Where Have My Lovely Shows Gone?

Hmm... so now that I've started this blog with the intention of having all sorts of witty and insightful comments regarding life and more importantly TV, I find myself totally uninspired. Perhaps I should talk about the 2010 Winter Olympics and how they've taken away my shows temporarily and yet captivated me with sports I know nothing about.

I'm from the south, I've never been skiing in my life. But seeing those crazy athletes fly off the mountains and gracefully land upright is inspiring. Not enough to make me go outside and do anything remotely athletic myself, but still, inspiring enough. Of course Bob Costas is going to make it a powerful and "redemptive" story because so-and-so suffered a horrible fall or injury just a few months ago and now look at them. Now they are winning Gold! And how upsetting if an American dares win a silver, or heaven forbid, Bronze.

When the Olympic coverage first started, I was quite mad at the packages designed to make me root for the USA Olympian whose story was heart-wrenching, and therefore they had to win a Gold medal. What a great example for young, future athletes. Oh, it's not about competing at your best, creating a healthy love for a sport or training your body. No, it's about an American winning! I had to remind myself that I was watching US coverage and of course they're going to promote USA. But then non-Americans started winning some Gold and the coverage shifted to show the courageous stories of those people, and I started to hate Bob Costas a little less. Only a little (sorry Chad - I know you heart him).

So I started DVRing the Winter Olympics and scanning through the hours of footage. I skipped through the Luge - not because it was too painful to watch a track that had killed a hopeful athlete - but because I don't get Luge. I don't understand it. I feel like they're along for the ride and yet I know there is amazing technical skill happening, but I can't see it. The cameras only show me a person swooshing by. I get countless slow-mo replays for a ski jump, snowboarder, or triple-toe loop with arrows showing me how it was good or bad. But I don't get any analyzing of how the foot movement of a luge athlete did what it did. I guess it's just too fast a sport for the camera to capture and show in detail. But I work with cameras, they're amazing! But maybe even High Def's 59.94 frames a second can't catch the small foot flick of a luger. Is luger the right term? That doesn't sound right.

So I ffwrd through Luge and the big jumps in Ice Skating. I hate when they fall - and somehow a little fast forward or even muting it for that instant makes it better. And I watch Mary Carillo's stories about polar bears or torch running - and wonder about the fact that she's a respected female journalist with such a low voice.

I'm ready for my regular shows to come back. I'm ready for hospital drama, and murder solving shows, and silly comedies. Ya know - fiction! Wouldn't want to be inspired by real-life people - I must escape my own reality in television drama. At least I have new episodes of LOST. That's all I need. LOST, and this paddle-ball game. That's all I need. LOST, this paddle-ball game, and this lamp. That's all I need.