolutely refuse to get going. Many seem to try to stretch material that would have been good enough for one movie over several seasons. Try to watch something like "The Mosquito Coast" and tell me this isn't just 20-30 minutes of exposition blown up to fill something like 10 hours.
If it involves a known actor or writer, I'll give it several episodes to hit its stride. Matthew Perry earned an extended look; 4 episodes of Mr. Sunshine were all I could take. I watched the first half season of Keenan, and it just didn't make me laugh. I may look at the second season to see if any adjustments have been made. I've stuck with Ghosts for now, it's good not great, mostly because the BBC original is great and I'm hoping it improves.
For an unknown team, I'll watch the pilot and maybe one more of most new comedies. If there are a few laughs and engaging characters, I'll stick around. But I'll delete the series recording if it gets silly or repetitive or the humor is too forced.
It used to be that if you weren't onboard when the show premiered, you had little chance of ever checking out the first episodes. Now the first episodes are patiently waiting for you, so I've gone one step further than you and simply don't bother with new shows.
If something gets rave reviews and a continuing buzz, then I am fine to check it out 6-12 months down the road, but I simply see no reason for me to be first in line to experiment with new stuff. Waiting a while usually also means that there is a whole season or two at the ready, when I decide to check them out.
It used to be that if you weren't onboard when the show premiered, you had little chance of ever checking out the first episodes. Now the first episodes are patiently waiting for you, so I've gone one step further than you and simply don't bother with new shows.
If something gets rave reviews and a continuing buzz, then I am fine to check it out 6-12 months down the road, but I simply see no reason for me to be first in line to experiment with new stuff. Waiting a while usually also means that there is a whole season or two at the ready, when I decide to check them out.
On Ghosts- my wife and I make it a point to watch. Some of the off hand dialog is actually fairly clever. Is it on a par with Cheers, Bob Newhart, I love Lucy, et al? Of course not. But the half hour goes quickly for us and we feel entertained after it's over. It's also got possibilities for growth of the characters if they do it right, at least my wife and I think so. Do we feel like we're settling? Maybe, maybe not, but we look forward to the next installment and that's a pretty good litmus test as far as we're concerned.
I usually give shows five or six episodes before I decide and I've found that if you see a show that has a few "meh" episodes at the beginning but improves in the later episodes it's IMPOSSIBLE to get friends you know who stopped watching it to start watching it again. That was my experience with HBO's ROME.
Yes, it's a whole new ballgame. I can't think of any current comedies that I'm watching on the networks.
I find there is so much content to choose from, I also have no problem shutting off early. That's why I always get those emails from Netflix saying, "Don't forget to finish watching..."
I have a fairly good nose for what I like. I used to look at the ads or the TV Guide Fall Preview and say, "This may be fun". I was dead on about "Dharma and Greg" and "Modern Family".
Now, there are boatloads of articles telling me the top 10 shows I should be streaming and some are on services I don't get, so it's hard to keep up. The Good Lady Wife and I will watch a whole show, but there is the occasion that she'll look at me and say, "Y'know...I just don't CARE", but we usually finish the first episode out of respect and not watch again. How I Met Your Mother needed two tries from me, but we found that on second viewing, I appreciated it more.
I tried Ghosts based on the recomendation of someone on this very comment section. That was the British version, which I enjoyed though it was somewhat uneven. I have found the American version better with more defined characters. The "Pete's Wife" episode of both versions is surprisingly touching.
Ghosts is honestly the first "new" series I've tried in years. I had decided it pointless to try a new series since it would most likely be canceled in next to no time by it's network.
However, watching the Brit version of Ghosts led to other "you might also like..." suggestions. I tried three of those, including a show titled Zapped, and found them all unwatchable.
I ignore the shows that drop one episode a week. If I watch a show and enjoy it, then I want to watch the whole season on my own schedule which is more frequent than one episode a week. So I have to wait until all are ready, assuming I remember.
I don't want to keep track of characters and plots across many shows at once, hence the attitude. For the same reason I read one book at a time, not one chapter a week from many different books!
We have so much content now, and a lot of "quality" though somewhat unevenly distributed, that this is possible.
I have to admit when I start streaming a show and after an episode or two I am not sure if I like it or not, I check fan reviews on IMDB. if the negative ones are plentiful and address my semi-concern in an articulate manner, i bail. If reviews are more even, I may watch one or two, then decide myself wether to stick with it. I bail about 50% of the time. I DO NOT watch broadcast TV scripted television.
