Curl Up and Write » TV

Reed Between the Lines

Trina — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:00:00 +0000

So I’ve complained once or twice about the lack of good quality television shows. One show I’ve been looking forward to watching is Reed Between the Lines. (To give you the basic plot line, it’s like a 2011 version of The Cosby Show. Tracie Ellis Ross plays Carla Reed, a successful therapist and Malcolm-Jamal Warner is Alex Reed, a NYU professor who teaches online so he can homeschool their youngest child. I do like how they switched things up—this is a blended family, the two oldest teens are Carla’s children from a previous marriage.)

So Tuesday night I watched the show, and all I can say is…eh. It was…okay. Let’s put it this way, it was good enough to watch again—I’m a believer that all new shows deserve at least five episodes to see if they are deemed worthy enough to record. I’ll tune in again, mostly because I’m always complaining about the state of television, and this looks like a show that you can watch with your kids. I like the direction the show is going in—it just needs to hurry up and get there. That being said, I’m not going to give up on the show. Yet.

Tune in on Tuesday nights at 9:00 pm on BET and check it out for yourself!

Don’t You Dare, Hawthorne!

Trina — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:00:00 +0000

I watch too much reality TV. Not because I want to, but because mostly it’s the only thing on. There are not that many scripted television shows I watch. Why? Because I find them either a) violent, or b) sex-in-the-office-clinic-breakroom-wherever-you-work-take-your-clothes-off-now sort of shows.

It’s great for my writing to turn off the TV, but sometimes a girl wants to veg out, without going to bed with a bad conscience.

One of my favorite TV shows of the summer is Hawthorne.

The first season was a bit bleh, but I didn’t give up on the show because I love seeing Jada Pinkett Smith on the screen. The woman gives good hair.

Like here:

And here:

Oh, and umm…right here too:

So yes, the hair in of itself is a reason to watch the show. But I digress. Like I mentioned before, the first season was just…okay. Now, the second season was much improved, with more drama and emotion-packed scenes. So there shouldn’t be a problem then should it? If the second season was so great then the third should be top-notch. What’s the problem?

The problem is because I feel that this season they are going to mess the whole thing up by throwing in sex. I haaaaate when shows do this. I understand why they do it, we live in a sex-crazed world. But I for one, would like to see professional people at a job, doing their job. Working in a hospital is dramatic enough, why can’t the job be the drama? I’m all for two adults falling in love—love is a beautiful thing. But having people so out of control with lust that they have to shack up in a supply closet just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. (And frankly gives me the creeps when I pass a supply closet at a hospital…) And ultimately, another show bites the dust, leaving me to watch reruns of House Hunters on HGTV.

Here’s hoping that Hawthorne doesn’t go to the darkside…

It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye…

Trina — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:00:00 +0000

It’s time to change things up.

To create a more balanced life.

So I’m giving up one of my bad habits.

The TV.

Not completely. (Are you crazy? And miss an episode of Survivor? No way, Jose.)

But I am toning things down a bit. I don’t have the time to lay out and watch hours of TV anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I wish I did, and I look back fondly on the days of my youth when I could spend several hours watching television. But now as I examine my life, I have to do some cutting back on things that I consider a time waster. And that, my friends, is what led me to cancel several shows.

A perfect evening for me used to look like this: Me on the couch, going through the recorded shows on my TiVo and making my own marathon as I stayed up late catching up on a week’s worth of shows.

Now my evenings look more like this: Husband and I talk about each other’s day over dinner, no TV blaring in the background. After eating, he cleans up while I read to my daughter. Then we get her off to bed and we both do work on our computers for an hour then go to bed. Together. It feels good.

I think this process is made easier by the fact that I don’t work in a salon anymore. It’s hard to not get caught up in the Housewives of Atlanta drama when your clients are chattering away about their latest catfight. Working from home, there is little pressure to watch TV. No one is telling me what I’m missing out on. For once, there is only quiet. (Mind you, my three year old daughter is dancing and singing at the top of her lungs in the living room, but I’ve learned to tune her out.)

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but life feels better now that it doesn’t revolve around the TV. Who knew?