My Sunday paper’s weekend magazine says, “Cancel your plans, unplug the phone and rev up that Tivo.” The month of May has become the big finale season for TV entertainment. Hurling the last hurrahs of the season at us every night, TV has taken over my life. Don’t tell my brother, Jim. He preaches to me about excessive TV viewing and tells me to get a real life.
My favorite radio announcer marveled one morning amid finale fever that in spite of all the schedule changes, surprisingly, he didn’t see any conflicts in the TV lineup that night since basketball is over. My, my!
I don’t have the Tivo, but I have an old VCR, and I’ll probably be using it since so many “must see” shows play against each other this month. Always vying for ratings, primetime becomes even more competitive during the season finale shuffle. Half-hour comedies become one-hour, and one-hour series extend to two. With so many stories to play out, our favorite shows usher viewers into the hot waiting room of summer either leaving us in suspense, or leaving us for good (to return only in syndication).
My May calender fills quickly enough without penciling in television. May is the month for conclusions: the end of the school year with band and choir concerts and extra field trips, moving home from college, the end of the meeting schedule for one of my clubs (we’ll
reconvene in the fall), a break for the choir at my church, and – hopefully – an end to really cold weather.
May is also a month for beginnings: graduations, finding summer jobs, longer days and warm weather that should boost me toward tackling some of the jobs I’ve been putting off.
A month of season finales really cuts into my productivity, but I need to see how they all end:
– Will and Grace’s goofy gayness goes away.
– The hospital drama of Meredith Grey and her intern friends hangs on hold.
– The flash-backs and foraging that circle around Lost’s crash victims pause.
– No new noise clashes between clients and their Boston attorneys Crane,
Poole and Schmidt.
– NCIS agent Gibbs has all summer to regain his memory and recover.
– Madam President Mackenzie will adjourn from the oval office for a few months.
– The desperate lives of the beautiful wives on Wisteria Lane will wane awhile.
And I’ll be watching for the fall lineup. Sorry, Jimmy, I can’t help myself.
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