30 Days of Shamelessness - Declare a Love for an Uncool TV Show

This is a tough one. How do I define "uncool tv show"? Like a yard sale, one man's junk is another one's treasure.

ABC After School specials made me who I am today. In part... well kinda... If I knew an After School Special was on, I raced home right away... not staying to hang out with any extra curricular activies. I was a sap for these emotionally packed mini-movies. The plot was easy to figure from the get go, but I didn't care.

I sat on the couch riveted to the tv screen with a box of tissues on stand-by. Oh, I cried every time. I was an easy target on the emotional side. And I knew I would cry me a river every episode, but that to me was the draw. The emotions. The drama. The family crisis and then the happy sappy ending.

At the end I'd be drained but satisfied. And until the next special program I'd be living by my newly acquired moral (morale?). ABC dished out and I swallowed. I was just what they hoped for. A teenager struggling with divorced parents, an alcoholic father, a new town, new school: I was a living, breathing and mostly crying ABC After School Special creators' wet dream. The sponge that would soak it all up in a gooey teary mess!

Most people avoided tear jerkers, where me, I sought them out. They were MY tornados.

I don't get many opportunities to watch TV these days. For starters I don't have access to television. I own one, but I don't have cable or satellite, and the antenna is buried under a seat trapped behind the autopilot. What can I say, sailing tools must have priority on a boat! Everything I watch is streamed via my phone from Netflix or Hulu. Unless my 1st Mate is out of town on business everything I watch is shared with him. We give each other the right to refuse anything. And that means no sappy programming and no chick flicks.

But every evening spent alone on the boat is accompanied by the likes of movies like Precious, international sub-titles and tissues (I'm sure he needs tissues when HE watches stuff without me, but his gooey mess is so different than mine. Sorry. Is that crossing the line?).

I've also promised myself an Ally McBeal retro-marathon. This show had it all: quick and snappy arguments, quirkiness, and love. Until then I watch nothing but "cool" TV shows: Rescue Me, Dexter, True Blood, Breaking Bad, Weeds...

I need a Kleenex sponsorship!

p.s. the part 2 to yesterday's story should follow tonight... fun times!