I try to take into account that the pilot may be a little rocky and things may get more fleshed out in the next episode or so. However, there aren't many new shows I'm willing to take a chance on. Most of the premises seem to be rehashes or relying on tropes that have already been run into the ground. That or just don't seem particularly interesting and I'd rather not waste what free time I have on that. If I enjoyed the first episode, I may give it a chance, but I'm less willing to stick with something in the hope that it'll get better. I know no show has a perfect run of episodes; but if it's too many where my interest keeps diminishing, I'm out and move on.
I watch some of the day-long marathons on ION and follow a few shows just because I got hooked on the characters and story arcs. The cop shows are like soap operas. I'm surprised how much I like Blue Bloods, but I'm a sucker for Tom Selleck even as the grumpy-cat patriarch, he's still charming. The show is produced by playwright Kevin Wade (if anyone remembers the movie Key Exchange, it was adapted from his play). The scripts are usually very good and it's nicely paced. I also watch NCIS LA even though it's often mysterious what the hell is going on with the plots but Linda Hunt is irresistible.
Otherwise you need some kind of Byzantine scorecard to keep track of what's new and where it's streaming. I subscribe to Vulture emails with "recaps" and I never even heard of most of the shows.
But mainly I'm pissed off that it's so hard to get Turner Classic Movies now. Unless I'm missing something, it's not streaming and you can't access the app unless you subscribe to a cable network that carries it. So much of my cinephilia has been stoked and refined by tuning in to TCM 24/7 when it was included in the cable package. I don't get why they aren't partnering with a popular streamer, why be so precious about it. I yearn for a Jean Arthur or Kay Francis mini-fest.
My wife and I give new comedies one episode. At the end we look at each other and say Meh or Yeah. If a new show earns a second and third look, we'll stick with it.
I've noticed that, once I've locked a show into my "good" list and get in the habit of watching it, it has to get pretty bad before I'll drop it. Some combination of hoping it'll get its mojo back and just plain inertia, I guess (looking at you, Modern Family). This is where today's network scheduling makes it easier to drop a borderline show: if it's off the air for a month or two, I'll forget all about it, as opposed to tuning in every Tuesday at 9.
I can't think of a single network drama I've gotten into in the past several years. The ones I especially will NOT get into are those that involve deep complex mysteries or vast government conspiracies, because I've learned from experience that the show will string you along for years with no clear idea where it's going until it staggers to a disappointing finale, assuming it isn't cancelled with no chance to solve its central mystery at all. Those shows just piss me off. Life's too short.
At this point I almost never watch new shows. There's too much trash and even the good stuff is trash if they cancel it in the middle. Why not wait until they have a couple of seasons completed before you start?
GHOSTS seems like to me it would have worked better back in the 1960s, when such silly, absurd, and "way out" premises for single-cam sitcoms were actually quite effective . . . still adhering to this "sophisticated" single-cam format with no laughter, no music, and no fun has gotten so old and tired. #MakeSitcomsFunAgain
FRIDAY QUESTION
I started to systematically watch all SEINFELD episodes a few weeks ago. Pretty soon it became clear to me that Jerry Seinfeld is the weakest actor of the ensemble. He proved himself to be a grandmaster of creating and polishing hilarious dialogues, but he has less range, displays less emotional depth and often can be seen on the verge of corpsing. To his credit, Jerry Seinfeld admitted in at least one interview that he possessed less acting skills than his three colleagues. - Should he have done what Carl Reiner did in THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW and handed his almost autobiographical role to a more talented thespian?
I freely admit: I gave up. I spent a lot of time sampling things, and not liking anything. And I mean anything. Characters I didn't care about, stupid situations, terribly contrived jokes. Things that started off good (eg, BIG BANG) rapidly became formulaic and trivial. So I stopped entirely. I no longer have cable, and do not stream. And my life is not worse for it.
If I think a show is worth checking out I try to at least watch a couple of episodes. But I sometimes have weird reasons for continuing to watch - how the show handles an unusual format, or because I really wonder how they're going to make some element work.
This method led to this possibly undesirable consequence: I wound up loving the twin terror teens in WHITE LOTUS.
wg
To Jeff Re: "Ghosts" Relatively speaking, I believe very few people have even seen one episode of "Ghosts."
