I read your column regularly ...
Question: I read your column regularly and never expected to write in. However, after the day-to-day of
Gilmore Girls/
Alias/
24/
Lost, I felt it necessary to shine a light on some of the most entertaining TV no one is watching. My wife and I, while huge fans of
Lost and
Alias, searched out new programming over the six-week holiday break and discovered — Discovery. Two of the best and most informative shows are on that network and deserve high praise. I'm talking about
Dirty Jobs and
Mythbusters. While these are lumped in to the reality genre, I guess, they are family-friendly, riotously funny (especially
Dirty Jobs) and make us feel like we've actually been productive and learned something after watching them. What is your take on these and other shows (
No Reservations with
Anthony Bourdain is another favorite) that don't fit into the serial, sitcom or cheesy
Bachelor-type format?
Answer: Funny, but when I went home to the Midwest for a week during the Christmas break, I also found myself migrating to cable, mainly because that's what most of my family back home watches: Food Network, HGTV, with smatterings of Discovery, History, Travel. All very relaxing and also sometimes stimulating. All of the shows mentioned above, especially
Dirty Jobs, are great diversions, so consider this a long-overdue plug. But it's a fact of life that the bread and butter of my columns, both online and in the magazine, will continue to focus on scripted entertainment or reality franchises that tell a story, however contrived. I enjoy niche programming when I have time for it, but shows that don't change much from week to week don't tend to be part of my menu. There's just no time. Can't tell you, for instance, the last time I tuned in to
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and I was a huge advocate for that show when it first premiered. Not that I have anything against it, but I get it already and don't feel compelled to keep watching.
