Out of Step

MSN posted the best/worst TV shows of 2010, a long list of shows I have never watched. The only show I've seen is Glee, and that's because I always was a music geek, but it was much better when it began than when the season ended.

Anything with "typical" family sitcom in the description or vampires gets a pass from me. I don't find it even mildly amusing that a series is based on a for-hire killer or buried six feet under. Anyone under the age of 25 showing me by their lifestyle how to live mine is going to be removed from the channel selector. At my age, I know there is more to life than gym, tanning, groceries, indiscriminate hooking up, hangovers, and bitch-slapping sisters taking the daily walk of shame. I've given up on talk shows, which I used to enjoy, because the guests play "one-up" with each other, talking over each other's questions/responses and including little insider opinions that rankle those of us not in the know. The big-name morning shows are trivial and petty, with far too much hee-hawing and pandering to the youth demographic. The doctor shows are interesting, a bit too theatrical at times, but where there once was one, there are now far too many competing with each other for a share of the audience.

I do watch movies on TV, but I dvr them first so I can fast-forward through the commercials, which have become either ridiculous or offensive. All that little writing at the bottom of the screen that no one can read negates the generous terms and offers of the big writing, but the point is to hide the truth in advertising that is cuted-up for the brain dead consumer. When the consumer is told that all s/he has to do to receive a second set of the offered item is pay for shipping and handling, the purchaser has no idea the second set will be sent via a personal shopper in a hired limo traveling cross country, staying at the finest hotels, and emptying the mini-bar and ordering from the room service menu at each stop!

I am totally out of step with the times, for which I remain grateful. I don't have to fit the demographic of an advertising agency's publicity campaign. I can be myself, do my own thing, answer the phone if/when I choose to do so, refuse to text anyone for any reason, and wear my pull-on pants and athletic shoes for more than one season. There are no designer stilettos in my future, no cute must-have accessories, no partying like there is no tomorrow, and none of the TV shows the media says I must watch.