it's sunday night. the night when, tucked shamefully in the darkest recesses of the ill-lit stucco box i call home, i hunker down and wade through the minefield that is my hulu queue. these are moments i love and loathe. it's the only chance i get all week to catch up on the shows i actually like. but there are only so many of those. and when they're done, instead of turning off the computer and going to bed like a sane person, i let that damned fool continuous play feature drag me through half-hour after half-hour of rapidly denigrating television until suddenly it's 3am, my queue is empty, and i'm exhausted and angry and all i have to show for it is an empty box of gushers and 3 more pages of les moonves/jerry bruckheimer revenge fantasies. point is, this is going to change in 2010. and nothing inspires change like the embarrassment of full disclosure...
-- my queue --
community, 30 rock & [formerly] conan: the only reasons to feel good about turning on network tv. period. amazing how they can have so much good stuff can still manage to screw it all up.
the daily show (jump ahead to 3:15) & the colbert report: jon stewart and the first half of colbert offer arguably the finest political satire anywhere. but the last of colbert is just too awkward. even for me.
modern family: stereotypes are funny. really really really funny. too bad everything else on ABC sucks.
snl: kristen wiig. and that is all.
chuck: the plots are retarded. the acting is barely passable. and since buster got shot in the face, there is no reason for anything that happens at the Buy More to ever raise its head from the cutting room floor. but somewhere between the cars, the gadgets and the beautiful girls who usually end up fighting each other in showers, i do love this show. plus, it has without question the best soundtrack on television.
glee: i hate it. i hate how it makes me feel. i hate how patronizing the story lines are. i hate the idiot tingles i get from the inane writing. and i hate that in every episode, there are just enough impressive vocal performances and Sue pot shots at that idiot director guy's lesbian haircut to keep me from deleting the series from my queue. blech.
the simpsons: it amuses me less than the old ones do, but i feel like not watching it would be blasphemous. or at least racist.
family guy (american dad/cleveland show, etc, not even gonna waste time finding clips): it's stupid, easy, derivative comedy that unfortunately makes me laugh pretty consistently. also makes me wonder if censors even watch fox's shows anymore.
castle: captain mal. and that is all.
better off ted: ok, not everything else on ABC sucks. this show is usually pretty funny (and occasionally very very funny), but more than anything it fills the voids left by "arrested development" and "andy richter controls the universe" with portia di rossi and that funny white lab guy.
it's always sunny in philadelphia: like pretty much everything else on FX, you can't talk about sunny with everyone. i've found it's too loose, too weird and/or too repellent for most folks. (apparently people don't like mostly improvised shows about completely deplorable people.) but when you do find somebody else who laughs to tears at the mention of a priest cum crack addict cum exoskeletal homeless guy cum amateur wrestler, you know you've found a friend for life. -d
