Monday, May 12, 2008

I Hate TV: NBC

Watching the otherwise perfect "30 Rock"/"The Office" block, an anger arose in me. Not because of the shows - "30 Rock"'s season finale was awesome, with only one minor complaint - NOT ENOUGH PETE HORNBERGER! - and "The Office" wasn't the best of the season, meaning it was only really hilarious and not astoundingly hilarious.

But I couldn't shake the nagging feeling of irritation.

As luck would have it, a Locke-centric episode of "Lost" gave my brain a nice, trauma-induced case of amnesia, so it took a few days to remember what had pissed me off so much.

Today, it all came back to me, in increasingly hurtful stages.

First, I remembered promos for "Deal or No Deal." Thanks to the summer, this show will actually INCREASE ITS PRESENCE. (I hear as a follow-up to GW's appearance, Dick Cheney will show up to shoot the banker in the face!)

Then the memories of the flop-sweat extravaganza that is "Last Comic Standing" flooded my memory. This is a showcase for excruciating mediocrity masquerading as standup comedy that, four years ago, was getting such deservedly bad ratings that its finale results were announced during a John Goodman-voiced animated sitcom (also cancelled after six episodes). And yet, it's summertime, so the thinking is, "You assholes will watch anything, won'tcha?" And to really rub that in, it's often hosted by Jay Mohr, whose mere presence screams "There is a God, and he fucking hates you."

This gaze into the abyss was jarring enough to unlock the final bit of trauma from my brain:

Blammo.

This summer, I will be watching "Lost" from the beginning, season 2 of "The Sopranos," and I might just get into "Battlestar: Galactica."

I will NOT be watching NBC.

(Does anyone remember when NBC felt like the "smart" network? When it ran "The West Wing," and Tina Fey wrote "SNL" so it wasn't absolutely horrible? Turn of the century NBC. Good times.)

5 comments:

Jaime Anderson said...

If you wach something like "American Gladiators" with The Hulk as MC, then we are no longer friends. (We can fight this one out myspace style, I have issues with some of your other digs).

That being said, love ya!

thechicgeek said...

It may be a little silly, and I'm pretty sure no one else watches this show, but I love Eureka on the SciFi Network. It's soon going to run head on into the third season, and the geek in me relishes the moment when pseudo science makes sense.

I will admit that the actual plot lines and overall story-arch are pretty lame, but the characters are funny, witty, smarmy and brilliant. My kind of people.

Threat Quality Press said...

American Gladiators is America in a nutshell: we're in love with imperialist bloodsports, but then we paint everything red, white, and blue, and cover it with foam so nobody gets hurt and can sue us.

tad said...

I realize its probably not, but the name of the gladiator that you have pictured should definitely be "Blammo". Nobody would want to face Blammo in the joust! (or whatever higher-octane version they currently feature of the event formerly known as the joust)

ISTV Global Stronghold said...

If they could name a gladiator "Zap," they can definitely name one "Blammo." We'll put in a call to our people.