The Makings of a Couch Potato

There was a time when I didn’t always love TV, but there was never a time when I didn’t love reading. When one met the other, the result was an implosion of reading useless details on shows I’d never watched and/or never wished to. But that’s beside the point. I don’t think there’ll ever be a time when I will successfully have transitioned into a couch potato.

Most of this post is going to be about the quality of writing on TV and how, sometimes, the scripts alone can pull you in. For me, the first show that I started ‘script-reading’ was Veronica Mars: the script was sharp, witty and engaging. I read the first couple of episodes from this website which either transcribed the show or had a copy of the script, after its airing, which it then put up on its website. This was before Hulu, online streaming and downloads, primarily because technology hadn’t caught up then and/or my internet connection hadn’t factored any changes. I was hooked. There were a couple other shows like Frasier whose scripts I read closely. If I couldn’t watch em, I could read them and let my imagination do the rest. My point is though, if you can read a script and based on that alone, follow the show, that shows testament to the scriptwriters. Soon Veronica Mars became one of my favorite shows and once my internet connection switched from dial-up to DSL and DVDs of the show invaded the market, I got my fix.

If I look at some of the shows on my current watch list, the quality of writing’s slipped from then and I doubt if I had the option of reading the scripts first, I’d stick past them. Part of the reason we watch TV, is to watch the pretty faces cavorting in our eye line, to escape from the lives we’ve built and for those 40 or so odd minutes, cocoon ourselves in someone else’s life. Standards come and go, slip and shine through in various times and it takes time to find the right show that clicks. It’s a combination of things isn’t it? The casting can only do so much if you’ve got the right words being fed into their mouth, although sometimes if you pull it off in the right way, what you’re saying is irrelevant. After all, that’s what orators count on.

Anyway, nondiscerning reading can become a vice rather than the privilege reading serves in my life.

When it comes to creativity though: any form of it in the arts, you realize fairly quickly that “quality” is subjective. There are things people like that just don’t suit others, no matter how much you love them and you’re their best friend or whatever. It’s just not going to work. You may find a large section of people agreeing with you and a large section of people disagreeing with you; I doubt artists are creating their work to be liked by everyone, unanimously. The same goes for when you’re sending in your work to different publications, art galleries, film and literary festivals, etc. It’s all incredibly subjective and quite often, polarizing.

Not really a story on my so-called journey to being a couch potato, was it? Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Allergy season and for self-preservation, can’t go outside too much and when I’m in my room, can’t open the windows either. I’m medicated, of course, but sometimes it brings in the sneezes unwarranted or makes you want to sneeze and your eyes all watery. So this is it for now. Who knows? This may have a sequel.

For now, though: hello, spring!

:)