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My Mindless Entertainments

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by Jonathan Hilton
crazyThere are a lot of things about myself that I look at and have to wonder about.  I really want to learn a lot. I was writing to someone today that I want to learn as much as I possibly can. And for the most part I am pretty focused on figuring out how we humans work and what to do to be happier about life.

Yet there are moments I look at the things I find interesting and I am in shock at the simplicity of many of them.  I guess every mind needs some rest and simple entertainment. I am going to sit back with a coffee with an espresso shot and reveal several of my favorite television shows.

 The Family Guy

fam guyThis one took me by surprise because I really wanted to hate it.  A stupid cartoon, about a family, a talking dog and a talking baby? Boring. Yet I couldn’t take my eyes of the mess.  Seth MacFarland is clearly a comic genius and I think that the edgy topics and low brow humor appeal to something in me. I can’t help but laugh out loud when I watch sometimes.  I think the best thing that I can say is that Peter Griffin often says things that many men think but would never say.  You can judge me harshly for this one and I will take your judgement to Spooner street and tell Stewie all about it.  This show is funny. Everyone needs to laugh.

Music and lyrics by Stewie Griffin

I am a Psych-O

psychThat doesn’t mean that I am a danger to society. Well no more than anyone else but it does mean that I am a major fan of Psych. This is the make believe world of psychic detective Shawn Spencer and his lifelong friend Burton Guster. Who help the Santa Barbara Police solve crimes.  I started watching on Netflix and I couldn’t stop streaming until I had seen all available episodes.  This is another one that just makes me laugh with the silly behavior and the stupid jokes.  Love it. I want to ride around in the blueberry and solve crimes. Not a lot of thought behind these but a lot of heart and laughter!

Hi my name is Shawn Spencer and this is my partner…………….Click here.

Scrubs

scrubsThis is a show that is no longer with us, yet it is definitely still running on my dvd player!! I am not afraid to say, (perhaps I should), that I not only know most of the episodes but can quote them word for word. Can’t help it, watching the adventures of Doctor John Dorian and his best friend Turk, and all of their hospital cast is one of my favorites. It was a sad day when it finally made its last house call.  I love the fact that the show went all over the place, funny, serious, threatening, I mean who hasn’t been tormented by the janitor, or had a supervisor who was a total jerk like Dr. Cox?  I love this and there is just nothing I can do about it.  Even though I know all of the jokes are coming and what is going to happen, I still laugh.  I need help.

Some clip show from a bad sitcom too lame to come up with a fresh story

The Big Bang Theory

sheldon quotesI have used this one before yet it is true. I often wonder how a show about super smart people can be classified as low brow humor? Yet here we are.  Watching Sheldon Cooper go through life is relatable to many including myself in this way. We have all been in situations that we know we don’t quite get what is going on. Didn’t get the joke, missed out on the good time, was busy playing video games. That is Sheldon Cooper’s life!  It makes me laugh out loud as the previous two shows do as well.

Big Bang Flash Mob

The Mentalist

mentalistI am fascinated with this show, because it should suck, yet it doesn’t.  Some people say that it is the intelligent version of Psych, yet I think that is a disservice to them both.  The mentalist is a cop show where the police in some I believe fictitious unit from the CBI, (I refuse to do research less it add validity to this post.) Uses a psychic to solve crimes. I have been a huge Simon Baker fan since he was on a show called the Guardian. Which I also liked.  These cases always end up solved yet he can never catch this Red John character who murdered his wife and daughter.  I find this a little baffling. He is so smart in arresting everyone else yet this super criminal can roam the streets committing horrific murder after horrific murder?  Seems strange. But I like the characters and the back storylines are usually interesting.

Can’t Catch Red John

Bones

bonesI could watch the Bones series from morning until night and never get bored.  It has wit, great cast, good story lines and I guess I don’t even really have to feel bad about watching it. Until I realize that the Jeffersonian doesn’t really exist, but the story is based on real life so that has to be pretty good.  They have had some great plot twists over the years and that has kept the show developing.  Each episode a new murder, Bones father shows up, bones is pregnant, Seely Booth is the father? What the heck just happened?  For Fox this is a pretty cerebral offering.  Thank you Fox.  I am probably the only person who has ever typed that sentence.

