Dirty Jobs

While packing up ornaments, I watch cable TV. After my "Designed to Sell" fix, and sometimes "The Big Idea" or a cooking show, I often switch to the Discovery channel.

I really like the show Dirty Jobs. Mike does a great job making a hash out of any dirty job, thereby making the regulars look like the competent professionals they are (generally) and does so with good humor. I worry about his lack of respirators and long term lung health, but I love the show. An unlike queer eye, it doesn't get too big for its britches as the show gets more popular. (I liked QEFTSG when it was helping people who needed help. But when they started taking on whole baseball teams and various famous people, I felt it didn't serve any purpose but advertising and fundraising, and it was less fun to watch when people weren't really being made over anymore.) Dirty jobs just gets dirtier and more like itself.

I'm iffy on Bear's Man vs. Wild adventures. Mostly because a lot of what he does is unnecessarily gross. Like drink out of disgusting water pits without even an attempt to filter out the bigger chunks of crud. Or eating bugs that are so small as to be hardly worth the effort. Or what I just watched - rubbing cow patties on his hands to mask his scent while setting rabbit traps. Understandable, maybe even necessary, but gross. He says he doesn't tell his wife what he eats so she won't stop kissing him - then by the time she finds out, it's too late. uh huh. But contrast that with watching the joy on his face while jumping out of an airplane, and he does do something really cool or interesting a couple times a show, so I keep watching. (The american version, Survivorman, I object to the premise for some reason. Plus it's not as watchable.)

Mythbusters, always good fun. They test a myth, then figure out what it would take to make it true. Or just blow stuff up which is also fun. And they have a good sense of style and design while they do it - it really is worth the effort to paint something to look real and put a hat on Buster. The final finishing details make the difference between professional looking, highly watchable tests and cobbled together crap in the garage.

I like the continuity of shows that do something along the same lines every time so I have comfort in format, but if each show is independent of the others, I vastly prefer it. I find some of the network dramas watchable (ugly betty, desperate housewives) but I can't handle keeping track of series right now. Sometimes I see ads for them and just think, oh, I'd really like that, but it seems like too much effort to follow. Ever since the TiVo moved out of my friend's apartment with the roommate and we stopped watching Gilmore Girls off-night, I've kind of lost my enthusiasm for dramatic series. Maybe if I had a TiVo, I'd even program it, but probably not. Aside from Heroes and Buffy, what should I put on my list of DVD's to get?

When the writers strike is over, I'll look forward to more Daily Show. And Friday night is a Firefly marathon. Not that I need to see it on TV, but hey, that's how I usually watch stuff (it happens to be on) so I probably will tune in. Unless I get a hot date. In the mean time, I'll be packing up ornaments and scrubbing the condo in preparation for the cookie party, my own dirty job. But someone's got to do it!