Photo Friday: What We're Watching

We don't have HBO,but Co got into the Sopranos when A & E started showing reruns. Then I got her the first season for Valentine's Day and started watching with her...and the rest is history. I never thought the show would interest me, but the psychological and familial drama is fascinating. And watching it with a bona fide Italian: priceless. I'm sad that its ending, but relieved that we're only partway through season 2.

We don't have a DVR, though I'm growing increasingly tempted. However, if we did, here's what would be on it (my choices, but I watch all of these shows with Co):

*Jeopardy! I have long loved Jeopardy!; it's the only game show I like. I love playing along and on good days I think I could be a contestant. I play classroom Jeopardy to review units. I don't watch daily but if I'm watching T.V. when it's on I always check it out and love reruns on GSN as well.

*Law & Order. We love all of them. I wept when Jerry Orb*ch died. And if you have cable, well, it's just always on. Criminal Intent can be kind of annoying but since we've seen virtually all of the episodes of the other two, we caved. Trial by Jury deserved to be cancelled, though, I must admit. But we liked Convictions, another short-lived spin-offs about young DAs. Its on in reruns (all, like, 7 of them) on Sleuth TV.

*Medium. That is quality television.

*Scrubs. Scrubs just cracks me up. Thanks to Comedy Central reruns I've seen almost all of them now. I really like, too, that it's popular with my students, and I can actually let them relay Scrubs jokes in my classroom. Not so with South Park... (Kid: "And then Mr. Slave --" Lo: "That's enough!!" Kid: "But you dont' know what he did with the hamster!" Lo: "Oh, yes, I do, and that's enough!!")

*Degrassi: The Next Generation. How could any child of the 80s pass on this one...Spike's little girl, all grown up. Canadian TV, particularly kids' TV, is often much higher quality than ours, and this show is no exception. I've used it in the classroom to talk about various issues (most recently why you should NOT put up seductive photos on MySp*ce along with your home address and claim to be 17 when you are TWELVE). I've always been annoyed by the American advertising for the show ("Degrassi. It goes there"), sensationalizing issues that the show itself deals with sensitively and thoughtfully (Internet stalking, a school shooting, rape, etc.). Lately I do feel the show has become more sensationalist and sexy than I'd like, and certainly significantly more so than the old days when it was aired on PBS. Oh, well, our decadent society. Sigh.

And with this long list of T.V. shows, I'm really one to complain about our decadent society! As a kid I rarely watched television. Strange habit to pick up as an adult.

I leave you with one of the most gorgeous women on television (Co assures me she doesn't feel threatened).