"Eighth time's the charm!" *

I am not much of a television watcher.

Sometimes if H brings home a movie he wants to see, I’ll watch with him. Sometimes he’ll be interested in a (usually long-cancelled) television series, and bring home a DVD of a season or so.
Sometimes during hockey season I’ll sit and watch a period or two of a game.

But generally I would say that, left to my own devices, I would rather read or quilt or noodle around on the computer.

I haven’t watched a show regularly since I freaked out on H for not taping an episode of ‘Ally McBeal.’ The freaking-out over little things was yet another symptom of my depression and OCD; the Zoloft tones that down, and Ally McBeal got stupid and I never really got sucked into a show again, and certainly never screamed at my husband that I hated him just because he forgot to tape something for me. (After all, aren’t there plenty of valid reasons for hating your spouse?)

But even though I am used to being home by myself, this week I am lonely.
There’s a different feel to H’s absence this week.
Maybe it’s because I am not subconsciously, even in sleep, listening for the car door slam, the beep of the alarm, the key in the lock.
Maybe it’s because I know Punto isn’t barking at H arriving home, but some unseen, possibly menacing something outside.

For whatever reason, this week, after the boys go to bed, I have been switching on the television and finding something to watch.

Last night I watched the first half hour of a program about a family that adopted 23 special-needs children. Then I flicked around and watched bits of a President Bush speech, and some real estate show on TLC, and some baseball. There were numerous repeated commercials for a show called “Lincoln Place,” and a funny preview for Peter Krause’s new series, “Dirty Sexy Money.” I eventually settled on a movie on The Disney Channel called “The Prince and Me.” It starred Julia Stiles as an American premed student who unwittingly falls in love with the Prince of Denmark who has come to her college masquerading as an exchange student. Despite her numerous and very large teeth, I find Stiles engaging and adorable. The prince, played by Luke Mably, grew on me eventually. The romance was gentle and sweet, and built up gradually to some minor sexual situations and a predictable if not terribly typical happy ending.

Tonight, I was unfortunate enough to turn the TV on at 755. Everything that looked any good was just ending. I watched bits and pieces of programs – “Family Guy,” some more baseball, the news, until I came across the last half hour of a show called “Bones.”

Those of you who have read this blog for a while probably are aware of my admiration of Quincy. I wanted to be Quincy when I grew up. This perhaps abnormal and morbid interest in medical detection and the accompanying biological gore translates now into reading anything I can get my hands on about forensic pathology and anthropology, and crime scene analysis. This show should have hit my sweet spot, but it was too scattered. There was too much action and not enough explanation. I suppose I really prefer documentaries.

“House” was on next. I’ve never watched this before, and I really don’t get Hugh Laurie’s sex appeal, but some of you love this show, so I figured, what the hell.

Forgive me, Blackbird, but I really hated it.
He’s an egomaniacal asshole who can’t be bothered to actually think about something, and the plot leapt all over the place. There was no thought, no detection, no debate – and judging from the past show synopses I found on fox.com, this is typical. House seems to stumble his way through a myriad of mistaken diagnoses until he happens to hit upon the accurate diagnosis, by which time you are so thoroughly sick of him you wish he would drop dead along with the patient he invariably almost kills.
His isn’t the deserved arrogance of Daniel Craig, the brilliant if irascible heart surgeon on my beloved “St Elsewhere,” or the passion of a young Doug Ross whose brashness is driven by concern for his patient’s wellbeing; House is lazy, annoying, careless, and thoroughly unlikeable.

I remember now why I don’t watch TV.

And in case I really needed a reminder, I watched the first couple minutes of the local ten o’clock news.
Yawn.

“A beloved family pet falls down a well in Kittaning, details after these messages...”

Or not.

**************

* Dr Gregory House