Average Jane

Average Jane Resists New TV Shows

As little time as I have at home these days, it seemed important for me not to get hung up on too many new shows this season. Ditching HBO helped, of course, but I'm also trying to avoid the network shows as much as I can. Even with a TiVo, it can be impossible to keep up.

Here's our current season pass list:
Monday - "Heroes"
Tuesday - nothing
Wednesday - "Pushing Daisies" (our one new show so far) and waiting for "Lost" to start
Thursday - "My Name is Earl," "The Office," "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"
Friday - "The Ghost Whisperer" (which I really watch on Saturday or Sunday morning)
Saturday - nothing
Sunday - Hubby watches "Desperate Housewives"

And that's it. Sure, I'll watch "Dirty Jobs," "Mythbusters," or "The First 48" if I run across an episode while I'm surfing channels, but I don't have anything else set up to record regularly.

Is there anything in the new fall lineup that I should consider checking out? Are there any good shows out on DVD that I should rent and watch? Just because I'm trying to minimize my TV watching doesn't mean I want to miss out on something good.

Average Jane Cannot Look Away

Yesterday I was at my sister's house and we were channel surfing when we came across the most awesomely bad infomercial ever. Once we started watching we could not tear our eyes away from it and, in fact, we actually backed up the DVR to see more of it.

It was for a product designed to "cleanse" the lower intestine. The presenters included the product's spokesperson, who was way too eager to over-share about the health and function of his own colon. Then there were the two hosts: a prim, blonde British woman and a guy with bad hair plugs.

It was the woman who initially got our attention because she was completely incapable of arranging her face to disguise the disgust and horror that she clearly felt about the topic at hand. You can almost read her mind, "Here I am with a degree in Broadcast Communications, and yet my career is spiraling out of control!"

As the over-eager spokesman went on and on about intestinal mucous and then moved on to parasites (implying that they're not so much a third-world phenomenon, but something with which YOU are probably infested), the female host's features continued to twist into an expression of utter grossed-outedness.

Of course, my sister and I laughed and laughed because we have the sense of humor of 10-year-olds. And, no, we didn't order the product.

Average Jane's Summer TV Picks

Despite the fact that I have had almost no time to watch TV this summer, I've still stumbled across a couple of new faves. 

I don't know how we missed the whole first season, but my husband and I love, love, love this season of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."  It's sort of like "Seinfeld" with the misanthropy and moral bankrupcy dialed up to "11."  How many comedies can you think of that make you ask yourself, "Why is it that I know that $200 is too much for a rock of crack?"

I'm also enjoying "Psych" so far, even though it's exceedingly formulaic.  The actors and situation are appealing enough that I can be patient with it.  It also amuses me that Dule Hill's character is a pharmaceutical sales rep who has enough free time all day to trail around while his friend pretends to be a psychic detective.  Pharm reps, your secret is out!

"The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr." just came out on DVD, twelve years after it was cancelled for being way too weird for the general populace (that's my interpretation anyway).  My copy of the set arrived last week and my husband and I are carefully considering when we might have time to plant ourselves on the couch to watch many, many hours of our man, Bruce Campbell.

I understand that there will be a DVD set of "The Tick" animated show coming out in August, so that'll be next on my Amazon list.  I have the live-action show on DVD, but I still love the cartoon best of all.  Die Fledermaus, American Maid, Sewer Urchin, El Seed, the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight...you can't beat the classic characters.

Am I missing any other good summer shows or DVDs?  Once I get back from BlogHer next week, I'll be due to spend some time rotting my brain in front of the TV.

Average Jane, Couch Potato

I picked up this meme from Ben at Old Silly Bear (who picked it up from Daisy).  I think it ably demonstrates why my brain is stuffed with so much useless pop culture trivia.

Here’s a list of television shows. Bold all the shows of which you have seen at least 3 episodes.

