Monday, April 17, 2006
A Sucker for Romance
Now I know what I've been missing lately in the way of entertainment. A good romantic couples drama on TV - in the form of ABC's "What About Brian" which premiered this week. It has an ensemble cast featuring, among others, the lovely Amanda Detmer.
Two things I can tell you about me:
First, I'm an entertainment junkie. I watch lots of TV and movies. Mostly I watch useless dreck like "Surreal Life" or "Real World", but I appreciate some quality programming as well.
Second, I like romantic comedies / dramas more than most guys. Chick flicks. My favorite movie, for example, is "Shakespeare in Love". Sure, there's some goofy guy stuff in my top ten movie list, like "Groundhog Day" or "Tin Cup" or "Braveheart", but those are actually love stories too. I'd rather go see a Broadway show of "Les Miserables" than go to an NBA game, if given the choice. That's just me.
So, what does that mean regarding my entertainment lately?
Well, due to a temporary living situation I have limited TV time and channels. Only network. No cable. So, for the first time in a while I have to be very selective of what I watch. Maybe five hours of prime time network viewing a week. If it's not on ABC, NBC, or CBS - it's gone.
Comedies were easy to winnow. I'm down to "My Name is Earl" and "The Office". "Scrubs" if I can catch it. Everything else is off my radar screen.
Reality TV is a total casualty. Forget "Survivor" or "American Idol" or any of those shows. All gone.
I can live without the crime shows. No "CSI" or "Law and Order".
That leaves dramas. I need a good drama to stay hooked into. Gotta have one. One preferrably centered around couples and dating like the Gold Standard show from my youth - "ThirtySomething". I need that show again.
"Desperate Housewives" made it in this week. Great eye candy. But honestly, I can take it or leave it.
"Grey's Anatomy" is close. Good stories. Pretty actresses. And it has couples - but it's not about couples. It's a doctor show primarily, with romance as subplots.
Which brings me to "What About Brian". It premiered last night, with another hour on tonight. It's about 7 friends, 3 couples and one single guy. It clicked right away with me. I'm hooked.
I'm intrigued by the couple struggling with infertility, because I can relate to that story line.
I'm hooked into the triangle of the engaged couple, and the single guy that's not-so-secretly in love with the engaged girl.
And I'm really fascinated by the married couple with 3 kids who are having no sex, and the wife who proposes that they ocassionally sleep with other people because they married so young and missed out on that. The wife being the aforementioned lovely Amanda Detmer. Yeow!
This will be my new show that I watch every week for the next eight years.
My schedule is now full.
(Sidenote: I can feel my testosterone dropping as I write this post. I need to pop "Austin Powers" or "Kill Bill" into the DVD.)
