Goodbye Blue Sky

Somewhere along the line I became a TV junkie. I'm not sure exactly when it happened in the latest incarnation, though I definitely experienced a surge immediately after college, due in part to the complete lack of TV I watched for 4 years.

But between then and now, I feel like I had a life - I went to bars, I finished my weekly Economist and monthly Discover magazines, I went dancing, I met with friends, I went to movies, I went hiking, I made pottery, I got on my bike several times a week.

So when did all these things stop? I still want to do many of these things, so it's not like sitting in front of the TV is just a filler activity for lack of anything better to do. I sort of blame my TiVo, though that's not entirely fair just because it's made it easier for me to watch all the things I wanted to watch anyway. Some of it is the sheer explosion of good (or entertaining, if not quality) hour-long programs across the cable spectrum. It's shocking to me that I can watch a couple hours of TV every evening before bed (spreading the load out across the week) as it is, not even counting all the TV to be caught up on via the glory of DVDs.

The beauty of the DVD (and here, briefly, my life and blogspace again parallels Ebony's) is that you can watch an entire season in one red-eyed Ben&Jerry's-fueled pajama-wearing weekend of commercial-free numbitude. Which is what I have basically just done. Yes, the last thing I needed was yet another TV show to watch, but Netflix, in all its nefarious fabulosity, delivered unto me the entire first season of Battlestar Galactica. The modern, one, if I must specify.

And it is gripping, I tell you. I can't pull myself away -- and not just because of Jamie Bamber's biceps. We'll see where it leads, but this is how sci-fi should be done. Of course there are cheesy bits, and I'm totally a sucker for good civilization-ending epic disaster dramas, especially ones focussed on the human element told through well-fleshed out characters (à la The Forge of God [no, I haven't completely forgotten how to read, and thank you Joy for letting me lighten your move from LA by absconding with those books]). But they've also managed to throw in fascinating political and philosophical elements against this sci-fi backdrop.

Hopefully I can push through the entire series (so far) within the next couple weeks before Lost returns. And don't even talk to me about the movie situation - guess the remaining 469 items in my Netflix queue are going to have to wait till summer when TV is in reruns, perfect weather be damned. I've lived in California long enough to stop feeling guilty about staying inside on a glorious day; there will be more.