Years ago, a good friend of mine made me a mixtape with awesome songs on it. But interspersed with those awesome songs were a ton of equally awesome TV theme tunes. So in the spirit of my mixtape (which I still have btw) I made this mixtape. Enjoy!

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I was chatting to an acquaintance the other day and she told me that she and her mother are making their way through the Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs and having a good time. She was lamenting that they were almost finished with them and that she would miss the time she got to spend with her mum. They had made regular “appointments” together to watch an episode or two and it’s taken them nearly a year to get through 7 seasons of Buffy. I scoffed because I can get through 7 seasons in a month, but then I can’t watch just one episode. But I digress.

I think it’s sweet they were doing this. She was sharing her love of Buffy with her mom and gathering a pile of memories she’ll always look back on fondly. It’s also cool of her mom to sit down and watch a show like Buffy because I can tell you that the show often gets dismissed as a teen show. But nine times out of ten, once they start watching, they’re hooked because it’s more than a teen show.

But I’m not writing this post about the awesomeness of Buffy, though I could go on and on (and on and on) about it. No, I meant to talk about shows you could pick with your parents or friends, or siblings etc. and turn them into fun memories. The discussion I was having quickly turned into alternative shows they could delve into next because she seemed reluctant to stop having this quality time with her mom.

Of course I said, “Angel,” and they probably will move onto the Buffy spinoff but she was also wondering about shows she could share with her dad. I mentioned Bones, How I Met Your Mother, 24, Lost, Pick a CSI any CSI, but none of those met with enthusiasm.

I think, in order to try out this TV bonding ritual, one of the people involved has to love a show and want to share it with a loved one or close friend. You have to bear in mind that tastes may not be the same. I’ve done this with my daughter, with 24, Buffy, Angel, Bones and now Doctor Who. Luckily we have similar tastes and I totally love the quality time I get to spend with her as we enjoy the show together. But, I could not get her interested in West Wing, darn it.

But once you find a show, my suggestion - and it’s totally just that, a suggestion - is buy or rent one season of a TV show you want to share, work out a time each week when you can sit down/snuggle up/get cozy and make some popcorn, ignore the phone and watch one or two episodes. Or one disk, depending on whether you’re renting Maybe spend some time speculating or discussing the show afterwards.

A lot of people are doing this, and the idea is nothing new. But it’s worth mentioning anyway, and it really is quite lovely. Now, I’m sure there are folks out there who will say, “Why not go to the park, or go for a walk or do something productive instead of couch potatoing in front of the television.” Ignore them Productivity is all well and good, but having a central thing you both can focus on and get into, in my opinion, isn’t a bad thing. You talk to each other more, you give yourselves another common interest to share and it opens up so many possibilities for quality time.

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I have to stop reading sites like Television Without Pity. I find myself continually influenced by the negative opinions of others that my own enjoyment of shows I usually love is affected. And TWoP is a site built around snark.

Don’t get me wrong - I don’t have a hate-on for TWoP. It’s a fun site with some great recappers and a big community of television lovers. It’s heavily moderated - probably one of the most moderated sites I’ve ever posted on. I mean, I started out a post with the word ‘Um’ once and got dinged by them, and that ding stayed on my record for a couple of years. For a site built on snark, they probably would like the snark directed at the shows themselves rather than other users.

But I digress.

The reason I bring all this up is that I’ve been following the “Bones” forum on TWoP and there are some deep thinkers there. Almost too deep. I love “Bones.” I have been critical of it lately, but I’m starting to wonder if that’s not a direct reflection of the posts I read in the “Bones” thread - many of the longtime viewers there are hyper-critical of the characters, the plots, the dialogue, the clothes worn, the directors, writers and man do some of them really hate Cam.

I worry that reading those opinions has lessened my enjoyment of “Bones” by forcing me to watch it with a hyper-critical eye. I’ve always been one to tout the entertainment aspect of the TV world and I avoid nitpickers and naysayers on shows I love. I’m finding that I avoided them because I let them influence me too much until I stop liking a show altogether.

I’m sure it’s a character flaw of mine because I know people who can read spoilers and nitpick with the best of them, yet they still tune in every week. But when does a show go from being purely entertaining to a show you watch just to nitpick and mock? I’m not denying the rights of the TWoPers to do what they do and feel what they feel about “Bones.” I wouldn’t keep reading the dang thread there if I didn’t somewhat care about what other people think of the show I love so much. But I think I have to be careful. I’m pretty good at fanwanking and in fact I prefer to just sit back and watch. Plotholes and mistakes in forensics or courtroom traditions don’t ever jump out at me. I can forgive it if it serves the overall story.

This week’s episode of “Bones” was wonderful. I loved the intensity, the emotion, the ethical dilemmas. But reading fan reaction and nitpicks has influenced how I feel about the episode. And if I rewatch it, I’ll only see the tiny mistakes and missteps the eagle-eyed viewers of TWoP caught. And that’s a shame.

