Note: all confessions are related to TV.
(Additional Confession: I've sung Usher songs both at Karaoke, and with a band.)
Confession the First: my television watching schedule can be rather easily influenced by a member of the opposite sex that I'm pretty interested in (and has demonstrated an interest in me).
Now, not every "chick show" I've gone on to enjoy even when watching by myself with no one to fool around with/talk with/make goofy faces with during the commercial breaks has been the result of a potential girlfriend/date. The OC (which ends this week and will get at least one blog post from me) had nothing to do with dating anyone (but, obviously, proved to be useful in conversation) and everything to do with me no longer having classes to study for and a friend who not only had no classes to study for, but at the time had been unemployed introducing it to us (it was the mini-first season finale, where Marissa wanders off in Tijuana and nearly dies).
But the following I did end up watching because of someone else:
Friends
Desparate Housewives
What About Brian
Confession, pt. 2: Noticably absent from the list--Grey's Anatomy. First, technically while I did watch a lot of the start of this current season with someone special, I actually started watching after the 2006 Superbowl, when Christina Ricci had to stick her hand in a guy's bomb-ladden stomach and George's fantasy was used as a shameless way to attrack male viewers disappointed in the lack of an ad equivalent to the Miller Lite Catfight Girls. And it was a cliffhanger, so I tuned into the next episode and...well, then the arc was over and I found I wasn't interested in watching more.
And perhaps the real reason for my bad luck with women isn't that I can push to hard for a relationship to soon (because I've had mind-numbing jobs that leave me with far to much free thought time to uber-obsess about whomever I'm seeing)...nope, it's maybe simpler than that. It's because not only have I not been watching Grey's (I either watch The OC and TiVo Scrubs/30 Rock or vice-versa...and the poor ol' DVR can't handle double recording duty. Neilson Ratings for Thursday nights at nine can confirm I'm quite special, as most of the US watches either Grey's or CSI) but when I noticed some blog posts and Facebook groups cropping up with the gist being "don't let Meredith die", my first thought is: I really don't care.
Some other blogs have already done a bang-up job exposing the near brobdingnagian levels of suspension of disbelief necessary to watch the show (and contains, somewhat inexplicably, a reference to Dr. Grey and "wet panties" that is 100% non-sexual.) But still think it's the characters that keep me from watching the show without being prodded by exceptionally pretty feminine charms (and at least in the case of the start of the season, she's smarter than me too, so I have to be careful about high-horse based claims, lest I look like even more of a McJackass.) The writing isn't bad...but...it doesn't have the comedic touch of the best moments of the OC or House (though this could be because no one in Grey's cast can touch the likes of Peter Gallagher, Hugh Laurie, or Melinda Clarke) and while it does have multi-episode arcs being developed (I've missed the Dr. Yang-as-Lady-MacBeth arc mostly, but was still watching it when it started, and, like Bobby DeNiro, I hear things...) they aren't as tautly integrated as the arcs on Desparate Houswives (which is really, really good at this) or other similar shows. The bulk of the arcs seem based on who's dating who, and even 30-minute medical comedies (Scrubs) do more arc-wise. But really, it comes back to the characters. Izzy made my top 10 mainly because I'm really picky--yes, even about tv girlfriends--but felt a need to provide a top 10.
It really starts with the title character though, and I don't get her appeal. For straight women her appeal is obvious: a job that is rewarding and provides (mostly) financial stability, plus hot doctors and a vet fighting over you and spouting great compliments and lines of love. But as a straight guy I don't see why they're fighting over her. I can't imagine having one of those great dates where we talk for longer than the run-time of Magnolia with it seeming like barely any time's passed. Sure the McAdjectivating is clever, and it's rare when TV characters admit to watching other TV shows, but I can't shake my gut feeling that she's a bit shallow and uniteresting and since she's the main character (unless they kill her off...some fans are anxiously scanning pre-production lists and imdb for Old School 2 and hoping Ellen Pompeo doesn't think she's better off in film) my interest isn't there in the show either.
(Good dates should do even better than this pretty-kickass movie at making three hours fly by--and with less depressing elements too.)
But after the OC ends this week I think I may give her and her on-call cohabitating buddies another shot. One because I'm a sucker for second chances, and Two because I remember really disliking the characters on What About Brian the first few times I watched it too. Then I tuned back in one night (Florida was on their way to winning a national title game and I couldn't watch it) and I got hooked. Characters, like people, can be flawed but still interesting to watch, and jackasses and whiny punks can gain depths you didn't think were there before. And yes, it is a nice bonus that WAB now boasts potentially the most attractice female cast ever assembled, what with Sarah Lancaster, Stacy Keibler, Krista Allen, Amanda Detmer, Valery Ortiz, and now Tiffani Theissen (aka Kelly Kapowski).
(Kelly Kapowski, the "perfect girl" from Saving Silverman, and the amazing legs of Stacy Keibler=just 3 reasons to tune into ABC Monday night.)
(And yeah, there's one more thing I'll have to get around to really give Grey's an honest second...well third...chance: it's a medical-based show bookended by voice-overs from the main character and the hospital staff sleeps around a good bit. You know, like Scrubs. So I've got to find a way to not compare the two. Tips are appreciated.)
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