The Triumph Return of Television

It’s been over three weeks since my last post, and even longer since my last post of substance. But hopefully soon that will all change with the return of Fall Network Programming this week!

The following are the list of shows I’m planning to watch this season…and yes, most of them are returning series. I really don’t have much faith or interest in any of the new offerings.

Mondays:

Of course I will be continuing my watching of How I Met Your Mother, which should contain more hilarious moments as the last season provided.

I will be simultaneously taping Everybody Hates Chris on the CW. I find this sitcom more “cute” than laugh-out-loud funny, and I enjoy the 80s pop culture.

Also I will be watching Heroes. I am late coming into this show, but have been able to catch up on the first season through NetFlix, and I do find this show enjoyable in that comic book way.

Tuesdays:

…will apparently be spent watching something from NetFlix, or reading.

Wednesdays:

I’ve decided to give Private Practice a try, since I am a fan of Grey’s Anatomy. I never have much faith in spinoffs, though.

A show that premiered last week I happened to catch and enjoyed is Kitchen Nightmares, featured Hell’s Kitchen's Gordon Ramsay. I just find him so ridiculously entertaining and enjoy any show where a majority of the dialogue has to be bleeped out. Like this:

Thursdays:

Grey’s Anatomy will be watched, but my expectations are low as well. They have a lot to make up for after the second half of last season.

My Name is Earl…although I love Jason Lee, I can take or leave at this point.

The Office though, of course! This is probably the “must-see” of all of my television viewing. What will it be like with Ryan being Michael’s boss? And what happened with Jim and Pam? And is Karen just still sitting in NYC somewhere? Oh Dwight, how I’ve missed you…

Scrubs will be watched as well, but that won’t be on until the month of hour-long episodes of The Office finish up. I can’t say I’m really pulling for JD and Eliot to get together, though.

Fridays & Saturdays:

These are not TV nights, my friends.

Sundays:

I guess I could lie and say I’ll still watch Desperate Housewives, but that would be embarrassing to myself and others.

So that’s it, dear neglected readers! What shows are on your schedule?

Netflix Fatigue

It is safe to say that we all love Netflix. I don't believe I am exaggerating when I say that it has changed my life. What else would you call the ability for an addict to be given unlimited access to their drug of choice? In my case it is movies. I am currently at the level of 5 movies at home at one time. There are definitely points throughout the year when I definitely consider going all the way up to 8.


However, right now that would seem very extreme. You see, I am going through what i refer to as Netflix fatigue. Netflix Fatigue is when your film-watching decreases to a minimal level and thus your queue remains stagnant. You become disenchanted with the choices you currently have at home and this only further perpetuates your lack of viewing. This condition can be brought about by several different factors.


In many instances it is merely a cause of a time crunch. The person simply lacks the time during the week to watch a decent amount of movies. Coupled with that is also the movie length intimidation factor. During a week where you are already exhausted you tend to eye the movie times on your choices more frequently. Even though when at your best you could easily crank through a whole season of Arrested Development, suddenly any movie over 2 hours seems daunting.


For me the biggest cause is the swings of my genre mood. When it comes to music, television and movies I like to partake in different types based completely on my mood. My queue has hovered around the 470 to 500 range for nearly all of my account's existence. When I created the queue I tended to lump certain genres together. I do love dramas, independent and foreign films and they are highly represented there. But, as much as I love them, I definitely go through periods where I just can't bring myself to sit through them. So when I hit those pockets of one genre on my queue, if I'm not in that mood then there is going to be a problem.

Your movies may sit there for a week. Each night you watch something else either on tv or what you own. You tell yourself that you will watch a Netflix movie soon. Pretty soon another week has passed and before you know it you have had certain movies for over a month. At that point you start to contemplate returning the movie without watching it. You tell yourself it just wasn't meant to be and that it can be re-added to the queue for another time.

So what is the big deal with Netflix Fatigue? Well it can cause a waste of money. You are paying a monthly fee and if you aren't watching a good share of movies then you are just flushing money down the toilet. Plus, at least for me, it is a pride thing. I am proud to have over 2,000 ratings. How can I improve upon that number and my overall pop-culture knowledge when I am stricken by Netflix Fatigue? Unfortunately right now there are no known cures for Netflix Fatigue. But with your help we can assure that at least one scientist somewhere will be working on this problem day and night until it is defeated.

P.S. I did create the little Netflix guy after an embarrassing amount of time spent with Microsoft Paint this afternoon. It goes to show that creative impulses don't always coincide with actual talent.