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There’s nothing on TV to watch these days. Of course I jest, mostly. But whereas a few months ago I was watching loads of shows, and even a few weeks ago my DVR was still recording several things to watch each week, these days it’s mostly barren. I mean, when all you’re recording in a week are old episodes of This Old House and NOVA you know you’re in trouble.
It doesn’t help matters that the start of July is a sort’a dead-zone for TV here in the US. Most of the series that debuted last fall are done and those that weren’t cancelled are in hibernation. And while there are a few new things here and there premiering on streaming services — for the most part the new shows that will premiere on cable and network next fall TV have just gone into production and won’t start airing episodes for months.
Whereas before I’d spend the week looking forward to checking out new shows, for the most part in the heat of summer I’ve been watching reruns of things like The X-Files and Doctor Who.
One interesting thing about The X-Files… When the series originally ran I was all about the episodes that dealt with the series spanning conspiracy story that ran through the show. And while I also dug the stand-alone “monster of the week” episodes, back then they were second best to Mulder and Scully finding out who was really behind all those UFO abductions. Nowadays that’s flipped. Whenever there’s a conspiracy episode on I usually change the channel, but adore the “monster of the week” ones. I’m not sure if it was because at the time The X-Files originally aired those conspiracy episodes felt timely and I was dying to learn the truth that the truth really was out there or if in the intervening years after having watched hundreds of hours of the show and two films I realized there wasn’t anything to the conspiracy story. It was a bust, so why watch them all again today?
Which makes me wonder. If part of the reason shows like The X-Files are still airing in syndication today is because of the stand-alone “monster of the week episodes,” where does that leave most modern series today that have no stand-alone episodes and are all series spanning stories?
Anyway, there’s not a lot on TV these days to watch. In addition to watching episodes of old sci-fi and horror series I’ve already seen before I’ve been watching films too. Well, “films” might be too fancy a word — I’ve been watching “movies” like Total Recall and Bright Lights Big City that I’ve just happened to catch on TV, recorded and watched later. I do that quite a bit.
Looking out the next few weeks TV-wise it doesn’t look like there’s much relief in sight. I’m still working my way through GLOW and should probably go back and finish up The Santa Clarita Diet and Lost in Space, but as for new shows in the month of July there’s really only the reboot of In Search Of on History that I’m looking forward to and perhaps Castle Rock on HULU. I mean, Castle Rock is a show based on the works of Stephen King that’s being executive produced by J. J. Abrams which sure sounds interesting to me. The big drawback is that it’s on HULU. Which I don’t get. And I’ve made a commitment to myself not to subscribe to any other streaming services just to checkout a show or two.
Even if this summer when there’s really nothing on TV and Star Trek: Discovery is practically calling to me on CBS All Access saying, “There are new episodes here!” makes it really hard to not pull out my credit card and subscribe for a month or two and binge watch some Starfleet action.
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