Around the Water Cooler

So there are so many great shows out there for people to watch... But the only one that I bother watching while it is still airing is "24" So if you know me you know not to call me on Mondays between 9:00pm and 10:00pm.

The reason why this show has moved into the only show that I will actively watch is because it really is a great show. The whole concept of the show is amazing. For every hour in the show is an hour in real life. That just creates some great concepts and unique problems in story telling. Just watching the show has taught me how to be a better writer. Not to mention that I admire all the sacrifices that Keifer Sutherland's character, Jack Bauer, as to give. Yes I know that these sacrifices are not real but if one suspends disbelief and immerse yourself in the world then you too would be amazed at that the character has had to endure.

That said the enjoyment of the TV show is for me alone. I go to my friends house every Monday to watch "24." We do not talk about the show before it starts. Nor do we talk about the show when the show is over. I just have no desire to talk about the show.

I don't want to have one of those water cooler conversations where everyone talks about the some stupid show that they just watched. Last time I tried doing this I tried putting a small twist on it. Everyone was talking about the "The Sopranos" and I said, "Hey you know I just finished? 'Portrait of the Artists as a Young Man'" Every one looked at me funny. They only reason why I could figure that no one knew what I was talking about was because everyone else was illiterate or just a math major.

The other day I was sitting in the lunch room. I was close to the water cooler so it could technically count as a water cooler conversation. Well I am sitting there and this lady come up to me and asks me if I had watched "24" the night before. AHHH!!! So I just took the high ground on this conversation... I lied and I told her that I had not watched it. So she proceeds to tell me what happened in the show. She emphasizes the screaming and the yelling in the show. For those who are wondering... For me lying that I just stopped watching the show WAS taking the high road... I could elaborated and I could have told I no longer watched the show because it reminds me too much of my parents. There was a time when I was young and my parents tortured me with sodium pentothal because I would not eat my supper.

I am sorry I just can not like anything that is that popular. There comes a point in someones life that they realized that they can not talk to anyone because they had not watched the show that everyone else had seen. Not because they were too busy or they were asleep but because they did not like it. Then with everyone watching the show they turn around and watch it because they want to be on the conversation. Believe me, I know. I was nine years old when I first started to feel this pressure because my parents did not go to as many movies as everyone else. Yeah after a year or two of that feeling of inadequacy I just gave up and stopped caring about what everyone else was watching. Thats why I usually wait until a show is off the air and then go out and buy the DVD season sets to watch them all in a row. It just makes things a lot easier for me. When you get used to watching it with out commercial you also become very spoiled. Sometimes I watch them on syndication because by that time no one is the watching the show. Still, I like the commercial less version of TV.

Hey by the way... Did you watch that episode of "Miami Vice?"


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