Breaking the TV Shackles

It doesn't seem possible, but my month without TV is over!  What happened to you, October?  Blink of an eye....

Ah, October, you went by so fast!

I noticed two somewhat negative behavioral developments during my month without TV:

1. I spent much of the time I would have wasted watching shows on Netflix repeatedly checking my email, Facebook, and OKC accounts.  
2. I hardly got any knitting done and I put off folding laundry for almost a week, because these are tasks I typically do while watching entertainment.

Hmmm, there may have been some logic in combining my no Internet & no TV months after all...  That said, there were some very positive behavioral developments over October:

TV brain suck

In my web perusal, I checked my weekly horoscope on the Onion website today (I'm a Leo).  Here's what it said for the week of September 20th: "You'll undergo a crisis of conscience when you realize that, despite being a faithful American, you don't really want to watch anything that's on TV right now." While I'm not sure that I'm experiencing any "conscience of crisis" per se, I thought this was a timely horoscope given the start of the new television season and my impending month without TV, Hulu, and Netflix.

I chose October for my no TV month specifically to coincide somewhat with the network TV premiere season.  My thought was that if I could avoid all those programs for a month early in the season, maybe I would never bother to start watching the American version of "Prime Suspect" or "Ringer."  And maybe I would never bother to get caught up on all the episodes I'll miss of "Glee" (which I've been SO OVER for the last season and a half...but yet, I'm still watching).  After all: I have no DVR, nor do I use a VCR (who does?); the first episodes of the season may no longer be available on Hulu or the network's websites come November 1; and I really dislike watching things out of sequence.  When conceiving this month's OCL goal, I really thought to myself, "I will finally free myself from TV brain suck."

I will exact revenge on ABC for creating this piece of crap by not watching ABC for 31 days.

Of course, most shows actually premiere in September.  So I've been doing my best not to watch any new programming this month.  Instead, I've been re-watching on Netflix all four seasons of "Mad Men" (this show is so smart and well done--the artistry really reveals itself best with a second viewing) and sporadic episodes of "Family Ties" (IMHO, Michael Gross has never gotten the acclaim he deserves for his fantastic comedic performance as Steven Keaton). I also watched the entire first, and thus far only, seasons of the BBC's "The Hour" ("Mad Men" style plus British plus mystery=happy Jess) and ABC Family's "The Nine Lives of Chloe King" (it's like old-school Buffy, but without vampires!).   And I've streamed a movie or two as well. (I watched "Charade" with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn last week--such incredible witty dialogue and so much fun!)

Michael Gross, comic genius.