Why I Love Television

Tonight is one of those nights where I love television. In general I watch a lot of TV, although far less than in past years. A couple of TV seasons ago I gave up watching all those dramatic shows like Law & Order and CSI. It was all getting too depressing. These days I have a set of shows I like to watch and I'm pretty happy with all of them. Monday might be the best of them all with the double shot of Prison Break and 24. 24 I didn't watch the first couple of seasons because I knew I'd get addicted and at the time, I didn't want to watch more television. But a couple of years ago a friend who watched the show in season three, wanted to go back and watch the first two seasons on DVD, so I joined her. We would have marathon sessions that could go from 2 to 8 episodes in a day. Those were good times. So when season 4 started, I watched from the beginning. And now Monday's are must-see TV because on 24, you really have no idea where it's all going. Any character at any time could become a bad guy or die. It really is edge-of-your-seat viewing.

With Prison Break, I skipped the first episode, but watched from episode 2 on and while it's not as addicting as 24, it is pretty good. I like these shows where one major plot line is done per season. Back a few years ago there was a show called Murder One where they followed a single court case an entire season. The first season of that show was amazing. And if you go back even further in time, there was a show called Wiseguy, where there were 'arcs' that lasted 11 episodes. The first two arcs were terrific television, before the show fell apart. The show was about an undercover cop who inflitrated the mob. He got very deep undercover and almost got lost in the world. The second arc featured none other than Kevin Spacey as the bad guy who liked to have his drugs injected in between his toes, but his sister. When you take a show like CSI for instance, they focus on one thing per episode, and there is very little that ties the episodes together. It makes it better for syndication, but I never feel any connection to the characters or the story. Then there's a show like ER where there are multiple story lines per episode and some smaller story lines that'll carry out the entire season, but it's never a major focus. I prefer shows where you focus on one major story the entire season and get real in depth with it. Each episode will have their own specific focus, but it's all within a larger scope. If you don't watch either show, I highly suggest renting them this summer.

And of course what made tonight's television viewing even better was that it was the first Red Sox-Yankees game of the season. So every commercial break I would flip to the game to see what was going on, and the Sox ended up winning 7-3. Now that's good television.