Branching Out: TV

While at home for Christmas, I have been catching up on American TV and movies I've wanted to see, and books I've wanted to read.

Forgoing talk of how exciting my life is, I will instead just mention that TV-wise, I've been disappointed by most of the sci-fi/fantasy/horror stuff that is my specialty. The two TV shows that have really stood out for me have been in genres I never watch.

Episodes is a small Showtime comedy starring Matt LeBlanc gleefully skewering his personal and professional reputation by playing a fictional, scummy version of himself driving TV network executives crazy when he's not having affairs with his co-workers wives. I can't even describe how much I usually hate that type of humor. But it's done in such a ridiculous, slap-stick style (season two features Matt having a fight with a writer that involves them spraying each other with cologne and hitting each other with a cactus) that it's really, truly funny.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is John Adams an HBO miniseries from 2008 starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney as Mr. and Mrs. Adams. I've always been interested in world history, but only recently have I begun to see, and appreciate, my own. It's partly because of fascinating projects like this one, that manage to strike that delicate balance between personal (so I'm invested in what happens) and epic (so I'm awed).

I love the chance to branch out. Absorbing projects that have nothing to do with my "usual" can give me ideas I never would have had just watching the same stuff over and over again, however good it is.

-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive