Seasonal Disorder, part 2

It’s only the second day of the New! Fall! Season! on TV and I’m already kicking myself for not buying the HBO/Showtime package my cable service offered last month. Call me a slave to lowbrow culture but I used to eagerly anticipate the new lineup of shows as much as any holiday. I’d watch nearly every show once, then make my selections. In the pre-Tivo days, I’d plan my evenings around those must-see shows and agonized when the networks scheduled favorites in the same time slot – those cads! Basic cable gave me more to choose from, especially with its summer series. Something’s off this fall. Nothing grabs me. Grey’s Anatomy? Been there, done that. House? I still love Hugh Laurie but his constantly curmugeon-y character is a drag to spend time with. Lost and 24 – sorry, but what the hell is going on anymore? The franchises are feeling stale and while I’m happy to see some of my favorite comedians hosting this or that game show, I’d rather watch their club routines on pay-per-view. I can’t tell on competition show from another – they all have one British (or Aussie) judge and another with some kind of issue (drugs? divorce? sexual identity? sleep deprivation?) The new stuff feels as if it’s planned for the 16-30 set – and maybe it is. Advertisers drive programming and apparently I am part of an undesireable demographic whose brand loyalty makes us less susceptible to the lure of new products than those fickle twenty-somethings. I won’t start on how wrong that thinking is – if they don’t believe our set is on the prowl for things to try and buy, it’s their loss. But I still want something to excite me. Maybe TV isn’t the best place to start; I do have a pile of interesting-looking books to read. Or I can still call my cable service; I think I’ve only missed two episodes of Tell Me You Love Me.