For real this time.

The Black Donnellys

I really did not want to add another television show to my DVR's repertoire. I even went so far as to not DVR The Black Donnellys while I was out of the house at Trivia Night on Monday. But, then the Tuesday buzz got to me and I couldn't help myself. I went to Randi's to watch it on her DVR. Thank goodness I have a friend that's a TV addict like me! Rand, you are a fantastic enabler.



After the first ten minutes, I was thinking, "M'eh." It moved too fast and I couldn't figure out which brother was which. That made it hard to follow the action and hard to care about anyone since they all kind of melded into one generic Irish-American trouble-maker. Although, I did learn pretty quickly which one Kevin is. He has pretty eyes. Then, I found myself getting into it. Still, with as few as 10 minutes left, I said to Randi, "I can walk away. It's good, and I could definitely get sucked in if I wanted to, but I can also walk away." I was feeling good, no more new TV for me! But then...

Then, Tommy ran over Jimmy, sending Tommy on the straight and narrow and Jimmy down the...curvy and wide? And then, then they switched. Jimmy went to rehab and Tommy...Tommy killed a bunch of guys. And it was cool.

This show is great on a purely visceral level. No thinking necessary. Not yet, anyway. It's got good-looking "Irish" guys (I don't really know if any of them are authentic); a narrator good for some funny one liners (A lot of people think the Irish are a bunch of drunken brawlers. That kind of stereotyping just makes you want to get drunk and punch someone. ); semi-organized crime; and sex and violence. What's not to love? I'm hooked.

Incidentally, I made myself feel better about how much TV I watch on the walk home from Randall's (isn't rationalizing another sign of addiction?). I actually only DVR 10 hours of TV a week, which is less than 1.5 hours a day. And of that 10 hours, 1.5 hours of it are shows I don't watch consistently. My real problem is that I too often watch TV indiscriminately. I come home from work and turn on PTI, which seamlessly goes into SportsCenter, and then I might as well catch those Scrubs reruns on Comedy Central, etc. Saturday mornings, Pat and I get sucked into The Soup and Best Week Ever.

In case you're curious, here's my DVR line-up:

Monday

How I Met Your Mother
The Class
Heroes
Studio 60.../The Black Donnellys

Wednesday

Criminal Minds (This is one I don't watch consistently anymore. The new woman bothers me and I think they are setting up the departure of Reed, who's one of my favorites. Still, it's hard to resist Mandy Patinkin, so I still watch most weeks.)

Thursday

My Name is Earl
The Office (I watch this sporadically.)
Scrubs
Grey's Anatomy
Ace of Cakes (I don't think this is actually on every week.)

Friday

Psych (Dule Hill somehow goes on to do a show I like way better than that other one with those people from The West Wing. Plus, the Psych-outs are awesome.)

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