Watching Sitcoms

I’ve been doing a stupid thing. Well, maybe it isn’t exactly stupid, but its turning out to be a bit frustrating. I’ve been watching cancelled shows. Just because I can.

See, I think its great that shows are put on DVD or are available online, cause it gives you a second chance to watch a show you may have passed on the first time around. When I was a kid, you couldn’t do that. I can honestly remember putting a tape recorder on the floor next to the TV speaker - we had one of those huge Magnavox all in one TV/Stereo/Record players consoles - and recording entire shows so I could listen to them again. I probably still have some of those tapes. And when you weren’t home to watch a show, you just missed it. There weren’t even VCRs yet (never mind DVRs), or at least not ones that were used by the common people.

But anyway, its a great thing and its a sad thing. Sad because you start watching a show and you get all involved and then its over. It does not make it any better knowing ahead of time that the show was cancelled and there are only so many eps to watch. I really thought it would, but it doesn’t. You’re still all sad and upset that this great show that you just invested hours and hours into watching is gone - maybe for a couple of years by the time you get around to it - and that it won’t be back. Ever.

I just recently watched Arrested Development, as I’ve mentioned previously, and even though it had a sorta ending where things were very nearly wrapped up, it was still hard to let it go. In the last little while, I watched through all of Tru Calling. Now there were only 27 episodes (unless you count the unaired pilot, which I did not watch cause I can’t find it anywhere -hint hint) and I knew that going in. But it just sucks that there are no more eps to watch.

I never watched the show when it first aired for whatever reason. I was never really much of a Faith fan (as in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Faith) and I guess it bugged me a little that Faith (Eliza Dushku) got her own show before some of the other Buffy alum that I figured deserved it more, so I just didn’t watch. But just recently the Sci Fi channel has been airing all the eps in marathons (like one day every third week or something like that) and I got a chance to see them.

It did start out a little slowly, but the sad truth is it was getting better. It was really, really great towards the end. I was actually on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen and I even cried a little. Then it ended and I just sat there thinking, why in the world did I get involved?

So you see, its a great thing. And not so good, too.