Where you been? (or, How to survive the winter without TV)

Ok, so to be fair, I *have* been watching TV over the past few months. I just haven't been blogging about it. With the dearth of new, quality* TV for the past months, there hasn't been much to say. Here's an update, quick-hits-style:

-- Army Wives is being re-run on Lifetime, Sunday nights, leading up to the second season premier in June. If you didn't catch this series last summer, you really should catch up on it now. It is, as I have said before, compelling, well-written, and timely. The acting is superb and the stories will make you cry every week. My favorite kind of TV.

-- Canterbury's Law, though still sitting on my TiVo, is too grim for me. I absolutely love Julianna Margulies, who played Carol on ER back in the day. And, I generally love TV shows that make me cry (see, e.g., Army Wives). But, there's a difference between making my cry and giving me nightmares. You see, the central plot of Canterbury's Law revolves around how Margulies's character deals with the loss of her beautiful four-year-old boy who was apparently abducted from a playground while Margulies took a work call on her cell. Nope. Can't do it. Sorry, Julianna. I'll catch you on the next show.

-- My So-Called Life is running on abc.com, with one new episode being added each week. I've been watching these on Saturday afternoons after skiing. They are good enough to keep me watching but I think I'm keeping myself from getting to invested in the characters, knowing that the show lasted only one season -- and ended ten or so years ago! Also, the parental characters are abnoxious and stupid.

-- One Tree Hill's new season has been pretty good. The plot leapt forward four and a half years from last year, so we've missed the college years. That was a good thing. Anyway, this show is never going to win any Emmys but it's fun to watch the melodrama unfold every week. OTH has been on hiatus for a few weeks but will return in a couple weeks on Mondays, paired up with Gossip Girl, the CW's new hit.

-- This season of Survivor has also been fun to watch. It's the "fans" versus the "favorites" with superstar Ozzie back for a second try at dominating the challenges all the way to the million dollars. I'm looking forward to the season resuming after the madness of March releases its grip on CBS's schedule.

-- Other than that, I've mostly been filling my TiVo with re-runs of Gilmore Girls. I fast-forward through all of the scenes that involve Kirk and Michel and Luke's stupid sister and brother-in-law. But it's fun to watch Rory's relationship with Logan unfold.

*Please note: I have my own definition of "quality"... but if you read this blog, you already know that.

Eli Stone: Pilot

There's not much TV left to keep me happy for the next 8 months. Accordingly, I've been watching each of the major network mid-season replacement shows with piqued interest... Cashmere Mafia has me entertained and Lipstick Jungle is coming along next week. This week it was time for Eli Stone.

Eli is a senior associate at a BigLaw firm and a former Ginsburg clerk. He also has a brain aneurysm and reason to think he might be a prophet. It's kind of an odd premise, but the writing -- by Greg Berlanti, one of my favorites (Dawson's Creek, Everwood, Brothers & Sisters) -- was compelling and the actors are solid. Loretta Devine (Adele from Grey's Anatomy) is simply fantastic as Eli's legal secretary. I'm looking forward to a few more episodes. I think this one will be basically a law procedural with a twist. In Berlanti's talented hands, that could be a great thing. Set your sad little empty TiVos to catch it or stream it on abc.com.

Bad Medicine

I am not a huge fan of going to the doctor. And so I procrastinate and never make appointments. Same goes for the eye doctor and the dentist. Today was my day to stop procrastinating. I have decent health insurance for which I am charged every week in my paycheck and I never use it. So today was the day to make the appointments.

Step one: call doctor recommended by my mom. "It has been six years since you've been to see this doctor, so we have to treat you as a new patient. It will be 14 weeks before the intake people will call you schedule an appointment." You think I'm kidding -- or perhaps exaggerating. Nope. Not even a little. 14 weeks. Goody.

Step two: call the eye doctor as I seem to have lost my most recent pair of glasses (circa 2003, so not a huge loss other than that I don't own another pair) and I think I'm down to one spare pair of contact lenses... "She is booking for May . . . nope actually I'm seeing mid-June . . . How's mid-June?" Just peachy. I'll just squint until then.

