My Girl and Television

Sometimes, the things my girl tickle me so much that I want to share them with everyone.  One of those things is when she laughs at things in movies or television shows.  Her laugh is uninhibited, infectious, and buoys everyone within earshot.  I myself find it hard not to laugh when she's enjoying herself with a movie or television show.

But there are times that I find myself transfixed by what shows she enjoys.  Make no mistake:  I'm not pointing the finger here as if I'm an orthodox viewer.  My own viewing list -- Blacklist, The Following, Big Bang Theory, The Amazing Race, Sunday Morning, The Five, Modern Family, NHL hockey and other sports programs.  I also enjoy those shows on the Discovery channel that show how things are made.  So my tastes are diverse as well.

But Karen's are...eclectic.  I was going to say eccentric, but that could be said of mine as well.

Here are some of the shows I've walked in on her watching:

Dancing With the Stars:  That millions of lemmings watch this show indicates that Karen's not alone in this, but at least she knows it's jumped the shark.  I can't really blame her for watching it.

Revolution:  The only thing that surprises me about this farce is that it's nothing more than Lost 2.0, and even Karen knows that.  She felt defrauded by Lost (I never watched it, so I have no idea), so that she continues to watch this amazes me.

Honey Boo Boo:  I categorize this under Train Wreck viewing, but I can't watch it for the simple reason that they have to put subtitles on the screen for Americans.  But I agree with Karen that the family is lovingly close.

River Monsters:  Because of her daddy, Karen is fascinated with shows about nature and the like.  But she'll sit there for hours and watch some foreign dude pulling weird looking fish out of foreign river waters.

Wicked Tuna:  Id.  But she's also a groupie of this show.

Blacklist:  I'm just as guilty.  I didn't say she didn't have good taste.

Nova-like shows:  Whether it's how this dome was built in the sixteenth century, where the stars point to the last known location of Noah's ark or the history of feminine clothing, Karen has a broad intellectual curiosity. I'll come home and pick some arcane subject and ask her if that's what she's watching.  Typically, I'm not too far off.

The Voice:  She says it's because of the quality of the singers, but I think it's all about Adam Levine.

Grimm:  We both watch this, no matter how silly.  I think we like seeing how the monsters look like our boys when they're yawning.

Alaska shows:  I think she suffers through them for me.  But she watches 'em.

Jewelry shows:  I don't get jewelry at all.  But she watches these shows with Southern belles cooing on stuff that I wouldn't pay a plugged nickel for and rates the quality of each item.  The best ones are always cute.

Naked and Afraid:  The premise of this show is that two survivalists go to a remote jungle area, one man and one woman, naked, and spend twenty-one days in the wild with nothing more than one tool -- a knife, a flint, whatever.  I can discern no purpose for this show other than to titillate.  The problem is that they blur out the good parts.  Karen likes to see if the men's buttocks are bulbous.  I just shake my head at the whole thing.

House Hunters International:  A couple looks to be ex-pats and buy property overseas.  Having lived abroad, I get the premise.  But some of the places these people are given to choose from make me shake my head.  Recently, a couple moving to Shanghai looked at property number 2 that had the air conditioning unit on the balcony, taking up the whole balcony, and the washer and dryer in the bathroom.  It's like a freak show for interior designers.

National Geographic animal shows on the Animal Channel:  Perhaps it was just dumb luck, but I've walked in on Karen two or three times watching shows on giant squids.  I don't even eat squid, much less see them for entertainment.  But she will sit there fascinated by them.

Medical shows:  She watches these with regularity because she's really a doctor without a license.  Not that she was guilty of malpractice.  She just knows more than some doctors know.  She self-diagnoses herself, for crying out loud.

The Big Bang Theory:  She identifies me with Sheldon.  Not his brains but his social awkwardness.  I think she's looking for a clue to cure me.

Any Revolutionary War series:  We watched John Adams.  That was good.  But she'll watch anything about the Revolutionary War because her ancestors fought in it.  I understand this completely.  I watch 'em because I like to see the Brits lose.

Game of Thrones:  Karen read one of the books, but even she gets confused about who's who in this series.  I just think the opening music and the CGI rendering of the rising towns is cool.

Ink Master and Bad Ink:  My girl's been toying around with getting a tattoo, although I don't understand for the life of me the attraction, and she's an excellent artist, so these shows appeal to her for those reasons. I love Master because of the snark quotient and how brutally honest the judges are to the contestants.

As one can see, my girl has a diverse and eclectic taste when it comes to television.  I think we'll leave movies for another day.  But it's never boring watching television with Karen.  Mostly, I like watching her when she's watching.  That's more fun for me.

(c) 2014 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles