I posted last year over a year and a half ago about how much TV Chris and I watched. At the time, the list was “big” and had conflicts most every night. Here’s a recap in case you don’t click the link:

• Monday: House, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Dirty Jobs
• Tuesday: NCIS
• Wednesday: Lie To Me, Lost, Life (There’s an alliterative theme there)
• Thursday: Bones and maybe Ace Of Cakes
• Friday: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse
• Saturday: Cops (my weekly guilty pleasure)
• Sunday: America’s Funniest Home Videos, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Mythbusters

Total: 17 shows watched when they air

Here’s how that list converts this year:

• Monday: House, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother (Taped for another day), Dirty Jobs
• Tuesday: NCIS, Glee
  
• Wednesday: Lie To Me, Lost, Life (There’s an alliterative theme there)
• Thursday: Bones and maybe Ace Of Cakes, Big Bang Theory (moved), Fringe
• Friday: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse
• Saturday: Cops (my weekly guilty pleasure)
• Sunday: America’s Funniest Home Videos, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Mythbusters (taped for another day)

Total: 9 shows watched when they air, plus we download The Walking Dead, Burn Notice and Leverage.

If we need something else, we’ll try Discovery, HGTV, Food Network and sometimes other random stations. Of course there’s always The Real Estate Channel to fall back on and dream.

This TV season sucks. We haven’t picked up anything new to watch except The Walking Dead and it’s awesome, but a little rough for a Sunday night after dinner. Come on CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox. How about something decent instead of brain-dead television and reality shows?

The problem, in my humble viewer opinion, is that the networks almost ALWAYS cater to the lowest common denominator, ignoring those of us who actually enjoy thinking while watching TV. How many long running intelligent shows can you name that didn’t start to suck after a season or 2 or 3?

I’m not saying I expect the same shows to last 10+ years. That’s not always possible. LOST is an example. It was a decent show that kept you thinking, but to expect them to keep it decent and fresh for much longer would have been crazy. It had a lifespan.

Law & Order(s) and CSI type procedural shows manage because people are nuts and there’s always something fresh. They tend to focus a bit less on their recurring characters lives and focus on the external stories to keep things moving. If we had to watch Elliot & Olivia live their lives without the changing cases, we wouldn’t have 30 seasons of Law & Order: SVU. Instead we have 30 seasons of SVU, a bit of Elliot & Olivia, and a whole lot of ever changing human depravity.

I’m not saying depravity is good, so don’t get me started. I’m saying that by allowing those stories to be the focus of the show, the writers can “gently” interweave the character’s lives.

Sit coms are different. We don’t expect as much out of them. Although by the time the 90210 kids turned grey, they should have graduated from high school.