We Watch TV Together
A few years ago, my wife started a Family TV Night. It was Sunday night, and we sat and watched Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. We would all sit and cry over the sad stories, marvel at the extraordinary gadgetry they installed, and then we’d cry again at the homecoming.
I’m over EM:HE. However, as a family we still enjoy sitting down together and watching television. My wife is a big fan of sitting down and watching old movies, or movie adaptations of great literature. We’ve seen To Kill A Mockingbird and Sense and Sensibility among other great pieces of visual and written art. Our tastes do include a few shows that are acceptable to everyone in the family. Below are a few of our choices:
Monk- We started watching Monk when my daughter started becoming interested in some of the peculiarities of OCD. She still looks forward to new Monk episodes. She was nutty when the show appeared to have killed Monk off, and couln’t believe they would make us wait TWO WEEKS to see the resolution. CAVEAT- The opening of the show usually has a murder, and in some cases the murder scene is somewhat graphic. At 11 years old, that is a ‘pillow over the face’ moment for her.
psych- Again, my daughter was the primary proponent behind this show. (I wonder if it is because it means she gets to stay up until 11pm to see it!) The humor is fast paced, silly, and in your face. Shawn is nutty and disobedient, Gus is a scaredy cat stick in the mud, and together we howl at them. The relationships are fun to watch develop, there is a cartoon built in to the middle of many episodes, and my son imitates the Verizon commercials made by the leads. He does Dule Hill’s voice perfectly. “”Number 5 just says ‘Egypt!’”
Clean House- This was not one of my choices. My wife and daughter love Niecy. I can’t believe some of the people they get on the show. I’m sure much of it is staged or edited specifically for TV, but dang! I though MY house was a mess. 
The Daily Show- My daughter doesn’t get to watch this, but the rest of us enjoy this one. My son watches it in reruns. My wife and I watch it when we’re together, and we’ll occasionally share a particular episode on the internet. Stewart’s take on politics is in keeping with the family’s politics.
Mythbusters- An oldie, but a goodie. Being able to watch things blow up, for real, and not have to worry about the connotation of violence? Come on- it’s science! We don’t watch it as much as we used to, but the occasional topic will peak my interest, and we’ll sit down to watch.
It’s tough to find shows you can watch together as a family, but when you do it’s worth the time. Pop some popcorn (we got special movie-style popcorn cups for that purpose), cuddle up on the couch and settle in for a day/night/weekend of goofing off. We all have so little family time these days- why not make the time?