My rule of thumb for any series, comedy or otherwise, is to give it three episodes. Time has passed since the pilot was shot, and #3 would be filmed right after #2, by which time a groove should have been reasonably established. As I get older and grumpier, though, I find myself getting a little more impatient. (Of course, I'm not going to watch a show in the first place if I think I won't like it to begin with.) However, I did give "La Brea" six before deciding it was nonsense and just going in circles.
I do love "Ghosts." It really is clever and unlike any other sitcom out there, plus I'm hoping it finally gives a boost to Rose McIver, who should have gotten much more notice (and a bunch of Emmy noms) for her stellar work on "iZombie," where she played over 70 different characters over the course of five seasons--take THAT, Tatiana Maslany!
I solve this problem by only watching old shows. If I do watch a new show, I'll wait so long that it's an old show already. I got that tip from watching an old movie with Groucho Marx.
When I do try something I haven't seen before, if there's anything at all I like, I'll give it a second shot on the theory that most pilots aren't representative of what the show will become. But if it doesn't get better and grab me by the second show, I'm done. There are too many old shows I can watch that were written by people with creativity and actual life experiences, too things sorely lacking in most recent shows I sample.
I find it amusing that some people have so quickly started to prefer shows that drop all at once to ones that do one episode a week. With so many shows being serialized, though, I can understand that.
But so many dramas are serialized now, that I have another frustration -- rewatching. I'm a big STAR TREK fan, and if I want to watch an individual episode of the original series or NEXT GENERATION, for instance, I can do that.
As much as I like DISCOVERY and PICARD, though, watching an individual episode would be, as another commenter said, like reading one chapter of a book. But I don't want to (and don't have the time to) re-watch an entire season at a time. But I don't want those shows to just disappear from my viewing habits!
And like another commenter, I don't bother with shows that center around a mystery or conspiracy. LOST cured me of that. Though I can imagine it's tough as a showrunner to write that kind of show when you don't know how many seasons it's going to run. Imagine writing an open-ended novel where you don't know how many pages the story should be.
The AV Club was an entertaining site for network sitcom discussion. Then Univision bought the site and dropped the network shows like a hot potato and chose to concentrate on cable and streaming (in addition to replacing Disqus with the wonky "Kinja" system. It's also a haven for Marvel Comics series and it's the place to be if you want long scholarly dissertations on The Hulk.
I find myself overwhelmed by so many options, so my fiancée is pretty much the one who does the binging. I’m just there for the ride. Half the shows she watches I’ve never heard of, and I usually make it a couple episodes. I found myself hooked on “Outer Banks” oddly enough. I’m over every show having every character be unlikeable and snarky, so my attention span is limited.
Friday Question (or podcast topic!):
There's a new podcast out about the rumor around Baltimore that Carl Ripkin once had them cut the lights in Camden Yards because he would have lost his consecutive game streak. The reason he would miss the game is because he just beat up Kevin Costner for sleeping with his wife.
Thoughts on this old story or do you have other favorite sports rumors/legends?
I think Ghosts is fine.
I can usually tell when something stinks. The last time I was wrong was when I sampled and dropped The Big Bang Theory after half an episode; I think it was the one about the time machine. I gave the show another chance two or three years later and stayed with it.
I've finally had my fill of curb your enthusiasm. I've watched it for years, and it was funny. Now it is frustrating. Maybe I've changed but after 5 minutes I'm ready to move on. I subscribe to HBO for Bill Maher and Larry David. Time to rethink that.
I have no problem bailing on a show. I remember reading some writing advice someplace about grabbing the reader as soon as possible in a story. If a show can't be compelling within an episode or two, adios! Even a series that I've watched for a while - if it starts spinning it's tires, I stop watching. Time's a little too precious to do otherwise.
I generally like to give a show 3 episodes to impress and interest me. However, if it's supposed to be a comedy and halfway through the first episode I haven't even laughed once, there's a very good chance I won't watch any further. You've got this whole new world to show me and it's supposed to be a funny world (to us at least), if you can't get one laugh in say 15 minutes of screen time, it's not for me.
Don't think I'm a comedy snob, I like all types, multi-camera, single, dark, broad, whatever. My only rule is that it makes me laugh.
How many comedies start out slow, just giving it 1 episode doesn't do it justice. Think of Cheers, close to being canceled first season. Or Seinfeld, wasn't a hit at first.
