Alright, the thing is, I’m an elitist hypocrite when it comes to television. I complain about how awful TV is… how it’s complete brain-rot and how it damages the human brain and the mortal soul… and then I watch TV anyway.

I didn’t used to be this way. As far as I was once concerned, the only thing worth watching on TV were the programs on A&E and Discovery, BBC comedy, the occasional quality films that show up on cable, and, of course, The Simpsons. I was sincere in this belief, and stuck to it religiously. Avoidance of TV in general, and network TV in specific, was my policy.

Then, Wendy and I moved in together and all that changed. Wendy is a couch potato. She cringes when I say that, but it’s true. She watches a LOT of television. She watches reality TV shows, for Pete’s sake. She watches that Donald Trump show and The Real World and all that garbage. Usually, I just pick at her for watching this garbage and go off and do my internet stuff and play my video-games while she watches it.

Hey, at least my brain-rot is somewhat interactive.

But, as I said, I’ve become a total hypocrite as I find myself watching more and more TV with Wendy. And, ya know what? Some of it is pretty good. I hate to say it, but there are some good shows on TV right now, and I’ve gotten to where I enjoy and anticipate watching a few of them. This post is intended to out myself as a network TV watcher and to promote a couple of shows that I think are actually pretty damn good.

HOUSE, Fox, Tuesday nights at 9:00 PM.

I’ve been a fan of Hugh Laurie’s since the days of Black Adder, one of the all time best britcoms from the BBC. So I was glad to see that he had a regular show on American TV, even if it was another of those medical dramas, and even if it was on network TV, and even if it was probably going to be a short-lived piece of garbage. I was happy for Hugh because I figured that the show involved a decent paycheck for him, and it made me happy to see one of my favorite British actors, and a relative unknown in this country, making some money.

A few weeks ago I sat down with Wendy and watched an episode of House, and I have to say, I’m shocked at how good the show is. It’s really, really good.

If you, like me, are a fan of Hugh Laurie from the Black Adder days, you’ll probably be a little shocked at how different he looks now. Check out this comparison:



As I said before, House is one of those medical dramas, and I can’t say how it compares to ER and the like, because I don’t watch those shows. I did used to watch St. Elsewhere when I was a teen, though, and I can say that House is every bit as good as that show was. In many ways, it's even better.

Laurie plays Dr. Greg House, and his character is a lot of fun. I’m really surprised to see a network TV show with a main character who isn’t sanitized for the protection of the audience. Dr. House is not the kind of dashing, perfect, George Clooney type of medical TV show hero you might be used to. In fact, Dr. House is kind of a jerk. He’s rude to his co-workers. He’s arrogant. He’s also an unrepentant Vicodin addict. He's smart, and he's dedicated... but he's very, very flawed. There's a lot of gray area on this show. This is a character who I’d expect to see in a movie, where there’s room for some complexity and depth to the characters… not on a TV show.

The show seems, in a lot of ways, to be pretty conventional. Every week there’s a patient with a mysterious ailment, and it is up to Dr. House and his team to find out what’s wrong with the patient and try to save his or her life by the end of the episode. Sometimes they are successful, sometimes they aren’t. But what really makes this show different is Laurie’s performance as Dr. House. This character is complicated, interesting, and very, very funny. I laugh out loud several times every time I watch the program. So while the construct of the medical drama isn’t that inventive, the character and Laurie are what sets House apart, and I recommend it without hesitation.


ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, Fox, Sunday Nights at 8:30 PM

I hadn’t watched this show until recently, and I still haven’t watched it on it’s actual broadcast night… but a few weeks ago, my friend Brian started raving about the show, and he… ahem, “loaned” us his “back-up copy” of the first season on DVD. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more. Anyway, We’ve watched all but two or three episodes of the first season, and I have to admit, it’s really smart and funny. The premise is that a formerly wealthy family from California is coming apart at the seams as their patriarch serves time for white-color crime. All the characters are vile, selfish, repugnant people… so to some extent, it might be said that the show is a parody of the worst types of people among us. And it’s funny parody, too. If you watch it, don’t expect to find heroic, admirable characters. Don’t look for a thread of decency in the storyline anywhere. These are horrible, horrible people. But they’re funny. They’re really funny. And the show is smart and well written. I wish we’d started watching it from the first episode, in fact… and it pains me to say that. I hate to say that I actually regret having missed a television program!

Now, don’t get me wrong… The Simpsons is still the best thing on TV, and if I had to watch only one regular TV show, that would still be it. But I have to admit, I’ve been wrong about network TV in general. Just because most of what’s on network TV is garbage (see Will and Grace. See Fear Factor. See Friends. See CSI. See most shows, ad nausea), doesn’t mean that it all is. House and Arrested Development are both quality shows, and they’re both worth an hour of your time.