Taking TV Fanaticism One Step Further
This is really no secret — I’m obsessed with The Wire. Anyone who cites, stands or otherwise has to occupy space within earshot of me has heard me prattle on about Omar, Michael, Marlo, Chris and Snoop, Lester, Bunk, McNulty, the sublime brilliance of the HBO drama, or how I think its going to end.
Rarely does a television show grab me in such a way that I end up having to watch every week. I can think of maybe four shows like that: The Wire, LOST, Chappelle’s Show and The X-Files. But when I see a show like this, I kind of go all-out.
One of the great things about great television is talking about it — coming to work and discussing gripping scenes, pointing out minutiae the people have missed, speculating on what’s coming next. And, like a lot of stuff nowadays, some of the best discussion is happening in the blogosphere. Best of all, TV blogs really give you the chance to geek out in a big way. Seriously.
Want to read a nearly 1,800-word deconstruction of Episode 8 of The Wire? Tim Goodman, the superlative TV critic at the San Francisco Chronicle has you covered. (Goodman’s “The Bastard Machine” on Sfgate.com is also must-read.) Need to get a complete breakdown of how Lost exists in a metaphysical landscape or maybe try and figure out just how the heck a polar bear got on that island? Lostpedia has your back.
Despite its often anti-social effect on people, television is an inherently social medium. Good TV causes us to get together to watch, talk about it and blog about it so we can talk waaaaay too much about it. It’s only bad TV, the kind we watch when we’re bored and by ourselves that turns TV into a brain-sucking waste of time … or as Homer Simpson says, “Television! Teacher, mother … secret lover.”
Unfortunately, I only have one more week to nerd out to The Wire – the show’s final episode airs on March 9 – but I still have Lost. And hopefully, mercifully, there is some inspired writer pounding out the next brilliant television show that will, in turn, inspire less brilliant people to write about it, and, in turn, inspire nerds like me to lap up every word.
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