Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks so what better time of year for me to reflect on some of the TV-related things I’m thankful for. To be honest though, I’ve been less than my usual level of thrilled with TV these days. Don’t get me wrong, I still watch what many would consider to be a shameful number of scripted dramas and comedies but the thrill just doesn’t seem to be there this fall. That said, it's Thanksgiving and not the time to whine, right? Plus, there are definitely some great reasons to watch TV these days, so I still have plenty to be thankful for.
Thursday night TV (and my TiVo): For a long time now, Thursday night TV has been consistently great. Lately though, with my lackluster enthusiasm for some of my regular TV shows, Thursday nights are the one major exception and thankfully, I have TiVo to help me keep up with everything. Between My Name is Earl, The Office, 30 Rock, Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy and the new ABC series Life on Mars, I don’t know how I’d manage to stay caught up on everything. The only real dilemma is figuring out which shows I want to watch live and which ones I’ll save for later.
Ugly Betty: Ugly Betty makes me so happy that it gets its own spot on the list. I recently realized that it’s one of my favorite TV shows. I’m thankful that Ugly Betty has remained consistently great throughout the series. Some shows have a tendency to hit a slump after a few seasons but our Betty is still just as entertaining as ever. My favorite aspect of the show has always been the slow but steady evolution of Daniel and Betty’s relationship. I love that the writers continue to work that in even when both characters are going through separate personal issues. I’m also thankful this season that the show is now being filmed in New York. The green screen backdrop worked fine for the show in previous seasons but there’s definitely something good to be said about seeing the real New York filling up every corner of the series now.
How I Met Your Mother also gets a mention here for remaining reliably great.
January is less than two months away!: Ok, so it might be weird to be thankful for something as simple as time but given the fact that January will mark the return of 24 (which hasn’t been around since 2007!) and the second half of the final season of Battlestar Galactica, that gives me two huge reasons to be excited that we have less than two months for January to arrive.
Netflix streaming: Since I’m too cheap to get Showtime, Netflix streaming allowed me to watch the first two seasons of Weeds without even having to rent each individual disc one at a time. Plus now we can stream Netflix through the Xbox, which means my husband and I no longer have to take turns watching TV shows and movies. I just started getting into Dead Like Me, which isn’t a show I had much interest in but thought I’d give it a try. Clever little series. So thanks, Netflix.
What TV-related things are you thankful for this year?
