Television “entertainment”

I don’t watch much TV – I simply don’t have the time. Besides, despite all of the channels, there simply isn’t much on. But with the chatter on Twitter about certain shows, I felt like I was missing something so over the last few weeks, I’ve watched a few series. For the most part, I’m not impressed with this “entertainment.”

Twitter introduced me to “Scandal” a while back and it’s OK. The earlier episodes were better than the later ones. While I do want to know who Jake shot – so I’ll be watching this week – it’s really not “must watch TV” like I thought it would be at the beginning.

The next recommendation I got was “Orange is the New Black.” Up til now, I’ve had no reason to have a Netflix account, so I set up a free trial in order to watch this series. Worth every penny 🙂 Seriously, this is a very good show with well-developed characters. Of all of the shows I’ve watched, this is the only one I really like.

Since I had Netflix, I decided to give “House of Cards” a go, especially since the second season had just been released. Let’s just say this isn’t “The West Wing,” the only TV series I own on DVD. I watched both seasons – pure torture – and got nothing out of it other than the ability to say that I had watched it. As bad as Washington is, this series is worse.

Last week, I heard about “True Detective,” an HBO drama. Since I haven’t had HBO in years, I wasn’t about to sign up for it just to watch, despite the Twitter chatter. Away from Twitter, I got a recommendation from someone whose opinions I generally trust. Still, I didn’t want the expense of HBO. As I was changing my DirecTV package, I was offered three months of HBO for free. On the strength of that recommendation, I decided to take it just to watch this show. Good thing I didn’t have to pay for it – and thank goodness for the explanations by the writers afterwards. Sorry, Don, but that’s the last time I take a recommendation on a TV show from you 😉

I’ve watched a couple of episodes of “Parks and Recreation” – too silly – and “Breaking Bad” – too dark – as well.

I guess my tastes in television entertainment just don’t match up well with the “popular” shows. Good thing some version of “Law & Order” is on every hour of every day.

Failing that, I do have those “West Wing” DVDs 🙂