My TV Finale Week

I feel like the TV is dying for me this week.

I’ve never been a huge TV watcher.  Sure, as a kid, I watched PBS.  Everyone did…”Sesame Street,” “Mr. Rogers,” “The Electric Company,” etc.  We also watched “Little House on the Prairie” and “The Waltons” religiously.  Sometimes, if the weather was bad, or there was nothing else to do, we’d watch reruns of “The Brady Bunch” or “Gilligan’s Island.”  As a teenager I watched “Full House,” “Growing Pains,” “Family Ties,” and “Moonlighting.” 

When Big D and I first got married we didn’t even have a TV for about three years, and when we finally did get a little TV/VCR combo, we kept it in a closet most of the time, and only carried it out when we wanted to watch a video.  We bought our first real TV when we moved here, just eight years ago.  And still, besides getting a little addicted to NFL football, we still didn’t watch it all that much.

But then I started watching “American Idol” the second season it aired, and I was hooked.  And then everyone kept talking about this new show, “24,” so I bought the first season on DVD, we watched it in one weekend, and we were hooked.  And then someone loaned us the first season of “Lost,” and we were hooked.  And for the past few years, from January until May, I’ve felt like a TV junkie, watching regular shows Monday-Wednesday every week.

Until now…

“Lost” concluded last night.  I haven’t totally loved this season, but I stuck in there because, after six seasons I WANTED ANSWERS!!!  Well, I was digging it until about the last fifteen minutes, and then I was like…huh?!  Oh well…I still feel like it was a creative, smart show, and I’m not sorry I watched it.  But I am glad it is over.

“24″ concludes tonight, and frankly, I’m setting myself up for disappointment.  The show, in my opinion, should have given up the ghost about two years ago.  There have been a few highlights, but nothing compares to the first few seasons where I literally could not sleep and bit my nails to nubs.  Considering that Jack has “died” twice and is a fugitive on every continent except Australia and Antartica, the storylines have gotten a lot far-fetched.  I’ve hung in there though.  I wish there was some way to have a reunion of the main characters, but considering they are all dead except two, that probably wouldn’t work.  But wait a minute…isn’t that what they did on “Lost”?  And that worked…sort of…

The “American Idol” season finale is on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.  And while it is coming back for at least one more season, I am not going to watch it, mainly because he…

…is leaving.  I have a feeling a lot of people feel the same way I do, so probably next season will be IT for the show anyway.  I had a hard time imagining the show without Paula, but it will be impossible without Simon, so I’m done.  I don’t even care who wins this year.  In my opinion, for the first time in the history of my watching it, the two most talented actually made into the finale, which makes it a little boring.  I’ve thought a reunion show would be fun for this series too, but then all the winners and almost-winners are pretty much dead (musically), so that might be difficult.  But wait a minute…isn’t that what they did on “Lost”, and that worked…sort of…  I think I’m experiencing de ja vous…

So now, TV,  I bid you adieu.  I will be spending my reclaimed four or five hours a week cleaning, folding laundry, sleeping, reading, scrapbooking, etc., etc., etc.  Well, until football season, of course.  Go Bears!