Happy Entertainment Wednesday...

Let’s just get right out in front of this from the start: I hate modern network television. I have no use whatsoever for reality TV, at least not since Paradise Hotel didn’t get renewed. Er, okay, maybe “no FURTHER use” would be more accurate. I put in my American Idol time, but in my defense it was during a dark, dark time when my social options were rather limited and TV was just…there. I watched Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Carrie Underwood (yeah, I skipped S3, Fantasia and co. just didn’t do it for me), Katharine McPhee, and Jordin Sparks get pushed into the spotlight. Okay, going back and re-reading that, I clearly put in way too much AI time. But other than big Ruben’s year, I always wanted someone else to win, and found myself generally despising the AI voting public by season’s end. That, along with the fact that the musical selections were crusty and as vanilla as it gets, basically doomed the show for me. I mean, when Blake Lewis covering Keane is as off the grid as the show’s music gets, it’s time to move on. I haven’t watched since McPhee and Sparks’ back-to-back “bland pop musician” wins (which resulted in albums that barely registered, I might add), and since then it appears that the show has been taken over by “bland white guy” musicians, who, I’m willing to bet, aren’t going to register, either. As for other well-regarded (I guess) reality shows these days…all I’m left with is…really? Dancing With The Stars? Really? America’s Got Talent? Really? The Bachelor and Bachelorette? REALLY? The entertainment bar is depressingly low, apparently. I can’t really speak on network sitcoms and dramas, because I just generally don’t watch them, so I won’t. In fact, other than the shining beacon of awesomeness that is The Office, I haven’t watched a network TV sitcom since Seinfeld ended. And dramatic network TV these days seems to be nothing but the eighth new version of CSI or the 40^th new version of Law And Order. Any day now I expect to see CSI: Tulsa or CSI: Wichita hitting the small screens, as the big cities are getting gobbled up fast. But again, I am not an authority on these subjects, and I get a fair amount of recommendations for shows like Community and, of course, 30 Rock, but unless I start plowing through episodes specifically to expand my knowledge base for this blog, I’ll be content to take your word for it.

Over on cable, however, it is a much different story. It seems as if there’s always some series to be locked in on, usually on HBO. Whether it’s The Sopranos, Rome, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Wire, or any of several others, the must-see-TV is over there now. And possibly my favorite TV show of the past 15 years, the reboot of Battlestar Galactica, was aired on the Sci-Fi (now the MUCH cooler and more fan-friendly “SyFy”) channel, and now about once a year on my DVD player as well.

Currently, there is only one show on all of TV that I am watching with rabid addiction, and that would be HBO’s Game of Thrones. Having not read any of George R.R. Martin’s epic A Song Of Ice and Fire novels, I went into the TV show blind, and it took a little while to figure everything out and really get into it. But once I did, by about the middle of the second episode, I was hooked. Game of Thrones is set in a medieval fantasy realm, and centers on several families vying for control of a massive kingdom.

 The cast is great, and the characters are as well-developed as they are varied. There are a ton of characters, but they are presented with depth; there are good guys, bad guys, and a little-of-both guys, but all types are present within each different family/faction. My personal favorite is Tyrion Lannister, played by Peter Dinklage. Tyrion is a dwarf, a little person, someone Dewey Cox would stand up for. He’s also extremely clever, brash, funny, crass, and rude, and pretty much just a lot of fun to watch.

The storyline is fantastic as well, using a slow-build technique to take the viewer from relative peace and harmony in the kingdom to, it appears, all Hell breaking loose before it’s all wrapped up. I definitely recommend this show; it’s not too late to catch up for HBO subscribers as all the episodes are still on On Demand. The suck of it all is that there are only two episodes left to air of season one, meaning a really obnoxious wait is incoming.

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That’s all for today; I have a sick kid home with me who has a very poor sense of humor regarding Dad ditching her to type on the computer for hours. We’ll be back tomorrow with some sports talk. Have a fine, fine day. Feel free to comment to anything I write, positively or negatively. I appreciate all feedback, and as I have no illusions that I am good at this, welcome any comments regarding ways to improve this thing. Thank you, and thanks so much for taking the time to check this out every day!