Watching TV

I am rather surprised at how many TV shows there are that appeal to me. I have always thought that my interests were somewhat on the fringe, but there are several shows I follow.

I have digital cable and DVR -- all hooked up to a 13" TV. When the cable guy came to put it in, he asked me where the TV was -- he was standing 2 feet from it. They would run the cable to a 2nd TV for a reduced price since he was already there, so I had him put a cable in the kitchen -- to hook up to my 7" TV. The kitchen one doesn't have the cable box, though, so above about channel 80, I don't get it in the kitchen -- so no Logo or Reality TV in there.

As far as fairly mainstream, I like Anthony Bourdain's travel/food show, more than I like Andrew Zimmern, because I like the travel aspect more than seeing someone eat insects and things. I used to always watch "What not to wear", "How do I look", and "The dog whisperer", but after a while, it starts to all be about the same, so those are shows that I may watch when nothing else is on, or half-watch while reading the paper or catching up on mending things.

I like "Undercover Boss" -- I had assumed this was some sort of drama since it was on network TV, but fortunately heard what it is. I like reality shows that cover REALITY, not some rigged situation like "Big Brother", "Survivor", or things like that. I like "A day in the life of--" types of shows, or "Behind the scenes at--" I don't like shows where they humiliate people or encourage them to be dishonest, or anything that exploits greed or sexuality, so that rules out a whole lot. At first I really liked "American Idol", but I'm over it. I have no interest in any dancing shows - "Dancing with the Stars", "Best Dance Crew", I just don't care. I did watch when Jerry Springer was on, but that was about it.

I really like "Ruby". Does anyone else watch this on Style? "Taking the Stage", filmed at Cincinnati's School for the Performing Arts, has been disappointing. It is nice to see our town portrayed in a positive way, with scenes at various clubs and out on the street, but the show itself really is not about going to school there.

"Intervention" is interesting, in part because I know some of the background about Candy Finnigan, the main interventionist. But that show as well as "Addicted", they do become just more of the same. I watched a couple episodes of "Hoarders", but that REALLY is all the same -- how many pack-rats do you really want to see? "Clean House" doesn't interest me for the same reason -- I did try to go to the monster yard sale when it was held in Cincinnati, since the sale was right near where I live, but there were hundreds of people there, and when I arrived, the wait to get in was estimated at 3 hours, so I just went home -- I do not need to wait that long to buy someone else's junk. "True Life" and "Made" on MTV have some interesting episodes -- though I realize I am WAY beyond the age of their target audience.

"Be Good Johnny Weir" on the Sundance Channel is fun. They've been promoting a new show about women who are friends with a lot of gay men -- just how large of an audience do they think there will BE for that? I mean, I will watch it, but who else? LOGO, the "gay" channel, has a really good travel show called "Bump", and they air some quite unusual documentaries, such as the life of Keith Haring, and the life of Freddie Mercury. I have eto pass, though, on "RuPaul's drag race."

The BBC channel has "You are what you eat", where they ambush some big tub of lard in Britain and show them how to eat better. I like that show, but I could do without seeing the people getting a colonic. They are very interested in elimination over there. have learned some about foods and nutrition from that show. I do not watch "The biggest loser" -- the way they humiliate the people, and all the yelling -- after seeing that, if I thought trainers generally behaved that way, I would never go to the gym, so I am rather upset with the whole way that show works.

The tattoo shows are disappointing - "L.A. Ink", "Miami Ink" -- they really are interpersonal dramas and just tangentially about tattoooing. So the one-time documentaries on tattooing and body modification are much more interesting to me. I like shows about how you train to do certain things -- being a marine, fire fighter, sniper -- all the kinds of things I could never possibly do.

There are a few medical-related shows that I watch -- the primordial dwarfs and the conjoined twins interested me, for example. Once it gets into anything gross, though, I don't want to see it. I definitely don't want to see surgery, childbirth, people in the E.R., or autopsies. I'm not interested in true crime or investigation shows, or psychics, or haunted places.

I don't watch any sort of dramas, and I don't watch movies. I have never rented a DVD or even taken a movie out from the library. I think the last time I went out to a movie was around 1995, and that was because the outdoor event we had planned on got rained out and we had to do SOMETHING. I don't watch any sitcoms, either. "Seinfeld" was really the only sitcom that was worth the time for me.

I do watch some classical music on PBS, and I wish there was more of that. I was quite upset when the cable company cut some of my PBS stations -- I now can't watch much bluegrass without a lot of searching around in the program guide. I like other concert shows, too.

At this point the only sport I watch is figure skating. Even that isn't what it used to be. The new rules pretty much force everyone to do the same things. The skaters I really liked -- Karen Kwan (Michelle's sister), Laurent Tobel, Paul Wylie, Lucinda Rue (a phenomenal spinner), they would not even make the first cut any more. At one time I really liked gymnastics, but the girls in particular are so young and so underweight now, I don't enjoy watching any more.

Overall I feel like I get my money's worth from cable, especially since I added the DVR. Once I got the hang of the search function, I can look for the shows I want and program them to be recorded, and then I can watch them and fast-forward through all the commercials. I really would much rather stay home and watch something rather than go out to a movie, or usually even to a show -- most of the shows or concerts I attend are either something a friend is in, or something I am in. The prices for the big venues, that just is not in my budget.

So -- what do you watch? I think I've made it easier to leave a comment on here, so I hope you will.