And it’s different than reading a simple review of a show. A review is usually just an overall, “I liked it/hated it” thing without going into minute detail. A recap is pretty detailed. A TWoP recap is detailed and snarky as hell and that can be funny or it can wreck your enjoyment of a show. I had to quit reading the TWoP recaps of “24″ because I couldn’t stop referring to Tony Almeida as ‘Soulpatch’ which took me out of the moment.

Anyway, this rambling post doesn’t have much of a point so I’ll put it out of its misery

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I usually try to take reality shows with a boatload of salt. I know creative editing can make normal people seem like manipulative cretins and whiny losers when in reality, they’re no more manipulative or whiny than I am. But never was I so happy to see someone get tossed on his ass in Hell’s Kitchen.

Jason Something was sent packing last night, thank Elvis. I don’t think I could stand to hear one more misogynistic word out of his throwback-to-the-50s mouth. April MacIntyre of MonstersandCritics.com describes him perfectly: “..an out-of-shape slacker who smokes and flakes out when he is needed.”

On last night’s show it was pounded into our brains that Jason’s a MAN. He doesn’t do desserts! That’s women’s work! And when Gordon Ramsay booted his sorry behind - because he couldn’t take the pressure of remembering a simple dessert menu and quit three times - he MANfully declared that maybe if he’d cried like a girl, Ramsay wouldn’t have gotten rid of him. 

Uh, I doubt it dude. I think it would be more like Ramsay would be even MORE justified in letting you go little man. Now off you go, back into obscurity with you!

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Fans of “Jericho” rallied hard enough to convince a mighty network not to cancel the show despite low ratings. When word came out last year that CBS was going to cancel the post-apocalyptic drama, fans sent 40,000 pounds of peanuts to the network. Skeet Ulrich, one of the stars, uttered, “Nuts!” in the season 1 finale.

I didn’t know that actually. I wasn’t watching. What killed the show for me was not a bad storyline, or terrible writing. It was the overly long hiatus the network sent the show on in the middle of the season. I watched the start and I really liked it. It was on the way to becoming appointment TV for me. Then came the break where I moved on to other shows, did other things in my life and kind of stopped caring what was going to happen next. It’s sort of the same thing that happened to me with “Lost.” I simply lost interest when the show was off the air for an extended period. Maybe I have a short attention span. I don’t know.

So when it came back, I didn’t really feel like re-investing my time in it. I think it’s great what the die-hard fans of the show did to get it back on the air. Networks don’t change their minds very often especially if there is money involved.  I wish something like this had happened for “Firefly” and “Angel.” But “Jericho” came back for  another 7  episodes. Unfortunately, the numbers just weren’t there. And the episode airing tonight, “Patriots and Tyrants,” is the series finale.

It was a valiant effort Jericho fans. I applaud you guys. And I wonder WTF the network did with all those peanuts.

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I’ve grown too used to my DVR. It’s far too handy. I used to kick myself a LOT back in the days of the VCR when I’d forget to record something. Especially if it was a series I didn’t want to miss an episode of or had to be gone when the show aired. But now, I’ve grown so used to setting and forgetting on the DVR that I find myself with a large, time-consuming backlog of shows I have to catch up and by the time I do, my weekend is shot.

This weekend alone, I’ve got to watch Lost, Survivor and 2 Doctor Who’s and 2 Torchwoods. That’s six-ish hours man. An entire afternoon. And if the weather finally cooperates and warms up, I am not going to want to coop myself up in front of the tube which means I’ll get even further behind. So a DVR is a blessing and a curse. Love skipping ads, love watching my stuff on my own schedule. It gives me much more freedom - until it’s time to actually watch everything I’ve recorded.

Ugh.

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I don’t understand sound editors at all. In almost every show I’ve seen, when someone is trying to be stealthy, they are invariably wearing clicky shoes that echo like a big, loud echoing thing. Jack Bauer is trying to flush out the baddie of the hour and is moving quietly through a corridor - except his shoes are clacking so much he might as well start yelling, “Hey bad guy - come out right now. I’m approaching you from the northeast hallway and am about 10 steps away from an open doorway!”

Usually it’s the chicks who have this problem because no matter what they’re profession, they’re wearing stilettos or fashionable boots with pointy heels that create a racket while trying to hide from the bad guy.

And here’s the thing - the bad guys never seem to hear it. This leads me to believe it’s really down to the sound editor who’s got to make sure that during a long chase scene, something is happening to keep the viewer interested. But clicky shoes? I mean come on. I spend so much time being irritated with the loud shoes that I lose the plot of the show a little.

Why the rant as my first post on this new blog? Because it’s been bugging me for days and I just had to get it off my chest But welcome to TV Babble. I’m Stephanie. I like TV. A lot.

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