Rediscovering TV in tough times

I never watched much television until I got laid off. Other than a couple HBO shows and New York Yankee games, I didn't really like much of anything else I saw on the tube in recent years. Even the news broadcasts seemed more like bad entertainment than legitimate reporting. Television, I thought, would turn my mind to mush. With the challenges I had at work, there was no reason to risk losing a few million more brain cells while watching American Idol.

Of course, much has changed in the nine months since I was let go from USA TODAY by my former boss, Richard Curtis. Curtis was one of the founders of USA TODAY. In a maddening turn of events, he retired within a few short weeks after ending my career in McLean, Va.

My days now consist of eating, sleeping, job searching and watching TV. Oh sure, I dabble in playing music, sitting in with other weekend-warrior musicians now and then, or strumming my guitar alone in my home. I take walks on occasion to clear my mind, but often find that fresh air causes me to over-think. REM sleep seems to produce that same result. But mostly, I am in a routine. A routine that is easy on the budget but not very invigorating. Hanging with the cat is quaint, and I am sure he appreciates the company, but I believe humans need a bit more from life.

I have turned to TV in the evenings. While I worked nights for most of my career, I now melt into the couch each evening, my wife to my left, the remote to my right. I try to tune out the problems and worries of another unemployed day. I immerse myself in CSI Miami, a show I first discovered around Christmas time, shortly after being laid off. The visuals warmed me during the cold, dark months. Scenes of green palms and sparking tides brought me back to my old stomping grounds in South Florida. A simpler and more hopeful time. When you're 20something, everything is in front of you. Doors tend to be a bit more open.

OK, CSI Miami isn't art. But "H"is a cool cat, a man's man with a touch of New Age values. Calleigh knows how to wear a holstered gun and Eric, in real life, went to my high school in a town 30 miles north of New York City.

I watch another show, Family Guy. My former youthful assistant, Veronica Salazar, actually was the first person to make me aware of the racy cartoon. She had character dolls from the show on her desk. She raved about the sitcom. I had no interest in ever seeing it, figuring I wouldn't enjoy something that a 25-year-old embraces so dearly. As it turns out, however, the show is smart, often disgustingly funny, and covers a wide range of social and cultural comedy and commentary that requires one to be at least 40 years old to fully appreciate. For me, it doesn't get any better than Stewie!

Turns out TV can be an escape and not just an annoyance. DVRs have taken care of having to endure the flood of bad commercials, but I am still cautious with what I sample and what I avoid in prime-time programming. TV is cheap and accessible. Those are good things when one is juggling a budget on less than half the income from just a year ago.

Still, TV can be a trap. I won't turn it on before a certain hour. I won't become a rabid fan of True Blood or take Larry King seriously. CNN and FOX News are unwatchable. I found it ironic that every one of the talking heads for various newscasts praised Walter Cronkite after his death. But they themselves, and the way they approach the news, couldn't be any further away from Cronkite's approach.

TV is in many ways still a vast wasteland. But I do have a new appreciation for what TV can do for people in certain situations or at various stages of life. Yes, there are healthier ways to free the mind and grow the soul. There is yoga, the cure-all to everything. And life itself is in high definition, so running out to get the latest flat-screen technology in a constant quest to improve viewing is sort of ironic. Look out your window. That's HD.

When I return to work, I will have something more to talk about around the water cooler. Something other than cutbacks and the various dysfunctions that occur in every office. I can talk about Stewie's antics and whether or not Eric will turn up alive in the next season of CSI Miami.

Always a silver lining...