Suna Reviews Television Shows

What does the woman of forced leisure with no funds available for fun do? She listens to music, she walks the pug, she knits until her hands hurt, and she watches television. Since many of you have lives, I thought I'd let you know what I have found out about daytime television in the last month and a half.

As Usual, Suna Detours

First, a detour into nighttime television. We don't watch a lot of network shows, but we do love to watch television on Tuesday evenings. First we enjoy Bones (when it's on and not scary shows about people with or without some talent), and then our favorite, House. After that we watch Boston Legal. It's my most guilty pleasure--but I find it totally hilarious to see all these dudes from various incarnations of Star Trek playing totally messed up lawyers. So one day a week, I succumb to the lure of television. Last night we forewent (hee hee) a trip to Home Depot just to watch House.

And yesterday, House really impressed me. The writing is always pretty good, even when the characters turn into parodies of themselves. But the writers actually get you thinking about serious topics occasionally, right in the middle of the totally messed up doctor action. Last night, they tackled religion in a way that was refreshing. People expressed their opinions of the Lubovitch Judaism movement, religion in general, and religious people, but the characters who were religious were not parodies--they seemed sincere and to get a lot from their beliefs--enough to impress some of the other people on the show. Now, since I have a lot of baggage on the topic of evangelical Judaism and extreme orthodoxy in any religion, I was pretty impressed that they were able to convey the positive aspects of the Lubovitchers even to me. So, kudos to the people who write that show.

(Mostly in the evenings we don't watch television or watch HGTV or some dang educational thing Beccano wants to see. He's big on History Channel, National Geographic and Discovery HD).

Daytime TV Opinionism by Me

Mornings I listen to NPR until the show where the guy starts playing weird music comes on. As soon as he gets on one of his overly "eklectic" themes (that's an Austin radio jab), I leave the office.

Often I start with the lovely Ellen Degeneres. I like that she comes across as a fairly "regular" person and always seems like she's in a good mood. And her dancing is so natural. Lately she has been investigating funny television products. The one that had me about to bust a gut, all by myself other than the pug was the Tiddy Bear, a product consisting of a small toy teddy bear with a strap and fastener on its back. You attach the precious li'l fellow to your seat belt wherever it bugs you and you have a wonderful driving experience. Well, you can just imagine one of the places ole Tiddy can end up. And he looks like he's hugging it, too. Of course, on the commercial, only the MAN driver puts the bear on his chest. But, it looks plenty dorky. And with Ellen running around yelling "Tiddy Bear" over and over, I about lost it. She threw one to every member of her audience, too. So, in general, Ellen amuses me.

Next I enjoy the View. I didn't think I would, but I do. If they'd just take that insipid football wife who is the conservative young one, it would be great (however, she DOES breastfeed, so she has good features). Of course, they need fodder for their arguments. I do like how they put Whoopi really far from that lady. What has surprised me is how much I enjoy listening to the three older women on the show. Even Baba Wawa. They are smart, funny and interesting people. Whoopi and Joy seem really honest and will admit to mistakes. That is refreshing. Some of the guests are pretty snoozy, but that's OK--I have a lot of blogging to do.

After that, if I have not found something useful to do like clean something or go to the bank, I'll watch local news. They are pretty dorky, but it's nice to see people talk rather than just read the things online. News digression: Last night on election coverage, Katie Couric called the man running for Democratic candidate "Barama." Sounds like a fun band name.

For the hours when soap operas are on network television, I will watch HGTV, though there are a lot of reruns. So, well, hell, no one else is home but ME so well, I do it. I watch all the jewelry shows on the shopping networks. Yesterday it was aquamarines and pearls. MMMM. If there is stupid stuff I would never buy on, I have discovered the Nirvana of Suna viewing pleasure: Jewelry Television. All jewels all the time. I haven't bought anything since last year's job issues started, but I can look. I just like shiny sparkling things. If only there were a Yarn Channel.

If I am not busy in the afternoon I enjoy an entire hour of Jeopardy. That's a winner. Sometimes I feel smart; sometimes I feel stupid. Then more news. If STILL not distracted by family, cooking or something useful like that, I will "enjoy" Wheel of Fortune. I like words.

The good news is that I don't think I have ever watched a whole day of this soporific blend of entertainment options. There's plenty to do around the house, or I can take a walk or go to the yarn shop and see real human beings. Please, come and get me if you find out I am sitting in my bathrobe watching television for an entire day. That just isn't good for me.

So if you are ever sick or at home, consider enjoying Ellen and the View. They are OK. Honest.

Music Makes It Good

What? Suna's posting about Tom Petty again? Well, after a day of no job action whatsoever, hurting my back doing laundry, worrying that Lee is still sick, and knitting on a somewhat boring project, nothing can perk a girl up like music.

I am watching a Tom Petty concert on public television, a 30th anniversary event in our mutual hometown (I have waxed nostalgic about Gainesville before, so I will try to tone it down). It's neat that there are still two Heartbreakers from G'ville, too.

I just love nice, clean rock and roll. Not full of glitz and glitter, not noise for its own sake, but pure rock. I have happy ears, and even enjoyed Stevie Nicks' guest appearance. Tee hee, our favorite singing witch.

