Repeats, repeats, repeats. What the hell? Apart from another brain-melting episode of ""Lost,"" my docket of TV shows has been completely pre-empted by some sort of world sporting event going on in a far-away place called ""Canada.""
Based on a commercial for vacationing in British Columbia, this ""Canada"" has plenty of celebrity spokespeople singing its praises, including Samantha from ""Sex in the City"" and Michael J. Fox. But frankly, I remain skeptical—I've never been one to hop on a bandwagon just because Teen Wolf says to.
By the deluge of maple-leaf and curling jokes that flooded late-night monologues in nights past, I was able to piece together that the disruption occurring in the Great White North is the 2010 Winter Olympics, or the ""Way Less Fun Olympics"" as Kenneth Parcell aptly put it. And as the opening torches sort of lit (again, nice one Canada), I could feel the flame of my weekly TV routine flickering in the cold, merciless air of a forced midseason break.
Is anyone really coming home after a long day at the office, sitting down with a cold beer and saying to themselves, ""Man, I really hope all the good shows are on hiatus this week so I can catch that wicked luge final""? True, the opening ceremony pulled in 26.2 million viewers on Saturday night, the highest number for the Winter Games since 1994. But with no competition, we'll never know if the games could take on a brand-new ""Grey's Anatomy"" in a ratings battle royale.
""But Mark,"" the patriotic reader proclaims in disgust, ""show some national pride! The Olympics are about celebrating a global community of athleticism and cooperation!""
Wrong. The Olympics—like the Super Bowl, VMAs or the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show—are just another attention-grubbing cultural event that television allows us all to share. More correctly, they're another event only weirdos like me seem to be completely okay ignoring.
I wouldn't complain if it wasn't for the double standard. If I mention how excited I am that I figured out that Locke's adding machine in Season 1 makes the same sounds as the Smoke Monster in later seasons, anyone who isn't into ""Lost"" looks at me like I'm some sort of crazy person. But when I give the same look to someone who asks me if I watched last night's speed skating qualifiers, they call me un-American for missing it. Bah!
I had this same problem with the Super Bowl two weeks ago. Fortunately it only took over one night of TV, but I still took a lot of heat for simply re-watching old episodes of ""Scrubs"" in favor of catching even ten minutes of the game. But what can I say? The beauty of modern television is that between time shifting, online viewing and bottomless Instant Queues on Netflix, we don't have to participate in global television events anymore—there's always something else to watch to help you ignore the rest of the world.
So maybe I'll survive the week despite the inconvenience of the Olympics—at the very least, I can use the spare time to program a week of television for Summer 2012.
Mark thinks departing from the mainstream is a sign of a creative and imaginative person. If you disagree, you clearly aren't very cool. Get tips on how to improve via e-mail at mriechers@wisc.edu.