Because you mentioned Ghost previously, I taped it. (It is on during a time when we don't watch TV). I am enjoying it. As someone above mentioned, it isn't a Cheers or Modern family, but enjoyable. If you are looking for episodes to watch of it, the Halloween episode is pretty good. Two great lines in the back ground while they are watching GhostBusters (the movie), "What was that green thing before it died?", "Boy, I remember this movie to be great, but now that I am dead, it is unnerving."
As a child of the "three network era" I tend to give new shows more time than they probably deserve. And as WM. ADAMS said if it from and/or with someone I like I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. "B-POSITIVE" is a good example. I admit I'm a fan of most of Chuck Lorre's shows. So I watched about half of the first season waiting for it to get good and it never did. I haven't watched it since.
I've liked the "Law and Order" franchise. But "L&O: Organized Crime." Didn't do it for me. I stopped watching about five episodes in. I probably won't watch season two if there is one.
A several years ago I watched the entire first season of "The Good Place." Ironically, I didn't think it was any good. I didn't watch the rest of the series.
I wasn't able to watch "Schitt'$ Creek" first run, but due to all of the hype including a good review from Ken, I couldn't wait for it to come to syndication. Unfortunately, "Creek" had to be one of the biggest disappointments in recent memory. I like Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara. I loved "SCTV," so I was expecting big things. I watched the entire series and didn't laugh once. I tried watching the whole thing again, but just couldn't get through it.
Speaking of Ted Danson, "Mr. Mayor" is coming back. That's a show I liked from the beginning and watched all the way through.
Speaking of Chuck Lorre, I never watched "Two and a Half Men" until it went into syndication. I realized that I liked the show and started watching the new episodes as well as catching up on the reruns.
Finally, I have never seen "Ghosts." The promos made it look kind of stupid. But based on today's blog, I may give it a chance.
Sorry for the length of this comment.
M.B.
I wish "Bob (��) Abishola," a superior sitcom, drew the same accolades as "Ghosts " (Then again, it's a dreaded multi-cam.) And give "B Positive" another try -- it's drastically different in its second season, focusing on the senior home and some terrific actors.
I misread this one as "how much time do you give news shows?" So,my answer: I give about 65 minutes for CBS Sunday Morning on Paramount Plus, without commercials. If I watched it on CBS proper, I'd have to sit through 25 minutes of pharmaceutical advertisements. No, ta.
I know you're NOT looking for A MANDATE, but here's one, anyway.
KEEP POSTING REVIEWS - post more of them, as the content deserves.
I've found that "short form" content on YouTube has gotten much of my attention - with some topics, history, Beatles, and a few others, "long-form" does, too.
Weekend past, this meant 7.5/8.5-hours of the Lindsay-Hogg/Peter Jackson documentary "collaboration" - Get Back on Disney+
(and, my gawd, HOW DREARY, all their other content is)
It also meant, long, indulgent, commentaries and discussions about that film - from many and varied obessives - most of whom know what they are talking about.
One happy discovery - Seinfeld is available on Netflix - a good one, since 90% of that is not known to me.
And one given notice on Fresh Air on NPR:
- "Passing", a period piece about a mixed-race protagonist's conflicted walk through life as "white" - now streaming on Netflix.
This sounds like it might rise above the usual tropes about "identity" - possibly driven by it's setting in the past - fingers crossed.
I think I can tell if a show or a movie is a piece of doo-doo about 15 minutes into it, and I just stop watching. Sorry to come off as a snob, but I just don't waste my time with shows that are hackneyed, underdeveloped, or have nothing to say and have poor writing.
By contrast, I thought THE WIRE was the best thing I had ever seen immediately, and I was right. I loved the film American Hustle right away as well, and it was brilliant throughout. And I almost feel spoiled growing up with the great television of the 70s, 80s and 90s.
I've been pretty darn happy with Colbert and SNL and others on late night comedy lately as well, getting us through America's shittiest times. Good programming has my entire respect.
Even before the start of the pandemic, I found myself wearying of antiheroes and vast conspiratorial theses that must be assimilated in order to "enjoy" a TV show. Once I hit lockdown, I could only tolerate old TV shows, things like Desperate Housewives, Men in Trees, Star Trek, Cheers, Becker, etc. It was a comfort to know that I would definitely enjoy the show I was binging, a necessary comfort when almost all pleasure had been removed from daily life and a welcome distraction from the daily bad news. Just about the only new shows I'm watching are The Good Fight, Evil, Lost in Space, and the new Dexter. I have no patience for shows that require me to either take notes or "understand" a psychopathic personality. I want a good story and good characters.
