Now Imma combine all kinds of linkups, up in hurr. Keeping on keeping on with NaBlogMoPo and getting grateful with my girl BecominNeurotic. Today I’m grateful for the all the shows I’ve loved before. There have been so many shows and characters that have meant more to me than some friends I’ve had. Teevee never steals your boyfriend, never ditches you for a better opportunity and doesn’t require a constant shoulder after yet another romance gone wrong. It also doesn’t give very good hugs(all those wires and sharp edges get in the way. Not that I’d know or anything.) or bring you vegetarian stroganoff when you’re sick or down or gave birth. Still, for the lesser friendships, it’s a tossup. I’m grateful for all of the following shows and for the amazing whoziwhat(DVR) that allows me to watch them at my whim.
My Top Ten{Tuesday} Mourned and Lamented Teevee Shows
10. One Tree Hill – I’ve discussed this ad nasueum here and here. I’d discuss it some more, but I fear the wrath of anyone within reading distance. I’ll just say I love you forever, Montreal. Keep being you.
9. Eureka - Charming, from top to bottom. Sweet, silly, science-y. Just a lovely little SF confection with gentle humor and a familial feel. The addition of Wil Wheaton as Fargos’ nemesis and Felicia Day in their love triangle just upped the ante for me. I miss them and often wonder if each week still brings some sort of scientific disaster that can only be solved by Jack. Also, I see Henry every week on Scandal and he has turned into such an asshole. I miss good Henry.
8. Survivors – Not to be confused with Survivor. That reality crap bores me to tears. Actually it bores me to the internet where I run and hide in response to accidental exposure. Survivors is a British show about a group of people who survive an apocalyptic plague. Do you know what’s scarier than zombies? People. And most of the people outside of the main Scooby gang are sadistic, evil fucks who will screw over any living being for 2 inches of water left in an open water bottle. They will also kill, steal and enslave just for kicks. There is a Lost-like vibe to this show with it’s mysterious undercurrents, a threatening bunch of Others and multiple conspiracy scenarios. Be aware if you decide to watch this entertaining and enjoyable show that you will be suffering a tremendous loss after only twelve episodes as the series was cancelled. You will also be dangling from a cliff as nothing is wrapped up. There’s always fanfiction, people. Or, you know, your own imagination. Which is what I tend to rely on.
7. Northern Exposure – It kills me that this transcendent little show isn’t available for streaming on Netflix. I would be watching it right now if it were. NE premiered as a summer replacement show and somehow I caught it from the very beginning. These were during days when I was sleeping on my ex and his new boyfriends floor in College Station, TX after ditching the mean streets of Htown for a college town full of kicker bars and football, neither of which held any interest for me. But this quirky little drama peppered with comedy and a side of heart was right up my alley. Ensembles are the stuff of magic when done right and this cast was just the right blend. It was a gentle, easy show, but that didn’t mean it didn’t have bite. It made me think in a different kind of way than any other show I’ve watched. About life and love, about spirit and religion, about the culture that we live within and the one that lives within us. And it did all this in the midst of tremendous physical beauty and with a whimsical eye. Still in my top five of all time.
6. Life – This show is weird, y’all. The main character is wacky. He’s all rage under the surface and zen garden party in the back. And who wouldn’t be all rage-y after being wrongfully imprisoned for years and years? Whatever was going on, it worked for me and I’m sad it ended. I’m even sadder it ended without a proper ending. That’s bullshit, Network Drones. Give a series a complete ending. Even if the ratings aren’t great, there is someone out there who loves it and who will entertain desires of hunting you down and stealing your firstborn for leaving them hanging for all eternity.
5. Spaced – There are only fourteen episodes of this magical, hilarious geekfest. Fourteen. Those Brits sure do know how to break a girl’s heart. Surreal, outrageous, full of the whimsy and all the pop culture references a geeky gal could ask for. Get the band back together, Simon.
4. Buffy, The Vampire Slayer - There are no words. Or I guess there are, But I can’t locate the proper ones in the correct order bearing the intensity of the impact this show has had on me. I adore it so much, I read the comic to keep it alive for me. I create fanfic in my mind for it. Xander, Willow, Cordy, Spike, Giles, Oz, Anya and obviously the Buffster are still living and loving in or around Sunnydale as far as I’m concerned. But I miss the show and the magical, lyrical, trip-hoppy voice of Joss Whedon in my ear every week. Whedon belongs on teevee, making magic wherever he goes.
3. House, M.D. – So yeah, when you break it down this show was a procedural. And nothing bores a teevee enthusiast like yet another procedural. Unless it’s simultaneously an ongoing, in-depth character study about the ways in which we stay the same. Hugh Laurie was an acting god in this show, not only for the flawless American accent and scruffily sexy misanthropic persona, but for the undercurrents of raw humanity. The man wanted to change, wanted more, but knew he couldn’t have it/wasn’t able/wasn’t destined for it. He knew exactly what he was doing to himself and others at all times, but lacked the capacity to change it. It was fascinating to watch. I would have watched another ten seasons.
2. Lost – I just can’t even. The immensity of my love for this show is endless. I don’t care that the smoke monster was bs or that they didn’t tie up every loose end or hand out all the answers on a platter made of unicorn tears and the dreams of young children. I loved every minute of the fully frustrating, wholly unique, roller coaster ride. There has been nothing like this show before or since and, as a lover of all things teevee, I savor these rare finds. I ‘m waiting, fairly impatiently, for the day to come when it’s been just long enough that I can watch it all over again.
1. Doctor Who – I know Doctor Who is still on the air. And I will continue to watch it. But the show I loved, actually three shows I loved, are long gone and I miss them like whoa. I started watching with Nine and it took me until Season 4 to stop missing him and start loving Ten. And then Ten was my guy, like the one true Doctor for me. And he’ll always be. Although I grew to love Eleven thorough his relationships with Amy and Rory and River. As lovely and capable Clara was, the tether that connected the Doctor to our world was severed when the Weeping Angels sent Amy and Rory to an unreachable place. For me, part of loving a show is the history and the in-jokes and the possibility that the Doctor might get a visit from Captain Jack or Martha and Mickey. When you remove those relationships, you remove the humanity that he’s cultivated and it just feels hollow and sad. I hope I can hand my heart over to Twelve, only time will tell. but I’m honestly still hoping that this regeneration will end in Ten reappearing. Hey, you never know. It’s never happened before and it would make my millennium.