Step three: call the dentist. Now I really hate dentists, but I figured ok, well, I'll just make the appointment now and I won't have to actually go for six months so no big deal. "I just had a cancellation. How's tomorrow at 9:20?" Super.

So True

A Dog's Purpose

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a
ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron,
his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to
Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I
told the family we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered
to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their
home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they
thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the
procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the
experience

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat
as Belker's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting
the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what
was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition
without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while
after Belker's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal
lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been
listening quietly, piped up, "I know why."

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his
mouth next stunned me. I'd never heard a more comforting
explanation.

He said, "People are born so that they can learn how
to live a good life -- like loving everybody all the time and being
nice, right?" The six-year-old continued, "Well, dogs already know how
to do that, so they don't have to stay as long."

Good Dog

We miss you already.

Fantasy Success and Failure

If you know me, you already know this: I'm more than a little bit competitive. I'm also an unabashed football fan.

So this year, for the first time, I played fantasy football. Two leagues: fantasy and pro-pick 'em. In my fantasy league, I went 12-2 in the regular season and made it to the championship game... and then I lost.
Because Adam Vinatieri only got the chance to kick one field goal and one PAT for the Colts' anemic backup offense.

In the pro-pick 'em league, I won after leading for more than half the season.

It's going to be tough to match this performance next year -- after all, it's mostly just dumb luck. Nonetheless, I just had to take the opportunity to gloat a little. It's my blog, so I'll gloat if I want to.

A Brave New Year

I woke up this morning early to check on Bailey. He's been diagnosed with cancer and had a bad day yesterday. He seems a little better this morning. Anyway, I woke up to a Facebook invitation from an old friend... it was nice to hear from him and it was just the nudge I needed to finally join Facebook. And really, what else was I going to do at 6:30am on New Year's Day?

It is so cool to have Facebook say: "These are people you might know" and see all my best friends listed... gotta love associational algorithms :-)

If I haven't found you yet on Facebook, find me!

Why Barack and Not Hillary

I will get back to posting about the Walker family and the goings-on in my other favorite TV worlds after the new year. I promise. Particularly if the strike ever ends.


In the meantime, you should read this piece by David Brooks in today's NYTimes.

More Nervous Than the Players?

I am more nervous than the actual players are. I am even more nervous than Sarah was before Game 5 of this year's ALCS. And that's saying something. I bring you... my boys:

Don't fail us now. Patriots Nation requires that Peyton, and his I'm-on-tv-every-five-minute-smugness be silenced. Here's a sample:

More of that would be good.

My Shortest Season Pass List in Years

Blame it on the Red Sox who want to keep playing. Blame it on lots and lots of football on Sunday and Monday nights with live scoring on my fantasy team. Blame it on the new job. Blame it on having a slightly older kid who stays up a bit later. Whatever it is, my TV watching is seriously lagging this year. I have updated the season pass list at the left of this page to reflect the shows I've actually been watching before they get deleted from my TiVo. All in all, I'm relatively underwhelmed by the new offerings.

• Pushing Daisies was way too much like a Broadway musical for my liking. It's no longer on my season pass list.


• Chuck is probably good, but I has been sitting on my TiVo for weeks without any major urge for me to watch it after the first episode.


• Private Practice is passable, but not outstanding -- what Grey's pulled off as quirkiness, Private Practice pushes to the edge of corniness.


• Cane is good enough to keep me interested, but mostly because I absolutely love Jimmy Smits. In my world, he is currently president after all.


• Gossip Girl is good, but it is hardly Gilmore Girls or the O.C.-- and it never will be.

Brothers & Sisters has risen to the very top of my favorites list. It's exceptionally good and has be crying as some point during nearly every episode. At some point, I think I'll write a post about why I love it so much when TV makes me cry. But not tonight. I'm going to hope that the TV program I'm watching tonight doesn't make anyone in the Nation (i.e. Red Sox Nation) cry.