Television, how I’ve missed you so

            I used to revel in the idea of rushing home to watch cartoons after school as a kid.  Even more so about the notion of waking up early on a Saturday morning to flip through the abundance of animated entertainment that was on T.V.  I would provide you with a list of 'toons that I so coveted but that might literally take a week or so.  But amongst the top would have to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the original one, even though I did watch the new one as well) and probably X-Men. 

To the disappointment of my parents, I allowed the glow of the tube to shower over me quite often.  I just loved to watch T.V.  You can imagine how the “school week” rule threw a monkey wrench the size of Kim Dash’s ass in my plans to watch all of my shows.  The rule clearly stated that during the week, no television was to be watched.  My brother and I could go outside and play after we finished our homework but no television watching.

Our way around this was to record every show that we wanted to watch during the week and play them back during the weekend.  After the amount of hours that we packed onto one tape was watched, we seldom had time to do other things.  Especially when Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers came out.  For some reason, we thought that show was pure gold.  ~Looks off into space reminiscing: *Pink Ranger*~  

Anyway, in addition to our precious cartoons, we had other shows that we cared for but weren’t really supposed to be watching.  Primetime programs meant for older kids and adults but we were mature to tell right from wrong so we felt we handle it.  Our “much wiser” parents thought otherwise.  So they too went on the already crammed videotape (without them knowing of course).

But for a while now, there really hasn’t been many recurring television shows that I have had interest in watching.  The only one that I consistently watched was Smallville.  That show is now in its final season and truthfully, I think it’s about time.  Superman can only do so much growing up and coming of age.  Before that, was my ever loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Sarah Michelle Gellar is one of the top vampire killers in my book, and she always looked her hottest while doing it. 

I remember one specific episode where Xander tried to cast a spell on Cordelia so that she would fall in love with him.  It backfired and instead made every other female who came near him turn into a mind-less, love starved Xander groupie, including Buffy.  She caught him off guard wearing nothing but a short black trench coat and offered herself to him.  I remember discussing with my friends that as nice a guy that I am, I really do not know if I would have been able to actually turn her down.  Yeah, it was like that.

I also migrated over to Angel, Buffy’s spin-off, for its five year duration.  All throughout high school, I was plastered to Boy Meets World and the on-going drama that was Corey & Topanga.  I never really got into Dawson’s Creek. Mr. Leary and his band of teenage "vocabularyists" got on my nerves after about 5 minutes per episode.  There was even a time in my life (that was filled by a serious female partner) that I found myself watching shows like CSI, Cold Case, Without a Trace and even stuff like Girlfriends and Desperate Housewives.  Yeah, I did.  Don’t judge me.  To be truthful, some of them were actually good.  Then my love for movies really took off and I kind of fell into an anti-television hole for a while.  If it wasn’t sports, wrestling, T.V.-edited movies, video games or classic re-runs, I wasn’t watching television.   

Not until recent have I kind of gotten back into my love for television shows.  I usually ignore whatever is popular at the moment.  I have some kind of an automatic fail safe switch that causes me to turn and run away from what the rest of the population is finding to be “in” at the time.  My need to be different.  But sometimes I take a chance and give in.  More times out of many I am left disappointed.  But there are the few that I find something with quality.  A year and a half ago, I stumbled into what just may be the single best invention in the history of the world.  This entity is called Netflix and is destined for world domination.  I intend to ride on the coattails of this force until I reach a comfortable place at the top with it. 

Guided by trusted fellow movie buffs and entertainment fans, I was turned onto certain shows.  The first of which was Heroes.  At first I wasn’t one to join the campaign of “saving the cheerleader will in turn save the world” but it was suggested to me and I loved it.  Thanks to Netflix, I watched and watched until I caught up to the final season.  You can possibly feel my horrific disappoint when I learned that it was coming to an end.  I’m still waiting for the film, Tim Kring.  Get to work.

After that, there was a small gap between shows other than the 9^th season of Smallville.  Then I was told about Weeds.  Again, Netflix and the power of instant streaming allowed me to watch the entire series.  Season seven better not disappoint.  Soon thereafter AMC decided to adapt a comic by the name of The Walking Dead into a television series and I was back again.  My favorite genre, horror, on television.  This was great!  Can’t wait for second season later this year.

The next one was Lights Out on FX.  Retired boxing great, “Lights” Leary, is in desperate need of some financial rescuing and decides to try a comeback.  I found myself entertained.  Then after sidestepping attempts at folks trying to get me to watch True Blood, I finally surrendered.  Although a little over the top at times with the supernatural story lines as well as the blood & gore, I couldn’t turn away.  I am currently making my way through Season 2 on DVD trying to be done with it as well as Season 3 before the 4^th one makes its appearance.

Now after not being stabbed in the back by cable television shows where they are allowed to use bad words and show tons and tons of nudity, I decided to dive back into the world of network T.V.  Joining Smallville in this small category in my life is The Chicago Code.  Being from New York City, I find that much of the cop drams on television take place in the Big Apple.  Although it can be a dangerous place, it’s not as bad as it is usually made out to be.  So I guess, in an eerie way, it’s nice to see that other big cities have trouble with high crime rates.  Having only seen the pilot episode so far, the verdict is still pending on this one but so far so good.

Oh yeah, can’t forget about my most recent acquisition, Dexter.  I know, I know, it’s been on for like forever but like so many other shows, I always tossed it to the side.  I’ve seen 6 and half episodes in two days and am still going strong.  Dexter Morgan is probably one of the most intriguing anti-hero’s of all time, and I don’t make statements like that very casually.

So all of that to say this.  If it wasn’t for my desire to watch basketball, baseball and football and the weekly dramatic-comedic happenings on Jersey Shore, I probably would have cancelled my cable and just relied on my Netflix and DVD player to keep me satisfied.  But my faith in television is slowly being restored.  My only gripe is…like movies, my true love, there isn’t enough time in the world to see them all.  But I promise I’ll try my best.