The other thing that has helped keep the ole spirits up has been that the Daily Show (I mean A Daily Show) and Colbert Report are back. They aren't doing a bad job at all, I think. I like happy news better than the dismal stuff I have been seeing lately every time I look at CNN.com. Way too many parents killing children, gore and maiming. But, I can smile at the fake news shows and revel in the fact that, whoa, the first two primaries didn't totally make the rest of them pointless.

Let's ignore that my 401K equivalent thingie lost money last quarter, and Big Business sure doesn't want to let ME get ahead. There's always tomorrow for dreams to come true. Or to slog through. Take your pick.

High School Television Fun

Now, that's one fine looking sousaphone player, isn't it? Everone at work kept saying, "He looks JUST like you only his hair is a different color!" That made me laugh, since our hair is actually the same color--they've just never seen my actual hair.

I posted this because I saw the new television show, "Friday Night Lights" last night, and it's all about high school football. Not only that, but it was filmed right here in my home county. Lots of folks we know were in the crowd scenes, but I didn't spot anyone. I did, however, recognize each football stadium shown (they showed more than one, though supposedly it was the same. Definitely recognized the weird berms of dirt at the Pflugerville stadium. The show was pretty good, and does not really exaggerrate much about the importance of high school football around here.

We are fifth in central Texas, btw, after barely beating a much better team last week. In the photo at left, the older boy is in front of the cross town rivals' stadium, a rather rickety one, but where you feel nice and close to the action. We play in "the Palace" for our home games. The fanciest high school stadium I ever saw. Has a HUGE Jumbotron thing that plays instand replays and such. But you are farther from the action. I have to say the pageantry of Texas high school football has not lost its appeal to me so far. Even a cynic like me gets caught up in all the flags, the horsie that runs up and down the field, etc.

So, if you want to watch another television show that is soap-opera-like, check out "Friday Night Lights" and see what it looks like where I live.

Comment

DianeS said...
I enjoyed the heck out of Friday Night Lights, myself. Except that I kept forgetting it wasn't real. I was yelling at the kids that they needed a defense and stuff. When the kid got a bad hit and was lying face down and still, I remembered very well what it was like when one of your fellow students was clearly injured, though I don't recall anyone being that bad off. It was as if the last 34 years hadn't happened and I was back in the band!
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 10:33:00 PM

Having a Reasonable Time, Wish You Were Here

Last night, as I mentioned yesterday, I went to a concert. I volunteer for the Live Oak Coffeehouse Concert series. Right now I am one of the ticket-takers and do set up. I met my partner at one of these concerts, so it's special to me! I thought I'd share a photo of last night's featured performer, John Flynn, in action on the stage (thanks to Jon M. for the photo). It was awfully darned nice of him to do the wmen in the audience a favor and take off his jacket so we could see his sleeveless shirt.

It's too bad not many people came, because he had some really moving songs (in a liberal folkie peacenik way), and told some interesting stories about his life and spiritual journey. I really like it when people talk about that kind of thing--how they pray/meditate/interact with their deities and such. He had three huge boulders moved to his house from a meditation space he once frequented, for example. Just interesting to me. On the other hand, Jeff thought he was a bit heavy handed in his social messages and was hitting us over the head telling us to be nice to each other and embrace peace. I guess I don't mind so much when someone is making a strong point I believe in, too!

Speaking of sharing spiritual journeys, before I got back to blogging I enjoyed another one of those. I like to watch late night television (it's about the only TV I watch, while I do my knitting). I love the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, then I head over and watch the end of Letterman and the show with Craig Ferguson. I am very fond of Craig, for a lot of reasons. One is he takes risks with the genre and does some things differently (some work, some don't). And another is that his monologues are not highly scripted--he knows what he's going to talk about, but then just takes off. And finally, he does not erect a huge barrier between himself and the audience like Carson, Letterman, Leno and those folks have mostly done (Letterman occasionally lets something through, like when he had the heart issue, and when his child was born). He is open about his alcohol issues, his marriage issues, his rough childhood, etc.

So, about a month or so ago, Craig Ferguson's father died. The Monday afterward, Craig did his show as scheduled, which surprised me. But he came on, all serious and wearing a tie, and just talked about his dad. Did a wake kind of thing, sharing stories, laughing a bit, crying a bit--just like anyone with a fresh loss would do. Then, as his first guest, he had on an addiction specialist who had been on the show before, and the therapist asked Craig some really interesting questions about his experience. The part I liked the best was when he asked Craig if he had any spiritual beliefs that were helping him along. And Craig pretty much said, "no"! He then talked about his history with religion, what he did and didn't believe, and it was quite genuine and rang true. His next guest was a really lovely woman, John Ritter's widow (ack, can't remember her name). She also talked to him about spirituality, and how it affected her when her husband died--and she also admitted she didn't get much from organized religion. Well, this was so refreshing to hear, and so courageous of both of them to admit, on national television in the USA of today, that they didn't exactly have the belief system of the "moral majority" folks. It was the most uplifting show I saw in ages, even if it was a wake, and Craig was rightfully sad.

I think if more of us agnostics, atheists, seekers and such spoke up about how our nontraditional beliefs comfort us or serve us well, it would be a good thing. OK, I am off my soapbox now. Note, of course, that I firmly believe everyone should choose the belief system that works best for them. If only more others returned that favor!