Mike Bloodworth - L&O: Organized Crime is AWFUL. Let's cut the tongue out of someone and hang it on the wall AWFUL. (Really, a scene this season.) And the WORST part is that it often crosses over with SVU, much to my GREAT chagrin. https://www.rogerogreen.com/2021/11/09/is-network-television-dead/
-- "Trying" new series isn't a thing for me. Because my DVR is so full a show has to have a big hook (situation, performer) for me to carve out more time to sample it. And sometimes shows I come well after their starts have become favorites, which is the case with me and "iZombie" and "Big Bang Theory". I'm even going through older shows I was too young to experience, such as "The Mod Squad" (I was a baby when it premiered).
-- I'm also the rare person that doesn't like binging shows. I prefer to watch one episode, let the story sink in, and watch the next one the next day I have time to watch a non-sports show. I'm also rare that I often read three or four books at a time. One day I'll read part of a spy novel, the next part of a history book, and the next part of a sports book. Yes, I'm a weirdo.
-- @Wm. Adams: Matthew Perry's "Mr. Sunshine" introduced me to the wonder that is Allison Janney. I never saw "The West Wing", but I understood she was well-regarded in that drama. Then I checked out "Mr. Sunshine", where she played the overbearing owner of the sports arena Perry managed, and I realized, "Whoa, she's also funny!" And then came "Mom", and the rest is history.
This is what I do with new shows. Sometimes I see the promos and usually when shows restart in September and January, I will scan through the network channels looking for 30 minute sitcoms that are unfamiliar to me. Then I record the first episode of anything new that's 30 minutes long (that's my mark for being a sitcom). If I can't watch it before episode 2 airs, I add a recording for that. And so on. Usually by week 4, I'm able to catch up (that's my overall viewing habit). And I watch as many episodes as I need in order to know if it's good (and I set a series recording), it's bad (and I delete what I've recorded), or it's sort of in between (in which case, I keep trying with it). I've had a few that I didn't like, but I couldn't quite let go of, and expected them to be cancelled over the summer, when it wasn't. But each new show is different. Some of them I like immediately, even if critics and most other viewers don't. Some feel like there's room to grow on me, and I don't give up on yet, and some either don't grow, or are just so bad that I stop watching. I'm always hopeful when I see a new sitcom. And for me, the multi-camera sitcoms are usually, but not always, better. Also, when I see names you keep talking about attached to a show, it tends to be better.
I too gave LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME a chance, and didn't like it either . . . it doesn't even feel like a L&O series, it feels more like they took Elliot Stabler and put him in THE SOPRANOS. Then again, SVU has honestly lost its charm long ago as well . . . the loss of Stabler was bad enough (but at least Amaro and Rollins were decent replacements at first), but once we also lost Munch and Cragen, that's when the show pretty much jumped the shark for me.
I'm a binger. Love the option.
Network TV once ran rather continually, even through the holidays. Hell, there were original episodes of "MTM"," the week OF Christmas.
Now, I never know when "SVU" is going to air...maybe eight episodes so far this year??
Network programming shuts down for six weeks during Christmas. At a time when families are together, and LOOKING for content. Screw the broadcast networks. They haven't kept up with technology.
I gave "La Brea" TWO episodes. It is standard, network sci-fi crap. "Lost" killed me with that. I gave up on "Flash Forward" and "Manifest" early.
I watch TONS of streaming content.
I left my reply on your Facebook link to this article and then I read this article and then I was reminded that the other night I discovered something I didn't realize I had forgotten
Aaron Barnhart is still alive.
I was researching some French translation of quotation of the book of Ecclesiastes from an episode of ER and I ended up on a message board on what looks like his website.
Somehow I never managed to succeed in registering and getting an email back that said I registered, but I see people are still watching ER and Grey's Anatomy and maybe somewhere outside of Facebook would be nice. If my browser can handle it. I was having real cursor problems the other night.
The last I heard from Aaron was a newsletter I think, before I was ever on Facebook, I don't even remember how long ago, saying he was off to do other things, having survived... I really need another trip to Wikipedia to fill in the gaps. But boy that was a surprise. It was like hey wait a minute, I know this name!
Why I really hope I'm logged in. I don't remember my Gmail password...
