May 19, 2004

[TV] Sad TV Times

The past 18 months have been hard for this TV Gal.

Firefly, Buffy, Angel--Gone. I'll deal with that in therapy someday, I'm sure.

And now, it's time to say sayonara to the West Wing.

In a lot of ways, this is the hardest loss to take. The rapid vanishing of the Jossverse has left me a little panicked, yes--not unlike an agoraphobic at a rock concert am I whenever I let myself think about it--but I know that Joss will pop up again someday. There will be the Firefly movie, for one, and I am sure that we will revisit the Buffster at some point, in some fashion.

But with West Wing, I'm the one doing the leaving. And I don't think that I am coming back.

I'm breaking up with the President.

I was not on the bandwagon early in the year--I was not one of the doomsayers that thought that the show wouldn't survive without Aaron Sorkin. I thought, you know, this is a rich tapestry, full of quirky characters that we care so much about. My cats could write for this show and it would be good TV.

And I was right, sort of. It is good TV. Every episode that I have watched this season, I have enjoyed. It's way better than, say, Everybody Loves Raymond (a real and true lie, since I don't love him) or what's left of the Practice.

The problem is that, while I recognize its quality, I just don't care anymore. I don't care about these people. I don't get all giddy when I realize that it's Wednesday--which used to mean "New West Wing!" Now it means, "Ooh! American Idol!" It used to take my breath away. Now, I sit and knit while it's on, breath firmly intact there in my lungs.

I didn't realize that we were through, though, till Monday night. I had much of the second half of the season green-dotted on my TiVo, just waiting for me when it hit me--I'm never going to watch those episodes. I'm going to practice my piano, I'm going to write in my journal, I'm going to sleep instead. So I deleted them, unwatched. And in so doing, said goodbye to an old friend.

I may still watch the finale--at least the last 10 minutes. I'd still like to know how it ends. Although, I guess for me, it's already ended.

Posted by Lori at May 19, 2004 8:03 AM