So instead of doing anything else the past few weeks (and Lord knows I could have been doing a whole lot with all my free time), I've been watching the TV show "The Wire". Plowed through seasons one through three, and just started season four because I figured I had nothing better to do with my time.

Now, in what was most likely complete ignorance on my part, I've kind of dismissed television as being... you know, mindless. Which I'd say is a reasonable assumption, given the 99% of crap that actually appears on the airwaves. And so I've put off shows that people have told me to watch simply because I assumed the worse about the shows (and in some cases, I was right there too... pretty sure I was recommended to watch Family Guy a few times, only to discover that if television was the skidmark of the 20th century's technological advances, then that show was the skidmark's skidmark).

I ventured over into The Wire because... well, "best show ever" is pretty lofty claims, and that was coming from a lot of people that seemed reasonable enough that I figured I'd give it a shot. As it turns out... they were all pretty much right. Or at least I think they're right, since I really don't know as my TV watching habits are fiercely scarce. I could go on and try out some other critically acclaimed shows, knowing that they might give me the same amount of pleasure that "The Wire" has brought me. But on the flip side, I'm wondering if I inadvertently shot my load too early and just made my viewing experience of anything to come next pale in comparison to this show.

(Not that "The Wire" is perfect. A few plot contrivances here and there, most of the ones I'm thinking coming from season three. Season one and two were amazing, however. Season one because of the tightness and realism of the writing (along with how the cops and criminals mirrored each other before the whole mirroring thing began to feel like somewhat of a cliche), and season two just for the poignancy of the proud union dock workers striving to hold on to their way of life. Season three tried to comment more on how the whole political system is broken, thus not allowing for any progress at all... which is OK, but as a whole it just seemed to be a little too much. Perhaps that's the fault of having way too may storyline strands and characters to concentrate on. Or maybe I just wasn't crazy about it since it seemed reductive to return to the targets of season one after seeming as if they wanted to expand their scope starting with season two. I don't know. I'm liking what I'm seeing from the first two episodes of season four, however.)

Another thing to ponder is that I'm devoting 60 hours of my life to this show (sort of... I'm also reading episode analyses old episode threads on TV forums that haven't had activity in ages... which is kind of weird), and if I'm deciding to tackle a few other shows, well... that's not healthy is it? Again, Lord knows I'm about the world's least productive person, but if I'm devoting time like this to other programs, I'm probably never going to accomplish anything ever again.

Of course, not that worries about productivity is going to stop me. Obviously, I'm going to keep trucking along with this show, be depressed like crazy as I wait for my Netflix disc to arrive tomorrow after finishing the last episode on the disc tonight, move on to something like the Sopranos or whatever... and then maybe you'll hear back from me in around April. That sounds good and all, right?

(Perhaps I'll start trying to be more disciplined and writing more, but that might not keep up for very long. I'll give it the old effort, though.)