A Return to Obsession

I used to be a total TV junkie. Several years ago, there were three or four (or five) TV shows that I watched faithfully. You know, as in, "Gotta go, it's time for my show," or, "My show's on. Call me back during a commercial," or, "No, I don't want to go get ice cream, my show's on." (that's when you know it's serious). We're talking loooong ago, like Once and Again, Providence, Ed (anyone remember that one?), and of course, ER. One by one, they all got canceled. Truly, I'm convinced that God canceled them all so I would get off my duff and rejoin the real world.

Since then I've been very intentional about not getting caught up in any other shows. I live in a house with a few people who, um, are a little obsessed really like TV a lot, and so I've had to really watch myself. I don't sit down and watch TV (except movies), even though it's on all.the.time. at our house. I don't watch American Idol, Biggest Loser, Big Brother, or The Bachelor/ette. Not Survivor. Not The Office. Not Desperate Housewives or any of the CSIs. I've seen Grey's Anatomy exactly once. And I never saw one single episode of Lost. I know. Please don't shun me.

I did start watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition about a year ago. Ok, so that's one.

But then.

But then....one of the shows that began to appear pretty regularly on our TV every week - same bat time, same bat channel (apparently I've had these obsessions since childhood) - was Castle. And I would catch snippets of it while I was doing the dishes, or folding laundry, or, you know, dusting the entertainment center while it was on.

And then suddenly I found myself staying tuned for the scenes from next week's episode, and double checking the time and channel. And I may have even planned my schedule around it a few times once. I got totally wrapped up in the whole obvious tension between Castle and Beckett.

And.....I got totally wrapped up in the whole obvious question. Is it? Or isn't it? I would watch with squinty eyes, analyzing and examining and pondering. I think it was over half way through the season before I finally realized that Richard Castle is not Jas0n Bateman.

After all, I had never heard of Nathan Filli0n.

And I was totally out of touch with the TV world.

And the last time I saw Jas0n Bateman, he looked like this:



And now? Well, do you see why I was confused?



They totally look alike, don't you agree?