My Favorite Waste of Time

Thomas Wolfe, 
Asheville's favorite son.

I had to work two nights in a row this week. I actually don’t mind so much, but it kind of makes my husband grouchy. I think that hunkering down in front of the tube is something he looks forward to during the day... not because he is a couch potato, a tubehead, but because it is something we do together. It’s sort of like a nightly “date” for us. 

The better Tom
and his progeny.

Now, I like TV okay – there are some pretty good shows, but I REALLY love to read. And when I was single, I’d spend plenty of evenings in bed reading a book. When I lived in Asheville I read everything Thomas Wolfe wrote, and he wrote some long books. And it really gave me a sense of Asheville’s history. So when I got married, I kind of missed those evenings with just me and an engrossing bit of fiction/thinly-veiled autobiography. 

Of course, having a factual hunk of man like Tom Moore to curl up with is much better than an author named Tom who, by all accounts was a little weird, anyway... (Here’s what’s also weird: Thomas Wolfe – went to UNC, worked at the Daily Tar Heel and the Durham Herald / Tom Moore – went to UNC, worked at the Daily Tar Heel and the Durham Herald... fortunately my Tom is a good deal more stable than the other one – albeit also weird in his own charming way.)

"A bunch of honkies that live in a church..."

Anyway, despite the added benefit of marrying someone I loved, and having a flesh and blood Tom as opposed to one made of words, I did miss my evenings in bed with my books. It was Tom’s routine to watch an hour or so of TV then climb in bed and read, where I was likely to skip the TV part. To be honest, I felt the tube was mostly a waste of time... something I had to endure to get to the reading in bed part. 

Is it wrong that I’m attracted
to Boyd Crowder as
well as Raylan?

But one day it dawned on me, the hour of TV is important... because it’s important to Tom. It’s something he likes to do, and he likes to do it together. So I can either get on board, or keep on with my “suffering in silence” attitude. Because, really, it’s not like he’s asking me to do something difficult or heinous. TV is actually pretty enjoyable. And mostly he watches good stuff with me, saving the Zatoichi movies for when he’s by himself, thankfully. I know Japanese martial arts films are supposed to be cool, but they just put me to sleep. 

Zatoichi, the blind swordsman

So now I embrace our time in front of the old flat screen... What do we watch? For the most part, we prefer shows that are well-written. We’ve worked our way through most of the HBO series: The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood, John from Cincinnati (which got cancelled, but I liked it a lot,) Treme, Boardwalk Empire, Rome, Eastbound and Down, True Blood... BBC America shows like Doctor Who, Torchwood, Merlin, Being Human, Luther, and The Hour... also, Downton Abbey (this SNL skit parody skit will make you spit whatever you're drinking), Madmen, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Walking Dead, Justified (is it wrong that I’m attracted to Boyd Crowder as well as Raylan?)... We even watch some network shows – like NBC’s Thursday night line-up. Jack Donaghy makes me laugh HARD. And Glee, because we love show-tunes and because Jane Lynch is funny in anything.

Craig Ferguson and his skeleton
robot sidekick Geoff

We watch movies we get from Netflix, movies Tom buys for cheap on Amazon or ebay, and Tivo'd nightly monologues from David Letterman (is it just me, or does he do the same jokes over and over?) and Craig Ferguson. If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching Craig and his skeleton robot sidekick Geoff Peterson, I suggest you go to CBS.com and watch him now. Craig is smart, silly and SCOTTISH. He’s written a couple of good books. too. Of course, I have to wait until after TV time to read them... 

As you can see, while some of we watch may be well written and/or good comedy, most of it probably would not qualify as spiritually edifying. But is watching TV a waste of time? Maybe. But time I spend relaxing with Tom is never wasted!