Life By Kristen

Why Do I Watch So Much Immoral Stuff on TV?

Last night ( well Sunday night but since I don’t have cable we wait a day til it’s available for download) we watched the series finale of Breaking Bad. I don’t remember ever being this into a show since perhaps Friends.  I like the show for its intense characters and amazing acting, but as I was watching the episode and thinking of all the dubious ways the series could end, I realized I watch a lot of TV shows with slightly questionable morals.

I like Mad Men, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. All of these shows have men doing bad things, drugs, violence, and lots of swearing. All very different from my life as a bookworm/curator/writer/white middle class suburbanite. Thinking about all the things I watch on TV– what does that say about me?

I think some of it is escapism and/or almost like a glimpse into the ‘other’ life ( whatever lifestyle or time period it may be). I think some of it is because some of the rawest, most dramatic moments in life can be seen through actors in dramas where there are huge moral questions and decisions to be made. And perhaps some of it too is just that, in the case of Breaking Bad, it’s just so crazy to think that things like this could happen ( because honestly, with only a few exceptions, not everything that happened in the five seasons on that show are totally out of the realm of possibility of actually happening in real life).

Of course, I also like TV shows that don’t regularly feature murders and gore ( which by the way, I always cover my eyes for those scenes, asking my man to tell me when it’s done). I love Parenthood, Downton Abbey; I have just started watching Parks and Rec ( side note: how did we watch TV without Netflix and online streaming!?), and rewatch The West Wing and Frasier episodes on nights when I just want to feel better about things. When I think about the common theme in all of these shows, the writing, acting, and story lines stand out, but also the ‘feel good’ element is pretty high ( though I know a lot of people cry their way through most Parenthood episodes).

Now that Breaking Bad is over, we started watching Homeland, just finishing season one on Sunday. I think we’ll probably wait to start season two since we’ve been doing a lot of binge watching lately, but at this point I feel like we’re almost OD’d on suspense and drama and part of watching Homeland was to see what all the hype was about ( I’m still on the fence on whether I like it or not). I need a bit more happy, laughter in the weekend and nights after work, so send any recs my way!

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In the hopes of reinspiring my creativity in all aspects of life, and to decide the future of this blog, I’m going to try my hardest to blog everyday in October. I know a lot of bloggers do this in November, but that month is one of the busiest of the year for me in my real life job so I know I wouldn’t be able to commit to that goal, so October it is!