The Television People Are My Friends

There's a problem with television. It's using up vital emotional resources I need for other things.

It's true. We went without television for another six months or so at the beginning of this year--the easy access to mind-numbing entertainment proved too tempting. It was only during a moment of cognizance, during a commercial for The Simple Life, probably, that we recognized our souls were actually being sucked out. So we ditched it for a bit. Then its siren song sounded in us, calling us back to amusement and easy access to images of hip young people in large apartments bantering wittily with one another and we got it back.

Yes, much of television is annoying and about 80% of all current programming could disappear and I'd never miss it. I would say that commercials could disappear as well, but since they may form part of my livelihood one day, I love them and wish they were more numerous and featured longer speaking parts. Actually, good commercials aren't the problem; it's all the many, many bad ones. But if a bad commercial could pay for my classes, so be it. I'll be part of the problem.

My real difficulty is with the parts of television I like, however. It's too easy to get caught up in the perils and escapades of characters and stories that are actually compelling and spending your emotional currency on them. I only have room in my emotional reserve to care about maybe ten people--twenty, tops. What do I do if half a dozen slots are taken by brave doctors doing their best under difficult circumstances and putting the needs of patients before the stiff hospital rules? And two more are taken up by a pair of intellectual, smart-talking cops who take a no-holds-barred attitude toward crime? Man, I can't afford to care about another series; add in a edgy secret agent and a wisecracking middle-class family with issues about childrearing and I'll have to dump grandma out of my emotional matrix. That's not cool.

I'm certainly not against getting caught up in a good story. That's what good books and movies and plays and, yes, television shows do. But it takes time and effort to read a book, and you can only see so many plays per day. That used to be true of movies, too, before VCRs and DVDs. But television can hook you all day. Heck, I got caught up last night in rooting for people on So You Think You Can Dance? (I know--reality shows generally bite. This one has people displaying actual skills and less ruthless commentary than others, so it's interesting). I also admit to watching Hell's Kitchen while it was on.

We do get invested in these people and spend brainpower and emotional effort worrying about them, wondering what will happen to them. And the kicker is, of course, that we don't actually know them. Most of them are made up. If someone told you they were really worried about and often spent time thinking about the activities of made-up people, you'd call a psychologist. And rightly so.

Wait a minute. That's what roleplaying essentially is.

Um... forget that last part. Everything's fine. Enjoy your Law and Order and your Apprentice. All is well here.