I really do not like sitcoms.

For some peculiar reason, I forced myself to sit through an entire episode of Anger Management. It was awful. Every joke basically went along the lines of "Charlie Sheen is misogynistic HAHAHAHA" or "Charlie Sheen's misogyny caught up with him HAHAHAHA." If Charlie Sheen hadn't hopped on a one way train to crazy town, leaving us with the impression his show is a crude imitation of his life, I honestly could not think of a single reason why the show could exist. Unfortunately, this was the beginning of the rabbit hole and I forced myself to go deeper. I watched Two Broke Girls. And...ugh. Blonde ex-rich girl has a hard time adjusting to "normal society," and her brunette lower class friend has developed sass to fill the void left by money. Oh, and their boss is a short weird pervy asian guy. How far television has come.

This was followed by Big Bang Theory. God help me, I can appreciate why people find it funny, but I can't stand it. Sheldon's punchlines are always "Aspergers is hilarious," and everything else usually grounds its punchline in "Look at how weird smart people are." Much like peanut butter I understand that it is a unique flavour, I can understand the attraction, I can get why other people would like it, but it is not what I want on my figurative toast. In part this has been influenced by experience in my own life. When I would study math heavy subjects, I liked to do so my writing, erasing and rewriting equations on a giant mirror in my kitchen. A roommate's mother was visiting and saw this.

Mother: Oh, math. So you're like Sheldon, right?
Me: Huh? Oh no, that's just how I study.
Mother: So I can erase these?
Me: I'd prefer you didn't, I still need those.
Mother: HA. You are such a Sheldon.

The takeaway from the show is that doing algebra is equivalent to asperger's. God damn you BBT.

Getting away from fixed angle, how 'bout New Girl? A show built around Zooey Deschanel. I have mixed feelings about ZD, mostly summarized into "I don't like the manic pixie dream girl" with a counterpoint of "But I guess it's not her fault that guys keep imagining or idolizing her like that." This is another one that has a really good really witty line every 5 minutes or so, or just long enough to keep me watching. I find it to generally be fine, acceptable, 6/10 don't hate myself for watching it. I don't get how a writing staff can crank out gold like "You could have emotional attachment to a shoe on the side of the road," "Just one, alone? Oh, I hate that," but still have a show that is otherwise so completely mundane.

Now I understand that a good TV show requires a lot of things to come together. You need good writers, a good directors who gets the writers, a good lead actor who gets the director and supporting cast who make the show interesting. Sometimes you get something like "Next Caller" where the concept sounds good, but the result is so awful it never gets to air. Sometimes gold like "C.H.A.O.S." or "Pushing Daisies," is impossible to advertise, or requires the viewer to think outside of their accepted stencil of how a tv show works. I understand that not everything can be "The Wire."

For the amount of money that goes into these projects, I just don't get how studios are still so remarkably bad at making them.