Changing channels

"I can see by your eyes friend you're just about gone
Fifty-seven channels and nothin' on"
--Bruce Springsteen

It's a truism that, the more channels become available, the fewer shows are actually worth watching. I consider myself someone who watches too much TV, though I probably watch a good deal less than most. And there's this weird tendency for shows I like to get canned prematurely and be replaced by trash like Are You Less Stupider Than the Biggest Loser Making a Deal? So what am I watching (more or less) currently?

Pushing Daisies: This is, far and away, the best show on TV. Sure, if Arrested Development and Deadwood were still around, it might be second or third, but there's nothing that even comes close to the strange tale of Ned the Piemaker, who can bring back the dead with a touch (and the caveat that he cannot touch them again, or they die) and his true love, Charlotte Charles, who he can never touch since he previously brought her back from the great beyond. It's gorgeously produced, flawlessly acted, intelligently written, and never predictable. And I'm not saying this because, somehow, it's somehow losing in the ratings to the waste of an hour that stole the name of the classic show Knight Rider.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report: It's a sad statement about mainstream news programs when a self-proclaimed "fake journalist" and an over-the-top pretend pundit are the ones asking the important question. But no matter. Even if the news wasn't full of moronic "human interest" (to whom?) stories aimed at 6-year-olds and features that broke on Yahoo! News a week earlier, it would be worth staying up to see these two programs, since they're two of the most consistently funny shows in history, with an excellent balance of the subtle and the absurd.

Good Eats: Alton Brown is a god. He's like Mister Wizard for adults, teaching the basic hows and whys of cooking (with emphasis on the science), while making silly jokes and pop culture references throughout. If you've never seen this, you have been deprived.

South Park: Matt and Trey can still be just as funny as they were ten years ago. Funnier, even. South Park is an equal-opportunity offender that satirizes anything and anybody. Trouble is, it's become quite hit and miss over the past few years. When it's on, it's really on, but when it's off (as in the recent 2-parter "Pan-Demic"), it's impossible to stay awake to see the whole show.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: I thought Larry David's semi-autobiographical show was canceled, especially after last season's finale. But it apparently will be back next year. I just hope the Blacks will be returning; Leon may be the funniest character introduced on the show.

Hell's Kitchen and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares: It's obvious they bleep out a lot of non-offensive words to make these seem edgier, and they're heavily padded hour-long shows with a half-hour's worth of content, but they're still pretty entertaining. The British version of Kitchen Nightmares is far superior, but I think they only made three or four episodes and BBC America airs them constantly.

Jeopardy!: Even disregarding how the show is a little more dumbed-down every year, it's still the only quiz show that actually challenges its contestants. I could do without the Clue Crew, though.

Family Guy and American Dad: I never thought I'd say this, but American Dad is actually much funnier than Family Guy now. A constant string of pop culture references can get old. I've got zero hopes for all of them after The Cleveland Show debuts, since Seth McFarlane is already stretching himself thin, and proved with that godawful Rob Corrdry show (The Winner? I don't even remember.) that he can't do three shows, or they all suffer.

Simpsons and King of the Hill: Both of these are on their last legs (KOTH is actually finally getting the axe), and hit their peaks years ago, but they're still occasionally funny.

Cities of the Underworld: It's amazing to know what's underground in many of the cities and regions of the world. My only complaint is that it sometimes tries to cover too much in an hour.

Jurassic Fight Club: A smart, mostly accurate, science show about dinosaurs that always culminates in the goriest fights you can see on basic cable. It sometimes fudges things like the sizes of the animals, but it's the best dinosaur show since the original Walking with Dinosaurs.

Monsterquest: This one can be more hit and miss than even South Park. Usually, it's a fun watch, even if most of it is likely BS. Sometimes it really seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to ideas: my God, there are bears in Alaska? What will we ever do? We're going to have to totally rethink life on this planet now that we know there are bears in Alaska! Someone call up Sarah Palin and tell her to get her helicopter ready.

Mythbusters: Sure, the science isn't always the best, and they tend to come to conclusions that aren't necessarily supported by the outcome of the experiments. But who cares? They blow up stuff!

I don't follow any of these religiously, and there's other shows I see occasionally (I didn't list any news shows aside from the two on Comedy Central, nor did I list stuff like True Blood or Sesame Street that other members of my household follow but I would pass on). But that's the gyst. Since the seasons for these shows are so staggered throughout the year, I suppose it really isn't that much TV.

I'm not being especially deep today, but spending most of yesterday trying to figure out the local candidates' positions (a real headache when there's only one incredibly crappy local paper and one far-right leaning crappy regional paper) has kind of sapped me of any desire to be anything but superficial for the moment. Deal with it.