TV shows that are worth watching:
My list only used to be four items long, but I decided that The Tick and Dream On had to be put in the worthwhile category because I do actually attempt to watch them when they're on.I'm rather astonished to find that 2/3 of my TV watching habits are centered around cartoon shows. Apparently, reality just doesn't cut it for me on television. Give me completely artificially created stars, and I'll be 2/3 more likely to actually want to watch it! I'm also kind of surprised, or maybe I shouldn't be, that fully half of my viewing pleasure derives from the FOX network. I guess they're doing something right, Alien Autopsies aside.
The other 1/3 is centered around pure fiction, and quite unrealistic fiction at that. No news shows, no informative shows, only one sitcom, but it's not a network sitcom. Sitcoms in particular hold a specially loathed position in my mind... I hate Seinfeld, Freaks, errr, Friends, any show about families with cute adorable funny kids who act like little tiny sitcom script writers, and just about every other sitcom where the basic plot is "There is a misunderstanding, rather than explain the misunderstanding, let's spend the rest of the show in hilarious hijinks because the two or more parties involved in the misunderstanding don't realize that Things Aren't As They Appear." A great example of this was seen on one episode of that show "Crackhead" err, I mean "Frasier" that I was unfortunate enough to have seen, where the live-in woman person (I don't watch it nearly often enough to care who's who on that show) has some ex-boyfriend thing coming from across the ocean to come ask her to marry her. She doesn't want to, but rather than just say that, we launch into 30 minutes of inane "humour" as she starts claiming that various people on the show are really her husband, husband's brother, husband's brother's ex-wife, husband's brother's ex-wife's dad, etc., and the amazing thing is, noone else on the episode had enough spine to just explain the situation to the poor sod who's being (humourously, we are led to believe) confused by all this!
The X-Files: A great show. A really really great show. Entirely filled with aliens, mystical experiences, inbred weirdos, government conspiracies, and a twisty-turny soap-opera-ish plot that goes from show to show to keep you coming back because they never actually tell you what the hell is going on! Not that I care. It's still a great show and I'll keep watching until it goes off the air. I own all six tapes, too.
The Simpsons: This is simply a classic. Matt Groenig created a world with the very realistically less-than-perfect family can be used as the centerpiece for making fun of everything. If you don't like this show, you're probably easily offended or just don't get the jokes.
Freakazoid: It's kind of a hidden treasure in the typical Saturday Morning Kids Pap and Commercialized Throat-Ramming timeslot. It's about a computer geek who can turn into The Freakazoid to taunt and make fun of the various inept bad guys who inhabit the show. Freakazoid himself is more or less just a spastic suffering from Attention Deficit Syndrome who also happens to have super powers. The show is further evidence of The Triumph of the Nerds.
Space Ghost: This is a very difficult show to describe. Imagine that you're an ex-superhero from the "retro" era of cartoons, a-la Speed Racer, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, et al, only you aren't really quite "in" enough to rejoice in a comeback of your show along with the rest of the retro fashion craze. What do you do? Well, you get a couple of your adversaries, also out of a job, and you start a talk show. Space Ghost interviews real live people on this show. Just watch it. (You can get some previews of what it's like by viewing some of the video clips I've got online in the AV Section.)
Dream On: Definitely not a Politically Correct TV show. Martin Tupper, the star, manages to (usually) score with at least one amazingly, well, "healthy" female in each episode. What's so great about this? Well, he's kind of a dumpy looking boring normal guy; close to being a geek. He gives hope to all those boring normal guys out there who dream of being able to Make It with any random female they want. The writing's pretty good, too. They can get away with what goes on, because it's HBO. There are actually other reasons why I like this show, but those are none of your business. It's a shame the website pretty much sucks, though.
The Tick: See above at Freakazoid. Freakazoid, when you look at it, could almost be a spinoff of this show, which was around first. Similarities: The Tick is a superhero. Not real bright, not real talented, but very strong and pretty indestructable. Differences: The Tick has no alternate identity, and is completely blue instead of all red like Freakazoid. Also, The Tick has a sidekick. The Tick isn't real bright, but very very strong, well, Arthur is pretty bright, but not exactly superhero material. He has a flying moth-suit though, so he qualifies as sidekick material. What else can you say about a superhero who's battle-cry is "SPOON!" ?