Welcome back to Finish the Sentence Friday! I am happy to be hosting this weekly blog hop, along with these fantastic ladies:
Janine from Janine’s Confessions of a Mommyaholic
Kate from Can I Get Another Bottle of Whine?
Dawn from Dawn’s Disaster
Each week we will provide you with a sentence to finish; bloggers, link up below this post, and non-bloggers, feel free to join the fun in the comment section by leaving your finished sentence.
Now for Some Rules:
- Please Make Sure to Follow Your Hosts, If You Haven’t Already.
- Make Sure to Read and Comment on the Two Posts That Come Before Yours.
- Share Your Favorites on Facebook and/or Twitter Using the Hashtag #FTSF.
- Now Make Sure to Link Up Your Posts with This Week’s Prompt Below.
- Enjoy and Have Fun!!
Today’s sentence is, “When it comes to reality TV, I…”
Next week’s sentence will be, “The most memorable Valentine’s Day I ever had was….”Â
When it comes to reality TV shows, I am embarrassed to say that sometimes they are the only type of TV show I can keep up with. My husband and I end each day with a snuggle on the couch and together we watch one of the few adult TV programs we indulge in. This is the unfortunate epidemic I have noticed lately:
Whenever I am watching a regular TV show, let’s say, The Mentalist, (one of my favorite shows; I wish Simon Baker was my next door neighbor in real life.) I find that my thoughts have started drifting and I can no longer comprehend what’s happening. A mere 8 minutes into the program, I’ll jerk to attention, flushing with the realization that I already have no idea what’s going on. This sort of thing happened to me all the time when I was a kid; I would find myself in the middle of a math lesson completely lost, as my constant internal preoccupation had taken my thoughts elsewhere. Then- BAM- it would slam into me that I had no clue what was happening and I would panic. (At least I don’t panic when watching TV. It is mildly embarrassing though.)
Instead of following along with the riveting dialogue and pretty-much-spells-it-out-for-you plot developments, I have been daydreaming about how many more days until my weekend getaway, mentally writing a grocery list that I have no hope of remembering, or trying to figure out how many consecutive hours of sleep I got last night. And I am pretty much doomed when it comes to following along with the rest of the episode; I haven’t the vaguest idea which characters are which, why that guy is a suspect, which blond lady is the victim’s daughter and which one is the D.A. and so on and so forth. It’s not that complicated of a show, and yet I appear to be a complete dumbass who couldn’t summarize the events if you paid me.
I could ask my husband, but he has already fallen asleep on the couch next to me, and is loudly snoring, further interfering with my ability to discern the plot.
Now here is what happens when we watch, let’s say, The Bachelor. (Because yes, we watch it.) Nobody falls asleep, nobody is confused as to which over-mascara’d, big-haired, crying, intoxicated, unintelligent contestant is which. (I mean no real offense here. I’m sure at least one of those girls isn’t an idiot.) We know exactly who scored the one-on-one date last week and there is no question which girl is the obnoxious shoulder-tapper from the cocktail party. We are, in a word, transfixed. There is no mental list-making, meandering thoughts, or confusion about what has just happened.
I am chagrined by this perplexing occurrence. I really have no idea why this happens to me; it can’t be “Mommy Brain” because my thoughts wandered as a kid. It can’t be sleep deprivation, because we are finally sleeping through the night. Is it just my particular personality type? Am I losing brain cells as I age? I guess when it comes down to it, at the end of the day when I collapse onto the couch after a long day of parenthood, I just don’t have any mental resources left to help me navigate complex crime dramas or intricate character relationships. It seems that the worse the TV show is, the more likely it is that I will pay attention to it.
I can only imagine how bad TV shows will be when my girls are adults. Can you even fathom the endless possibilities for untapped reality TV show premises? My six year old has already proven her extreme fondness for watching TV. She is allowed a few shows a day, and her favorites are physically painful to watch. As if I wasn’t already convinced, check out her latest homework assignment on “Needs vs. Wants.”
Apparently someone is a bit too reliant on the television…see her half-assed attempt to “fix” her mistake?
To be fair, I watch reality TV in extremely small doses. A little bit goes a long way. In fact, I am relatively disgusted by the number of reality programs available to us on cable TV. Remember when we were kids? (OK, when I was a kid. I’m talking about the early 80s here, the pre-90210 era.) There were like four channels. And during the middle of the night there were those funny colored bars on the screen, certainly not reruns of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? or a marathon of Cake Boss. (What the hell is that show anyway? I’m certain there are a handful of people reading this that can attest to its greatness.)
