Exposure to the North

I put off today's blog for a majority of the day, mainly because I was quite void of any substantial thought today. Not that it was a bad thing; I'm a firm believer that too much thought, or prolonged thought, especially in a negative quality (as my mind is wont to wander towards, sad to say) can lead to some bad shit. I don't think it's a mistake that many of the outrageously brilliant people I've met in my life, or even read about, were a little bit off-kilter or kinda down most of the time. Not to group myself in with the brilliant sect or anything, I'm just saying it was a nice day off from deep thought*.

I was gonna draw something and post it on here, because forcing myself to write once a day has been pretty effective in reminding me that I enjoy writing a ton, and I used to be madly in love with doodling and comic-style art, but it fell to the wayside as college (and, by that extension, lethargy in mass amounts on the weekends) came around. My doodles in margins lowered exponentially throughout those four years, so I may try to institute a comic day, or two, on this blog, to reinvigorate that.

But you're not here to read about that, because I didn't draw anything today. What I did do was finally launch myself back into the world of "Northern Exposure." I don't readily talk about it, as it isn't on Netflix and kinda isn't really my friends' cups of tea, but it probably ranks as either my first or second favorite show ever. It's sweet, funny, and smart in ways that still knock me out every time I watch an episode. They pull off a lot of the aspects of two of my other favorite shows of all time would do much later in the decade or the new millenium, and what shows from this decade seem to lack in a way that "Northern Exposure" has. There are a few that come close, and many of them are good, but none of them, I think, will have the emotional impact that "Northern Exposure" has.

Anyways, this got me thinking about my favorite shows of all time, as I usually do when I watch one of the select few. The list is obviously constantly evolving as more shows come on (not to jinx things, but "Community" is orbiting the list depending on how strong it stays, and "The Wire" would probably be on there if I watched the whole thing), but there's something I've noticed about the television I enjoy.

Most of the shows I love all come solidly from the 90s and 2000s. There could be confounding variables at work on this one, as I was only in existence for these two eras, and missed out on the must-see-TV from eras B.S. (Before Spencer, that is, because I am that vain). But that doesn't mean I haven't given episodes of "Cheers," "Mash," and a bunch of Norman Lear television shows I watched in my Intro to Television class a shot. They don't have as much of an effect on me as something like "Northern Exposure" or "Friday Night Lights" does. Heck, none of them are as creative and awesome as "Arrested Development," another favorite but not quite in the same category as those other two. I take my television watching seriously.

Now, is this because television has constantly evolved over time, and I just got around for the apex of it? I just did the math, the first television broadcasts as we know it happened around 53 years before I came along. Likewise, film as a commercial art form started getting serious around the fifties or sixties, which puts its prominent period right around a half-century after the technology was first around.

Did I arrive at the truly awesome era of television, with more good years yet to come, or am I just making up weird numerical comparisons because I just generally like things from my era better? And if the fifty year rule is true, how awesome are video games gonna be in a decade or so?

I'm not sure. This blog was meant as a conversation starter, or at least it is now, because I feel I've blown the bliss of my non-thinking day at this point, and I'd much rather watch a few more episodes of "Northern Exposure" before it gets any worse.



*Also, getting a job would probably help. Still working on that.