Why I Like TV
by Elizabeth Johnstone
Growing up, there were two taboos in my house: fast food and TV. Once, when I was about four, I really wanted a Happy Meal. I got about as far as my driveway with my Hello Kitty change purse before I got scared and turned around. Occasionally my mother compromised on the TV thing and we got to watch Sesame Street. Later it was episodes of Masterpiece Theater and BBC America. To this day, I've never eaten a Big Mac.
Some kids rebel against their parents in a big way. By now, however, my brother and I have perfected the art of insurgency. At age twenty-five, my brother eats more fast food than anyone else I know, including college friends with the permanent drunk munchies. My mother gets his bank statements and cringes: Arby's, Taco Bell, Burger King.
Me? I watch a lot of TV.
It started with Blackadder, really. I started watching, and couldn't stop. I watched four seasons in about as many hours, and it was awesome. My mom told me to stop wasting my time. But all I wanted to do was laugh, and laugh, and laugh. So I did. It made me explicably happy to watch Blackadder go off in search of new potatoes and Baldrick hatch cunning plans. A young Hugh Laurie made me squeal with glee.
After that, I was hooked. Veronica Mars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files. More recently, The Office. And you know what? TV has truly enriched my life. How else would I know to shout, "why don't you try looking under the sofa in HELL" when my roommate is looking for her toothbrush? Thanks, Buffy. Where else am I supposed to get Facebook statuses like "Elizabeth Johnstone is not your grilled cheese"? Thanks, Veronica Mars. And why else would I have to suck in a massive giggle on an otherwise torturous family vacation when my dad accidentally mistook a field of soybeans for a beet farm? It was all I could do to keep from shrieking "DWIGHT! DWIGHT!"
Trust me, I know I haven't seen everything. I haven't even skimmed the surface of the late and great British comedies (though I almost busted a gut watching Coupling last night-- season one, episode four-- that's all I'm saying) like Keeping Up Appearances and Absolutely Fabulous. I still haven't seen The Wire, Heroes, or 30 Rock. I know this. I've got a list. But if you watch enough, enough of the really good stuff, you start to notice things-- like structure and form and set-up. You notice themes. And if you troll the internet forums, you'll see that other people are noticing the same things you are.
I like Dawson's Creek because the writers came up with the kiss between Pacey and Joey that basically turned a failing teen soap into a billion dollar business. I respect that. I like Gossip Girl because the people are pretty and Josh Schwartz is responsible for a lot of good in the world- Chrismakkuh, for one. But Veronica Mars and Firefly and Buffy, they've got something important. For me, anyway. Not for everyone. I think maybe people watch movies or television or read books or listen to music to try to fill in gaps in their lives. And it never really works, so they have to do it more and more. It never stops, because it can't stop. TV can't actually fix anything, it only makes you more aware of what it is you're looking for. It becomes a journey, almost a quest.
After watching The Office in its entirety earlier this summer, I realized I hadn't laughed like that in ages. And that I wanted to laugh like that, all the time. So no, we don't all bond around the TV Brady Bunch family style anymore. TV isn't as much for bonding families anymore as it is for connecting strangers with other strangers, and people with themselves. But let me tell you a story. Once upon a time while filming Monty Python, John Cleese and his crew stayed at the Gleneagle Hotel in Torquay. The owner of the hotel quite rudely tossed writer Eric Idle's briefcase behind a wall in the garden because he thought it contained a bomb. It was actually an alarm clock.
Fawlty Towers was born.
One of the greatest comedies, ever, from that singular experience-that, to me, is the best and most honest sort of magic you could ever hope to find in real life. It's in your TV.
