What's the Point of the Purge

Recently, as I've been going through my weekly(ish) DVR purges, I keep being struck with the same two questions (in my head, not from others): "Why am I doing this?" and "Am I being too negative?". I figure that I owe it to myself to look into these.

"Why am I doing this?"


Simple answer: Because I want to.

I'm keeping a blog, so it's fairly understood that I'm doing this to get my thoughts out. It's like a public journal. I can't pretend that I don't think my opinion is special and should be heard. Everyone feels this way. For me, I figured it would be more fun to type them up for others to read on the off chance that it provokes a discussion. It doesn't happen often, but it's still fun.

By the blog reasoning, I have to fill it with something. I do the Movie Reactions which has actually worked to start a lot of conversations about the movies I've seen in my small circle which didn't happen much before I started. I spend way more of my free time watching TV, so it seemed like an obvious source of content if I jot some thoughts down about what I watch and post it. A small part of me also hopes seeing the list of what I've watched gets at least one person to be mildly impressed how much I get through in a week or to at least understand what I mean when I say "I watch a lot of TV".

However, I'm not stupid. I get maybe a handful of hits daily and most probably come for the same few people who probably don't go through this all that closely (which I'm cool with. If I wanted more hits, I think I'd try a lot harder and do things like proofread). If I'm going to do this, I need to be getting something out of it. That's really what I'm looking for. After all, what's the point of watching something if I don't know why?

Some shows are simple joys (Burn Notice being a good example). Others are experiences (Breaking Bad, Mad Men). Then there are those I build my week around (Parks & Rec., Louie). Regardless of the reason, I picked this group of shows. Even a quick 50 words (who am I kidding, when have I ever kept a single thought that short?) gets me thinking about it in a new way. I like writing in any capacity and this keeps me fresh, helps me refine my thoughts, and I can make a realization like "Ben and Kate is so much fun to watch because the cast plays off each other so well, even when the story is lacking" or "I'm only watching Up All Night because I'm stubborn and feel like I have to".

My one concern with doing this is my second question.

"Am I being too negative?"

Look, TV is art, regardless of how you define it. Occasionally, it's damn near perfect, and even still it has its detractors and its flaws. If there's a blotch of paint in the middle of a beautiful portrait though, no matter how good 99% of the painting is, you are going to comment on the 1% that's botched, often at the expense of what is done right. It's human nature. It would be foolish to ignore the blotch, but too much focus on it gets old quickly. What if the blotch was put in there by the artist and he didn't even notice it or didn't care that it was there or thought it was going to be seen as one thing but no one saw it that way? How frustrating would that be. This painting that you would really, truly, adore and buy and hang on a wall, has a big glaring flaw that easily could not be there. This isn't a perfect metaphor, but I think it works well enough.

I don't always know the "big picture" plans for a show and it is very easy to get defensive when they change something I love, so I can fixate on that and forget to look at what I do like about it still.
I'm trying really hard to remember that I like the shows. Apathy is a greater expression of distaste in this context. I need to make sure I give equal time to the good and the bad though or else every one of this purges is going to leave a bad taste in my mouth.