Fortunately, I do not have enough hours in the day to indulge in more than one (okay, maybe two) of these idiotic time-wasting reality shows per season. (I already admitted to spending all my time blogging, commenting, and tweeting here, so don’t think I’m being holier-than-thou with my time management skills and family values.) I  am overwhelmed at the host of inane programs out there that have no business being called TV shows. Seriously, were those days of 4 channels and 12 hours a day of programming so bad? Sure, there were plenty of mind-numbingly stupid TV shows to waste time on back then- they were called soap operas. Does anyone watch those anymore?
The year? 1990. Check out that old school TV with the big buttons! (Yes, we’re watching Dirty Dancing.)
For those who participated in last week’s Finish the Sentence Friday, you may recognize me and my friend Anne watching one of our favorite movies! And yes, those are a few of our Cabbage Patch Dolls with us. No, we were most certainly not too old to be playing with them.
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Sadly, I do remember soap operas, because my mom got me hooked as a child and I still watch General Hospital some nights on SoapNet. That said I can’t sit anymore either for an hour of regular TV and I rarely watch Reality TV anymore, but not sure what the cause is. If you figure this one out, let me know 🙂
See in soap operas we got to pretend it was all drama and suspense to lead us into a world of pretend.. The reality show proved that the story lines for soap operas may not have all been a stretch to reality itself.
That is a very good point… 🙂
“I carried a water melon?”
I’m trying to figure out what part of Dirty Dancing you were at. I think at exactly the same time roughly 4000 miles away another little girl was watching DD over and over and over. Were you guys 12? Did you make the Cabbage patch dolls do the dance move where Johnny holds her up in the air over his head? hehe
I was the biggest SOAP addict. I still would be if I lived back home. MY FB friends often post about what’s going on in the UK soaps. When I think reality TV I think BIG BROTHER!
OK, I was also a huge soap addict. I watched General Hospital and All My Children for YEARS, but it was all Days of Our Lives when I was a kid…my mom used to watch it and stopped one day when I included a character from the show in my prayers at night. HA!
Dirty Dancing. Awesome! We watched that movie so many times. And speaking of soap operas, I used to be a Guiding Light fanatic: Sorry, can’t stay late after school, have to get home to see if Harley’s going to pick LuJack over Phillip. Man, I can’t believe I watched that crap – and that was in grade school! I love the picture of Izzy’s worksheet – so perfect for this post.
I can’t sit down to watch a movie with my family because I lose track too. I can’t follow along and/or I fall asleep. Ganted the movie is always animated and probably the sixth time it’s been watched in our house. But still, I can’t focus on anything it seems like.
I was seriously obsessed with soap operas. Never saw Guiding Light, though… LuJack? Are you serious???
You know my attention span started doing that with The Mentalist. I don’t watched anymore. After Red John wasn’t Red John, they lost me. I use to watch a lot of one hour dramas but I can’t hardly sit still for it. I think that may have to do with blogging and reading. You can’t do everything. You gotta pick something you love and I scratched television for the most part. I never ever watched a Bachelor and the other one. Of course I’ve seen it in passing but all the kissing made we want to barf.
Yes, I *loved* the Red John episodes; if they aren’t part of that storyline, I start to tune out… glad it wasn’t just me! Yes, TV is at the very bottom of my “free time” list these days…
Stephanie, you are SO fucking awesome. Seriously. Awesome. I wasn’t going to participate in today’s FTSF, but you’ve inspired me to whip something out. I can’t say for sure whether it was the description of you watching TV at night with your husband and not being able to follow but the dumbest of shows or your daughter’s hilarious homework assignment and your comment “see her half-assed attempt at fixing it?” but I think it was one of those two.
You rock. I’m totally tweeting this. Um, after I actually have a link in there, too, because you know, I’m dumb like that and think it might matter. 😉
I am not exaggerating when I say that your comment just made my whole morning. 😀 I was worried that this post kind of sucked. :/ And thanks for the Twitter love. xo
Nope, doesn’t suck at all. In fact, I just updated my post to thank you for inspiring me to write something. 🙂
Actually, I’ll Tweet it now, too. Because you are that awesome.
My attention span does the same thing during “quality television” but reality tv has me transfixed.
Glad I am not alone!