24
7th Heaven
Adam-12
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alias
Angel
Arrested Development
Battlestar Galactica
Baywatch
Beverly Hills 90210
Bonanza
Boy Meets World
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Bug Juice
Chappelle’s Show
Charlie’s Angels
Charmed
Cheers
Columbo
Commander in Chief
Coronation Street
Coupling
Cowboy Bebop
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Danny Phantom
Dawson’s Creek
Dead Like Me
Deadwood
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Desperate Housewives
Doctor Who
Eastenders
Entourage
ER
Everwood
Extras
Family Guy
Farscape
Father Ted
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly
Frasier
Friends
Futurama
Get Smart
Gilligan’s Island
Gilmore Girls
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Grey’s Anatomy
Gunsmoke
Hannah Montana
Happy Days
Hogan’s Heroes
Home and Away
Home Improvement
Homicide: Life on the Street
House
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy
Inuyasha
Invader Zim
Invasion
JAG
Jackass
Joey
Little House on the Prairie
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lost
Lost in Space
Love, American Style
M*A*S*H
MacGyver
Malcolm in the Middle
Married… With Children
Medium
Melrose Place
Miami Vice
Mission: Impossible
Monk
My Three Sons
My Two Dads
NCIS
Neighbours
Nip/Tuck
Numb3rs
NYPD Blue
Only Fools and Horses
Oz
Perry Mason
Pokemon
Power Rangers
Prison Break
Rescue Me
Roseanne
Roswell
Saved by the Bell
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
Scrubs
Seinfeld
Sex and the City
Six Feet Under
Smallville
So Weird
South Park
Spongebob Squarepants
Starsky and Hutch
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1
Superman
Supernatural
Surface
Taxi
Teen Titans
That 70’s Show
That’s So Raven
The 4400
The Addams Family
The Andy Griffith Show
The A-Team
The Avengers
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Brady Bunch
The Cosby Show
The Daily Show
The Dead Zone
The Flintstones
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Good Life
The Honeymooners
The Jetsons
The Love Boat
The Munsters
The O.C.
The Office
The Shield
The Simpsons
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Sopranos
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
The Twilight Zone
The Waltons
The West Wing
The Wonder Years
The X-Files
Third Watch
Three’s Company
Twin Peaks
Veronica Mars
Weeds
Whose Line is it Anyway?
Will and Grace
Wings

Average Jane Loves Her TiVo

Thanks to my husband, we're the quintessential "early adopter" household when it comes to technology. Our TiVo dates back to when they first came on the market, but we still get a lot of value from it considering that it doesn't have all of the latest features.  As busy as I've been lately, I'd never see any of my favorite TV shows if we didn't have the DVR.

I try to keep my show list to a minimum, but it's really easy for me to get hooked on something new.  That's led me to make a new rule for HBO shows:  wait for the DVDs to come out.  That's why "Big Love" isn't on my list.  I'm sure it's good, but I refuse to let myself get sucked into another show right now.

Here's my current list of favorites:

• Veronica Mars
• Scrubs
• Lost
• My Name is Earl
• The Office
• Ghost Whisperer
• The Sopranos
• The Daily Show (although sometimes I fall asleep before it's over)

I cannot WAIT until the new season of "Deadwood" starts and I'm excited that "Rome" is coming back for another season as well.  Can you see how my HBO rule came about?

I also care a great deal for "MythBusters" on the Discovery Channel and I can spend an entire weekend afternoon on one of the show's marathons.   I've recently discovered "Digging for the Truth" on the History Channel, which is distinguished by its hottie host who travels the world dressed a lot like Indiana Jones, and also the episode subjects, which are fresher than the usual re-hashed "In Search of..." topics a lot of shows seem to keep regurgitating.

When I look over my list, it's hard to believe I ever find the time to watch everything, especially since it seems as though I spend all evening surfing blogs.  I guess I should be glad I don't have one of the new TiVos that lets you record two things at once.  That would really cut into my leisure time!

Average Jane Watches TV

I caught the season premiere of "Veronica Mars" and the second episode of "Lost" last night.  Is it just me, or have Francis Capra and Harold Perrineau both gained a little weight since last season? 

Both shows are still excellent, by the way.  "Lost" is getting to be even more like a soap opera than before, in that this episode mainly embellished upon scenes we'd seen last week and added little new information.

"Veronica Mars" had so many plot twists that you couldn't look away for a second without missing something.  Oh, how I love that show.

This TV season is going to make me have to re-learn how to program a VCR.  The TiVo is set to catch "Lost," but "Veronica Mars" is on at the same time and our old TiVo can't record them both at once.  I'm seldom home on Wednesday nights, but I don't think I can wait until next summer to watch this season.  I have the same problems on Tuesday nights with "My Name is Earl" and "The Office" on one channel and "House" on another.

