Pop Culture Curmudgeon ani difranco » Pop Culture Curmudgeon

Posts tagged: ani difranco

Watching Out of Habit

Ani Difranco sang a song called Out of Habit. It has some of my favorite song lyrics ever: “The coffee is just water dressed in brown” “My thighs have been involved in many accidents, and now I can’t get insured”

While I was watching Heroes Monday night, that song got stuck in my head. I watch Heroes every week, and I’m definitely not ready to break up with it, but I don’t have the passion to watch it that I had the first season. I believe I’m simply watching out of habit.

That has happened to me before. Season 9 of Friends was a bit of a disappointment as the characters became buckets of over-exaggerated flaws. Same with Season 7 of Gilmore Girls. If these shows were still on, I would still be watching them (thanks to DVDs, I still do) out of habit. I care enough about the characters to continue to watch even when the show is but a ghost of its former self. And I still feel that something is missing at 8:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Do you have any shows like that? Shows that you won’t give up even when the characters lose all subtlety and dimension? When the writing is flat and the jokes are cheap?

What shows have stood the test of time and continue to draw you in each week? For me, Supernatural is my favorite of the returning shows. It lagged a bit last season, but this season is great. Chuck has the potential to continue to improve and be one of the shows with staying power.

What shows have you given up on, no mater how much you used to love them? Grey’s Anatomy and ER are the two at the top of my mind. I know there have been others, but I am someone who tends to stick it out until the bitter end more often than not.