Why I Watch

Let me begin by explaining just how much I love television. There are days when I have nothing to watch, and these days are the bane of my existence. A day gone by without at least an hour of new, compelling television is more or less a day I could have done without. I habitually binge-watch, burning through series I haven't seen (or certain ones I have that I can't get enough of). I read television reviews, something that I feel is relatively new and exciting, in terms of week-to-week coverage of shows I watch. And I watch a lot of shows.

We're in a Golden Age of Television; quite possibly the last age of any kind of television before we head to a more Non-Spontaneous-Dissemination (i.e. OnDemand, Hulu, et al.) model. It's the last gasp of a dying (or maybe just evolving) industry, and it's turning out to be its most profound. Where, when, and in what circumstance could you possibly see the widest possible variety of programming, ranging in quality, subject matter, presentation, and pretty much every other variable you can think of? There are comedies, there are dramas, there are dramedies. There are hour-long shows, half-hour long shows, made-for-TV movies, multi-part miniseries, and pilots that time has forgotten. There are "absurdist" comedies, "mainstream" comedies, "edgy" dramas, "popcorn" dramas and everything in between. There are shows about cops, and shows about criminals (and some about both). There are science fiction shows and western shows. There are shows set in the past, the present, the future, and shows set in a time all their own. There are shows you can't miss, and there are shows that you can pick up anytime like an old hat and it'll fit just the same. There are news shows, reality shows, competition shows, niche shows, cartoons for kids, cartoons for adults, shows that are made just for the awards, shows that are made just for the cheap laughs, some shows that are good, some shows that suck (some that suck in a fun way, others not so much), and some shows that are just plain fucking phenomenal (and the amount of these on the air at this very moment is insane). I try not to discriminate.

Television is quite possibly the most underrated art form in existence, relegated to archaic nicknames we're all so tiredly familiar with. "Television rots your brain," they say, but who doesn't watch an episode of Lost or Battlestar Galactica and have their mind blown apart? Television can be almost Dickensianly serialized at times, a long-form storytelling device that spins worlds that can rival that of Marvel, or more Hardy-Boys-ian-ly episodic, week-to-week stories that shift over time to incorporate new characters and adventures, and it's this incredible range of possibility that makes television so impressive. We're creating the mythologies of our age in the shows we watch, and I intend to study and document these myths with vigor and vim. I watch things, I think about them, I share them with you. That's the plan. And I leave you now with what I imagine you've all been expecting me to leave you with: Stay tuned. There's a spot on the couch for you.