Bones and Booth Sing

The Waltons

waltonsOK now I am dating myself here, but when I was a kid my parents used to make us watch the Waltons because it was about values.  I thought it was dumb, but a funny thing happened in adulthood. I started to watch this show again.  It was by accident at first, passing it on a channel surf, stopping and realizing I was really worried if John Boy’s book would ever be published.  I also realized that I really didn’t remember anything about the show.  John Ritter was on it for years and he wasn’t even funny.  When Richard Thomas left the show, I lost interest, but you have to hand it to those Waltons. No depression or World War could ever keep them down.   They also ended every show by saying goodnight throughout the house.  I wish I had a nickel for every time I endured the good night John Boy line from someone.  Anyway, I like this show and if you don’t then stay away from Godsey’s store and there will be absolutely non of the recipe for you!  Click to visit Walton’s Mountain.

I could go on and on but this will have to do because I am out of writing time for today.  I like these shows and I just can’t help myself.  We all have things about us that we can’t understand about ourselves that make us totally  unique and totally us.   I think that is is weird that I like the Family Guy and the Waltons.  Makes you think.

What are the shows you can’t believe you like?

Interests

Netflix OCD

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Like many new things that have come from technology, I have often been slow to a, ccept them, I once swore I would never get a cell phone, now like everybody else in the world, my cellphone is my lifeline to the world.  Call me, text me, check Facebook, all involves my cell phone.  That is kind of how my unhealthy relationship with Netflix began.

Royal Pains Early Cast
Hank Med, How can we make you feel so much better today?

I first heard of Netflix when they came out and thought, “That’s dumb, I would never use that.”  Since I am somewhat stubborn I stuck with that until about two years ago, I bit and signed up for the free month trial.  I was skeptical because I didn’t think that there was any television show or movie that I would like enough to want to watch each episode of.  What I found was not only would I like it, I would become obsessed with it.

It all began innocently enough, I liked the show Royal Pains and wanted to catch up on the doings of Hank Med, so I got those DVD’s first, and at the time you could get dvds in the mail and stream shows.  The first Royal Pains DVD had an episode of a show called Psych on it, which I had heard of but never seen.  It was humerous so the next day I started streaming the first episode of Psych.

Psych picture
We Love Psychic Detectives

This article is called Netflix OCD because much like a person with OCD who can’t control their compulsive behavior, I could not control my viewing of this show.  I had to keep watching, each episode in order, in every spare moment.  I would watch at night and bargain with myself, “OK it is 1 o’clock in the morning and you have to work tomorrow, only one more episode then that’s it for today.” Two episodes later I would finally pass out and that would be that.

Finally the day came that I finished all of the episodes of Psych that existed.  I was finished.  Perhaps now it would end, my Netflix OCD would end.  That didn’t happen.

Greek Cast from ABC Show Greek
Greek Cast

I got hooked on shows that I knew were dumb, but started watching and couldn’t stop.  Greek was one of these.  I know college isn’t like that but I found it fascinating to watch.  I was hooked and the pattern continued.

Then came The Guardian, which was a short lived show with only three seasons about a stuffy lawyer in Pittsburgh of all places.  Simon Baker of the Mentalist was the star and I found the show riveting as the producers and directors clearly searched for a cast that would make the show go and stories that would interest an audience.  Finally ending with the two stars having a baby with down syndrome.

The Cast of The Closer
Don’t Mess With Brenda Lee Johnson!

The next show was In Plain Site.  It was about two US Marshals and the people that they protected.  There were only three seasons of this so for me that is a momentary distraction.  I moved on to the Closer and watched all of the seasons available on that little treasure.  I was in a full blown addiction and didn’t want to be cured.

I would even watch series that I didn’t particularly like like Saving Grace.  Nice premise, but characters totally unlikable and stupid.  I was glad when that was over, and I could stop watching.  Then I started watching Scrubs.

Finally I had to do something before my life was consumed with old shows like Magnum PI and WKRP in Cincinnati.  So I quit cold turkey and started to read books instead.  I was running out of things to watch anyway.  Hopefully someday I will be able to handle the power of Netflix in a more healthy way, but for now I am going to have to keep going to Netflix anonymous and trying to find my entertainment in books.

 

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