The Fortnight in TV

The past couple of weeks, with most network shows being on hiatus and all, Brandy and I have found ourselves watching a lot of Discovery Channel shows. They may be "reality" shows, but they're a lot more entertaining and informative than a bunch of idiots hurting themselves, eating scary/disgusting things, or playing politics in the midst of pointless, forced activities.

A brief recap, then, of the shows that have recently entranced us.

We've watched MythBusters for a while now, and since my parents turned us on to it after season one, Deadliest Catch as well. If you haven't seen either of these shows, I would highly recommend programming them into your Tivo. The great thing about Discovery Channel (if you're late to a show): they repeat the episodes all the time and broadcast mini-marathons on occasion. 

Man vs. Wild

On a tip from one of Brandy's co-workers (damn you, Jennie), we started watching Bear Grylls struggle to survive in and find rescue from a number of hostile locales. The Florida Everglades, the African Savannah, the Moab Desert, the Costa Rican rain forest, Mount Kilauea (crossing active volcano fields, people), this guy's parachuted into and gotten himself out of all sorts of crazy places, usually equipped with only a knife and a water bottle.

Brandy and I have decided that: A.) Mr. Grylls is an adrenaline-junkie and/or crazy and B.) no matter what else he might be, he is supremely good at making fires. I think that information alone might make this show worth watching. Definitely our favorite of the new programs we've discovered.

Cash Cab

OK, I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I love trivia game shows. As a former Academic Challenge team member, I've always been a giant dork sucker for shows like Jeopardy and Weakest Link. Cash Cab is just light-hearted fun in that vein, but it really makes me want to visit New York City to just look for minivan cabs all day.

And while winning some money is nice, why wouldn't you go for the video bonus at the end? At the very worst, you just won a free cab ride. You would lose only money that you never had (i.e., the house's money) while you could potentially double your winnings. To those who take the money and run, I say, "pussies."

In other TV news:

• We're happy The Closer has finally started its new season. Sometimes Kyra Sedgwick's character makes me want to pull my hair out (how can someone be such a trainwreck in her personal life and so effective at work?), but that's part of the show's charm.
• Why has Studio 60 (a wordy yet witty drama, and one of last season's best new shows) been cancelled while 30 Rock continues to dull the already-tarnished image of the half-hour sitcom? (And yes, I'm sticking to that assertion despite one of the best musical montages of Cleveland this side of the Drew Carey Show intro.)
  
  
  
• I still hold that one of the Big Four networks would be wise to pick up Veronica Mars now that it's been cancelled by the CW (right, like you had so many better and better-rated shows that VM was dragging the network down). Throw some real marketing dollars behind the show's winning cast and intelligent, teen-friendly writing, and some network could a have a real target-demographic winner on its hands (hello, stodgy CBS or desperate-for-viewers NBC).

And don't even get me started on all the European travel shows we've been Tivo'ing...