I’ve recently started watching an awesome new cooking show with Sam Zien called Just Cook This. It’s on the Discovery Health Channel. It’s a totally different kind of cooking show. Sam is a very casual, laid back guy who cooks out of his own house. He pokes fun at the typical TV food show, and is not your conventional host. Most importantly, this show introduces new ways of cooking very simple dishes, in both a healthy and easy way. Almost all of the foods that Sam cooks are ones that I’d certainly try at home on my own. This guy doesn’t talk over your head, or try to impress you with fancy dishes. He’s just a regular guy showing you simple ways to cook your own meals and manage your food. Check it out sometime!

Lately, I have noticed a sharp rise in an already very disturbing trend. When I watch TV, I am constantly interrupted with beeps, scrolls, and various alerts. I’m paying a lot of money for my digital cable service, and I don’t want the picture shrunk while half the screen has warnings on it. Why not make a whole channel for this stuff, or do it during the commercials?

In the past couple of weeks, nearly every prime time show that I’ve taped on my DVR either has had a thunderstorm warning, amber alert, silver alert, or local election results on the screen during the show. It is ridiculous! I don’t care about any of those things! If I want live election results, I don’t expect to find them on the channel showing American Idol. If a bad thunderstorm is coming, then too bad. What do you want me to do? I’m already at home! If a child or old person has gone missing, then I probably can’t help you. The person you are looking for is not standing in middle of my living room, so I suppose I won’t be seeing them tonight.

I think I’m at the front of this complaint. I believe the voices against this will grow louder once it becomes more commonplace and obtrusive. This must stop immediately! It makes me feel like every channel is going to go the way of the TV Guide Channel, which today has about 1/4 of the screen still reserved for the program listings, while the other 3/4 are ads and pointless programming. Gimme a break!

If you follow the news, you’ll probably know that the Writers Guild of America is on strike while trying to renegotiate new terms with the entertainment industry. I don’t have an opinion on the strike, but I was struck by a news article I just read. It said that this past weekend, the cast of Saturday Night Live put on a mock live show for a small audience, while a rerun played on NBC TV. I found this to be very puzzling. I mean, did anyone else think that a writer’s strike could affect SNL? Those people may want to think about going back to work before audiences stop and realize how repetitive and not funny SNL has become.

Have you seen this terrible reality show on the Sci-Fi channel? It is so lame it makes me cringe in embarrassment for the people on there. This show is a cheesy low-budget reality elimination show where a group of losers compete to be the next superhero. They dress in ridiculous outfits and spout lame taglines as they complete seemingly ordinary tasks that are presented on TV with an overlay of grade school quality special effects. The show is hosted by 85 year-old Stan Lee, who communicates with the hereos in their warehouse “lair”. It boggles the mind, but the contestants actually behave as though there is some real prize to be won or that they are actually going to become a true superhero. The lamest of the contestants is this chubby lady dressed in a maid outfit, complete with hanging feather dusters from her belt, who calls herself Hygenea.

In doing a quick bit of research for this post, I found a message board on the Sci-Fi Channel website where fans post messages about the show. I am in awe of the absurdity of their comments. Viewers write of holding their loved ones on the couch while watching the superheros compete, wiping back tears, and feeling overwhelming emotion at what they are watching. They then sign their posts with a photo of themselves in costume, complete with an ID card for their personal superhero character. Are these people serious?!

Let me be clear that I don’t watch this show! I just saw an episode on this week and ended up watching it play out in utter disbelief to what the reality show scene has become. I feel so embarrassed for these people! This show belongs on Comedy Central, not on Sci-Fi — if it has a place on TV at all. The grand prize should be a gun that they can off themselves with when the show is over.

Yesterday, I canceled Showtime on my cable lineup. We used to have HBO at home, but changed over to Showtime after some of their great original series shows were not renewed, like Six Feet Under. But since having Showtime, I realize that the premium movie channels are all the same. These days you get like 10 channels when you sign up for a paid movie network. You think you have so many options, but in reality it is the same two dozen movies playing on repeat. I often scroll ahead in the week and check out the movies that are going to air so I can record them. I see the same titles week after week, with only a few new surprises now and again. So I dropped Showtime and will use Netflix exclusively. For the price, you can’t beat it. I’ll miss seeing some of Showtime’s original series shows, but I’ll wait until they are released on DVD and then rent those from Netflix. Brilliant!

There are too many hospital shows on TV. Do you agree? I thought this years ago. I am tired of this genre of television show. People love Grey’s Anatomy these days. I have never seen a whole episode, and don’t care to. I know that ER was a great show back in the day and they made some amazing episodes. There were countless numbers of hospital shows prior to that, though. Only just recently did I realize that the show House on Fox is yet another hospital show. I admit that Scrubs has always been amusing and I do enjoy that show. Sbrubs is pretty silly and its lack of seriousness allows me to tolerate it more than the others. Where does it end?

Have you seen the cool new show on VH-1 called Acceptable.tv? It is both a TV show and a website. On this show, short skits are featured that viewers vote for on their computers or cell phones. Shows that don’t get enough votes do not return the following week, and new ones are added. Visitors to the website can even vote for user-submitted amateur videos that could make it on the air if they garner enough popularity. So far, several of the skits have been quite funny. Regardless, I absolutely love the premise of the show, where the viewers and users are in full control of the content. It is a revolutionary idea. I hope it lasts.

I have never mentioned the TV show Family Guy in my blog before, but hey, it’s so great it goes without even saying. This show is my favorite TV show of all time. I first saw it a couple of years ago. I’d seen it on but never bothered to get to know it. What changed all that was seeing the episode in the beginning seasons where Death came to the Griffin’s. From then on, I have pretty much watched them all. The things they make references to so relate to me that I feel like the creators were in my head. It pays to know a whole lot of 80s and 90s pop culture. If not, a lot of the jokes will fly right over your head. But there is no doubt in my mind that this is the best show on TV. It is certainly my favorite. The movie is also outstanding!

If you watch Comedy Central, you probably have seen ads for the Sarah Silverman Show. I have been enjoying watching it. I like the characters and Sarah’s over-the-top comments and off-the-wall remarks. Last week, they had an episode that was practically all about Tab. Me and Laura were laughing when they kept referencing this hilarious beverage. It was very funny. If you are into her very “wrong” comments and enjoy this kind of humor, then you’ll like this show.

This post is way, way overdue. I hope you have seen Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel. It is one of my favorite shows. Me and Laura have watched countless episodes. Why weren’t there shows like this when I was in school? If so, I would have been more interested in science and engineering. This show is awesome. I love everyone on it, their ideas, and experiments. If you live under a rock and haven’t this show, check it out.