@Leighton Are you kidding? SVU is on ION and USA all the ding-danged time! They have all-day marathons every single weekend, ION on Saturdays, USA on Sundays, and then sometimes, either one will do all-day marathons on random days of the week as well; you could practically get through a single season in a day.
@Scarbrough- I believe Leighton is referring to first run SVU, not cable re-runs.
About SVU and ion...
Ion is still using that positively entertaining tagline, aren't they? Sorta implying that they run positive things? So why did they run criminal minds all day? The only thing I can think of that would be worse than watching criminal minds, would be having to write it.
But sure: uplifting!
I can't watch SVU, Law and Order, etc., too grisly. The NCIS New Orleans/LA and Chicago Fire shows aren't as violent and characters and backstories are usually interesting. But even Chicago PD can seem nasty with a tendency to excess violence and torture porn.
But Criminal Minds does seem deranged, I've only tried watching it a few times. However this month in honor of the holidays its usual time slot on Sundays has been replaced with sugary, inane "feel good" holiday movies with titles like Merry Kissmas, A Christmas in Vermont, A Kiss for Christmas, etc. I watched one for a few minutes but then ran screaming for the exit.
Not long. The last show I watched was Bloodline and it should have ended at the first year. That was good. Sadly, I find myself watching Court shows a lot.
Leighton
When SVU? I have an app that tells me when there are new episodes. It's called TV time and it has a widget and it runs on my phone and my tablet. It works pretty well for prime time over the air broadcast network new episodes, unless they are from Canada in which case, too bad. And they have no intention of fixing this Canada problem. So if your show was brand new in Canada last season and it's brand new in the US tonight? Oh well.
Otherwise, it's helpful
Holidays: One time Star Trek Enterprise ran a new episode on The Night before Thanksgiving. Did they really think anybody was at home watching? Now they don't even run new shows on Saturday nights. Or possibly even Friday. My favorite TV lineup is ABC Sunday: America's funniest videos, shark tank, the rookie. Who watches all three of those shows? I was stunned when the rookie was not canceled last season
PlutoTV on demand has CBS Selects with recent episodes of current shows like Blue Bloods, Ghosts, NCIS LA, and Equalizer. I want to check out Neighborhood with Cedric the Entertainer, he was great in The Soul Man.
When I was about 14 I tried to convince my grandmother to watch a new show. I began describing it and she began to shake her head saying, "Honey, when you've seen as many as I have, they all look the same." Well, they don't all look the same, but if it looks enough like something I've already seen, I will take a pass on it immediately. Another requirement I have is there must be at least one character in the regular cast I actually would want to spend time with. I'll grant you that Lucy and Ethel were crazy and I wouldn't want to watch a show based on Fred and Desi but at least Fred and Desi were people I could have enjoyed talking to. Too many of today's comedies are entirely populated with people who you'd avoid in real life. There you go, Ken. That'll teach you ask our opinions.
I didn't make it through the first episode of Ghosts. I fell asleep. I watch Young Sheldon and the United. States of Al, and then I start fading. I think I am done with B Positive, too. I had to deal with cancer and death with someone close to me in recent years, and frankly watching a character in a sitcom dealing with cancer and other incurable conditions not only gets me down, but reminds me of how infuriating it was trying to deal with the lackadaisical doctors and nurses and their mistakes and callousness throughout the three and half years we went through that. And how hard it was to deal with someone suddenly wheelchair bound in our society. How do you get them in and out of the car when they cannot use their legs and arms are not strong and may break from mets? How do they stand on a scale or stand for a mammogram? We even ran into a handicapped accessible bathroom at M.D. Anderson (that is constantly telling you it's the number one cancer hospital in the country) that was absolutely NOT accessible. You could get the wheelchair in but not turn it around so it was next to the toilet and, while you could back out of stall, there was no room to turn the wheelchair around. And hospice was a joke. With bone mets, bones keep breaking and radiation is needed, but you cannot get radiation on hospice. Meanwhile, the great doctors at Anderson have dumped you and don't want to see you anymore. So it was just a living hell. This is not the show's fault, of course. But I just really don't want to see a bittersweet version of this. That is what SHOULD happen, but nothing at all like the reality of dealing with metastatic cancer. It wasn't a slow fade for us. It was functioning all right for some years with treatment and sudden decline because the doctors at Anderson wrote off the patient's back and missed the mets in the spine until it was too late.
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