Speaking of shows that used to conflict with other shows I watch, what the heck has happened to "Scrubs"?  It's not even on the schedule and its NBC website is quite vague.

I'm trying to concentrate all my show-liking on network TV to prepare myself for cancelling our cable service.  So far it seems to be working.

Average Jane's Fall TiVo Settings

It's television season premiere time!  I haven't spent all that much time choosing new shows to watch this year, mainly because I'm already carrying over some from last season that conflict with each other as it is.

Last week my husband and I watched the series premiere of "Bones."  We wanted to like it.  We like David Boreanaz.  We like cop shows (well, I do).  We sat passively as one absurd thing after another took place onscreen.  I mean, since when do law enforcement agencies have 3D holographic image projectors?  Then there was the interminable scene at a firing range where the main characters were standing WAY! TOO! CLOSE! for no reason that I could determine.  Eventually my husband looked over at me and said, "This is not holding my interest in any way."

I couldn't argue.  It's off our list.

I've also given up on "Rome" already.  Sure, it's typically well done HBO fare, but I can't keep track of who everyone is and I don't think I care enough to try harder.  Of course, there's a chance I may be hooked already and in denial.  That happened with "Carnivale" - I tried to stop watching and couldn't.

I've heard that "Supernatural" is good, but I haven't had a chance to check it out.  I'll also give "My Name is Earl" and "Everybody Hates Chris" a shot, thanks to early critical acclaim.  I just set up the TiVo to get David Spade's new show.  Is there anything on the new schedule I'm missing out on?  Or should I just peel myself off the couch and spend some time outside?

How to Gross Out Average Jane

Yesterday I saw a television commercial for a chain of suite hotels that featured a man standing by the refrigerator in the kitchenette of his suite, audibly gulping milk from the carton.  I wanted to leap through the screen and slap the milk carton out of his hand.

Of all the annoying things that can happen in commercials, eating and drinking noises cross a line for me.  A few years ago some orange juice brand was running a commercial where a kid gulped orange juice noisily through a straw, and I lunged for the "mute" button on the TV remove every single time it came on.

Is it just me?  Do eating and drinking noises amplified on TV bother anyone else?  Is there some other TV commercial sin that bugs you as much as this bugs me?

Average Jane's Labor Day

My limited budget and abundance of free time this weekend opened up the perfect opportunity for me to prepare for the September 30th opening of Serenity by watching the entire Firefly series on DVD.  Cagey joined me for the first half and when she left, I just kept watching one more episode...well, maybe just one more...until I made it through all 14 and one of the documentaries.

In case that sounds like a completely wasted day, I'll have you know that I also cleaned my kitchen, weeded my front flower beds and managed to take out the trash before I went to bed. 

Have you seen the trailers for Serenity?  It looks like it's going to be awesome, even for someone who isn't familiar with the show.  Apparently, the movie was greenlighted solely based on the DVD sales of the show.  It will be interesting to see if the movie continues as a Long Tail phenomenon or manages to attract a broader audience and become fully mainstream.

Average Jane's TV Fest

A friend of mine just got the first season of "Veronica Mars" on DVD, so this weekend we're planning on getting together to watch as many episodes as possible while drinking martinis and eating baked ziti.

Not familiar with the show?  Here's what Joss Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel" and "Firefly" said about it on his blog last week:

My peeps and I just finished a crazed Veronica Marsathon, and I can no longer restrain myself. Best. Show. Ever. Seriously, I've never gotten more wrapped up in a show I wasn't making, and maybe even more than those. Crazy crisp dialogue. Incredibly tight plotting. Big emotion, I mean BIG, and charismatic actors and I was just DYING from the mystery and the relationships and PAIN, this show knows from pain and no, I don't care, laugh all you want, I had to share this. These guys know what they're doing on a level that intimidates me. It's the Harry Potter of shows. There. I said it. People should do whatever they can to check out this first season so the second won't be a spoiler fest.

That's one heck of an endorsement, don't you think?  (Found on Y-Pulse, which led to TV Squad, which led to TV Tattle.  Man, it can be complicated to attribute things sometimes!)