Well, I am going to have to agree with you on this strange phenomenon and honestly? I’m not sure why it is either?! Great post though – loved the angle you took!
I am a self-professed reality junkie – as an insomniac who needs something to put me to sleep and who needs background noise while working on the computer, etc. What I find even more strange now is that so many of the soaps are being cancelled only to be popping up on the internet. I understand that All My Children and One Life to Live will be coming back online. I’ll be curious to hear what kind of following they pick up – even among their old faithful viewers. [#FTSF]
I didn’t know that- how interesting! I was totally hooked on soaps when I was a teenager… and even a little in my very early 20s. I wonder what will happen to those actors’ careers…
We’re apparently opposites – my wandering brain is exactly the reason why I watch so much (too much) reality TV – I can’t stop the stream of consciousness running through my head at night, so I record and watch them to put me to sleep. To be fair, some I watch “on purpose.” If I try to have a movie or an intelligent program on, I’ll just stay up and watch, so that doesn’t help. Same thing with reading – then I’m up all night finishing the book. Sigh … [#FTSF]
I love how you analyzed why you’ve gotten hooked on these shows…it actually makes perfect sense and I’m sure it’s the reason why so many of us get sucked into these mindless shows. Your daughter’s HW — hilarious. As for soap operas, I became obsessed with General Hospital in high school…are soap operas even on TV anymore? Strange how the TV world is so different now. Great post – thought provoking too!
Ha! General Hospital was my show, too. I *adored* it. The word obsession comes to mind!
My daughter loves TV too, even though I didn’t watch it in front of her and restricted how much she could watch. It worries me a bit. She would definitely colour a TV red – she wouldn’t even hesitate!
O…M…G!!! Your daughter’s picture has me laughing for the past 5 full minutes. I cannot tell you how much I love that…and then her attempt to make it blue. Oh, I feel her!!
You know you won’t get the stink eye for watching reality tv from me (especially The Bachelor–double episode week coming up!!). It’s just total brain candy. No concentrating necessary, just enjoy the ride. I do NEED that!! Totally red crayon for me!!! (I’m going to scroll back up and look at the picture again…ADORABLE!!!)
I’m also sending this link immediately to Ashley. I know for a fact she’d have her red crayon ready for tv, too!! –Lisa
“I carried a watermelon??”
I am proud to say I have weaned myself off of The Bachelor. Unfortunately, I have reverted back to watching General Hospital…
NO! Seriously? Are the same characters on still? Don’t you love that picture of us? Love you!
Crying with laughter at this entire post, but your daughter’s drawing threw me straight over into mass hysterics!! That is definitely the BEST thing I have ever seen…and I would have totally done that same drawing!!! AWESOME!!-Ashley
You girls totally made my day with your comments; seriously, I was worried that this post was a big steaming pile of hmm-hmm and was not funny at all! I am so glad the drawing was a good addition to the post!
Stephanie – In answering your question, the 60’s allowed us to have the four channels you describe. Weekdays were spent with soaps on three of the channels, but the independent station had an afternoon movie presentation. Yes, it was commercially interrupted, but it was usually an old Bogart or John Wayne film, so you could survive it! TV today has really gone to the pits. If reality TV is indeed reality, then I’m living in a fantasy. lol Perhaps that’s not a bad place to reside. Great post!
When it comes to Reality TV shows, I…what….you mean Tinkerbell “Secret of the Wings,” Strawberry Shortcake, Barbie, and My little Pony aren’t Reality TV!
Oh, God, I laughed out loud reading that! Love you, friend, and I feel your pain!
I seriously laughed so hard at the needs-vs-wants assignment! LOL That’s good stuff!
Yay!!! I have 3 seasons of The Mentalist to catch up on. HUGE fan. The reason I haven’t been getting to them though is for the exact reasons you mentioned, lol! I also tend to doze or lose interest these days, and it’s so annoying! I love Patrick Jane and his team. And agree with you – shows like The Bachelor, or most reality TV shows are so much easier to follow! 🙂
Hi there, I really enjoyed this post! But I have to agree, reality shows are very easy to follow because they are rather “empty”! You don’t have to think at all! Yes, but I prefer to think! So I guess I will stick to researching what I consider “interesting” topics! See you soon! Have a good day!
lol. what is it about dirty dancing that just made it every girl’s favorite movie of all time? love that photo flash back!
we got satellite w/ DVR about four years ago and i just can not figure out how i ever survived without it. i totally agree that tv is a necessity!