I Don't Watch Much TV...

...but...you knew there was going to be a "but", didn't you?

There are two shows I follow. I didn't actually follow them from the very beginning, but became a convert to both over time.

Now, there are shows I really LIKE, but not that I will devote any time to watching...like Extreme Home Makeover and Deal or No Deal, Hell's Kitchen and Iron Chef, and my favorite, Alton Brown's Good Eats (which, like Iron Chef, is over on the Food Network). Then there are shows that I LOVED...back when they were on, which, unfortunately, is no more...like M*A*S*H and The Young Indiana Jones series.

But there are two shows that I dare not miss...per se. You see, we don't actually have television. No, it's not that we're not equipped for digital TV (even though I don't think we are), it's that we dumped Uverse a while back and never picked up any rabbit ears, so we've been living off our DVD collection (mostly kids' movies) and Blockbuster.com for...ages now. And honestly, I like it that way. If I want news, I jump on foxnews.com. If I want weather, I go to weather.com. Easy enough.

My two shows, however, make not having TV more difficult...or they did, until I realized I could access the last x number of episodes online at those TV stations' websites! TADA! I now watch my shows - AT MY CONVENIENCE! - online...with "limited commercial interuptions"! It's AWESOME. But back to the shows.

So like I said, there are 2. Years ago as newlyweds, we caught one or two of the last few episodes of the first season of 24, and as soon as the first season was available on DVD, we rented them successively from the local Blockbuster, reserving the next disc any time we could. We watched those puppies straight through, often 3 hours at a go (4 episodes per disc on 6 disks, each episode about 45 minutes when the commercials are edited). We were obsessed. So obsessed, in fact, that we actually MISSED THE BALL DROP on New Year's Eve, 2003 because it came down to pausing the VERY LAST EPISODE in the series ONLY 15 MINUTES FROM THE END for 3 minutes to watch the ball drop, or continue on through to the bitter, moving, emotional end. Like I said, what ball drop?

We watched 24 for the next couple of seasons while it was going, making sure to drop any-and-everything for our Monday night rendevous with Jack Bauer, (terrorists for family home evening, anyone?) and about halfway through the 4th season, Jason kinda gave up. I didn't. I'm a sucker for suspense, what can I say? He's watched little bits and pieces with me since then (this is season 7, by the way), but he usually shrugs his shoulders in disgust and walks away after about 5 minutes. Me? I stick with it to the bitter end. And this season, I think they're finally going to kill off Jack Bauer. And I may very well cry.

Hey, it's been a good, long run, and if they save him, I'll still tune in devotedly (the day after each episode airs, and via internet) next season. By the way, if you haven't seen 24, rent the first season. If you like nail-biting, nausea-building suspense, uber-intensity, and being emotionally strung up to the point that you occasionally stop breathing, MAN, that's your stuff. First season was still the best, primarily because it was willing to do things and go places that no other TV drama thus far had been willing to touch. ROCKED my WORLD. (Go rent it. Now. Ok, AFTER you finish this entry. Then go. Seriously. You won't regret it...unless you regret becoming addicted and investing too much time into watching TV. Rent it anyway.)

Then there's my OTHER show, and that one is ALL Cory's fault. Same story there. The rest of the world was halfway through season 2 of LOST when Cory let me borrow the first season, swearing that I'd love it and wouldn't be able to break away from the television, even to do the dishes. Oh, man, she was right. And by the time I finished the first season, she was handing me the second season on DVD that she had JUST bought. And I was hooked...line and sinker, too. So, thanks a lot, Cory. And I'm not sure whether I mean that sarcastically or sincerely. :)

Lost is another show Jay was interested in and then gave up on when it got really weird...and it did get really weird. In fact, I think it was the first episode of the second season where he started to scratch his head and make jokes about how the creators titled the show Lost NOT because these people were stranded on a crazy island in the middle of nowhere, but because it was the creators' intention to leave their audience thoroughly lost. Ha, ha. (Sometimes I still think he's right.)

I have followed this show since season three came up on the internet, episode by episode, and gasped and drawn conclusions and drawn diagrams to reach conclusions and played "clues to the next season of Lost" games on the internet, and even cried like a baby when Jin died. No, literally sobbed. Like a child. And still do, every time they replay Sun screaming desperately out the side of the helicopter. I'm tearing up right now. Seriously.

Tonight after the kids went down, I cried again. No, not because this season just ended with the season finale and I have to wait until the first part of 2010 to enjoy the final season and finally put all the pieces together, but because of Sawyer and Juliet. Far from Romeo, still they had a parting scene the likes of which made me weep. Amazing how wrapped up you can get in the characters, huh?

For those of you who follow Lost - which is probably NONE of you - OH MY GOSH. That ending?! The white light? Lost in black letters instead of white on black? People, I am SPEECHLESS, and as most of you know, that doesn't happen very often...if EVER. Speechless. All the woes and worries and oppressively pitiful emotions I've been feeling lately? This episode nuked them all. (wink, wink) I'm still wrapped up in Lost. I've been sitting around all evening trying to think of something else, so I had to come over here to the computer and vomit my brain-craziness into a blog entry. Geez Louise, people. Yikes. Seriously, Wow. Wowie-Zowie. Blobbity-blabbity-gobbledy-gook. SPEECHLESS.

So next Tuesday (or any day next week after Monday night) I'll be jumping onto Fox.com to watch the second-to-last installment of Jack's horrible day, (from 6 - 7 AM,) and the following week (unless they give us a 2fer grand finale next Monday, in which case I will be FREE from internet television watching until 2010!), when Jack's day will finally end...heck, potentially his LIFE will end. If a blog entry shows up sometime between next Tuesday and a week from Tuesday that says something simple like "I'm SPEECHLESS," or "Please pardon my absence from blogging as I mourn the passing of Jack Bauer," you'll understand. And maybe even get addicted, if you bomb on over to your local video store and do as I command you.

Anyway, I really don't watch much TV, but every once in a while a show (or two) comes along that really grabs me, and I waste infinitely too much time on characters who do not exist for the sole purpose of losing myself in their reality in order to momentarily escape my own. And 24 and Lost both qualify. Why? Because fighting terrorists and making sense of a 400 pieces of a thousand piece puzzle without a photo of the overall picture are far more interesting than what I'm generally doing at 8:15 on a given weeknight: waiting for my husband to come home and trying to be quiet in our teeny little apartment so my two babes can sleep in the next room without me disturbing them. INFINITELY more interesting. Both Jack Bauer AND Jack Shepherd. But I'm guessing that's just a part of the common Mommy denominator. Cest la vie.