Confessions of a tv junkie

I have a confession to make. I absolutely love the show Reba. Yes, I love it and over the past month I have been working my way through the first four seasons on dvd. I call it a confession because there is something almost shameful about admitting to a love of any American sitcom; aren't they all inherently boorish claptrap? But I think with distance comes the need for even the claptrap (not that I am willing to dismiss so much creativity with such a term; even in the midst of sitcom mediocrity, some shows seem to answer to a higher calling - think Northern Exposure). Being a Canadian now living in Australia, I think memories of America begin to take on a nostalgic sheen. The over produced sentimentality that I once despised is now lost in a happy appreciation of simplicity. In television, it's possible for families to solve an earth shattering problem in only 22 minutes, and though the logical side of my mind knows this is impossible, it's nice to imagine that things might be so easy. Reba is best friends with the woman who stole her husband...but they get to laugh their way through it...who wouldn't want such a reality?

However, I do recognise the danger of my addiction (if a friend should come to me with a problem, it seems unwise to give her some throw away line and pause for a commercial break), so to redeem myself, I have given up on most other commercial television. Instead, I now turn to all those previously mindnumbing documentaries on things like international policy, sub-Saharan ecology, and governmentality, found only on publicly funded stations (here ABC, the Australian equivalent of CBC or PBS). The even bigger surprise? I'm actually enjoying them. Apparently that faint stirring of the grown up in me is gaining momentum. Now, surely this must redeem me in the eyes of those who shake their head at my folly? If not, my apologies, but now I must run, Reba is waiting.