Too Much Bad Stuff on the Tube, Too Much Good Stuff

Question of the day: Why aren’t excrement and increment antonyms? One is out and one is in. “Shit out,” as in excrement and “shit in,” as it should be in increment. It seems to me that newspapers and too much television make use of both. The stuff that appears there has it both going out as well as going in.

TV commentary: This season’s opening episode of Big Bang Theory was a real stinker. Now that they’re all getting a million bucks a show, they think they and the writers can get away with stench? I don’t think so. NCIS New Orleans looks pretty good, especially because of Scott Bakula, but they’re using the same irritatingly loud musical background as on NCIS that keeps viewers from hearing what the characters are saying. Do they really think they need a musical score under every scene to make sure we feel the proper emotional response? I don’t think so. The new ones that got dumped right away: How to Get Away with Murder has Viola Davis as a defense attorney who’s teaching her law students how to defend someone who may or may not be guilty, even of murder. She seems to be wasted in this pilot, her acting too good in a show that’s too dark, has too many flashes back and forward, and too many plot complications that don’t make sense. Mysteries of Laura has Debra Messing, who also seems wasted in a poorly written series. Stalker has Dylan McDermott as a really irritating cop who joins an LA unit specializing in stalking. Who needs to be irritated by Dylan McDermott? Not me. And why would a stalker dump gas on two of his stalkees and try to burn them to death? I don’t know. Legends was just too confusing with all the legendary character and accent switches. Red Band Society appeared to be aimed at an adolescent audience, with a plot that was just too adolescent for us, despite the presence of award-winning Octavia Spencer. Of all the new shows, Madam Secretary might be the best. Téa Leoni is believably good as the newly appointed Secretary of State. Of the good returns, The Good Wife is still one of the best on the tube, but I still don't understand why they represent the omninous black drug dealer; Blue Bloods also, even though this season still has Jamie as a street cop when he should have made detective by now; and Jennifer Love Hewitt is a nice addition to the crew in Criminal Minds. We had given up on CM a few seasons ago because of all the really bloody and disgusting crimes committed, but we so like the cast that we began again and just grit our teeth and close our eyes through the gorier scenes.

Today, there’s too much good stuff to watch (movies, television, sporting events) to waste time watching bad stuff. I’m simply amazed at the amount of stuff I can watch on my IPad. I’m an Amazon Prime member, which gives me access to movies and series present and past that I can watch. Six seasons of True Blood, five seasons of Six Feet Under, six seasons of The Sopranos (We may be the only people in the world who've never seen any of this show), seven seasons of Californication, three seasons of Deadwood, and virtually any movie that’s ever been made. I could spend thirty or forty hours a day watching and I wouldn’t even scratch the surface. And that’s just on my IPad. And on NetFlix I can do the same, but that entails the mail in and back by snail mail. I think I may have to dump my NetFlix account. Who’s got time to wait for a dvd to put in s dvd player? Not me.