What I've been watching lately...

There's this thing that I do when I'm not reading and blogging.  And because reading and blogging take up so much of my time, I don't do this thing very often!  I'm talking about watching telly.

I really just don't watch much of it these days.  I decided at the end of summer that there would be many programmes that I would just give up on watching - Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, Glee, True Blood.  Because what I find is that I record a lot of (mostly book-adapted) TV programmes and then they sit on my Sky+ box for absolutely ages and then I just delete them because they make me feel guilty and horrible.

But! There are some programmes that I do watch, and lately I've actually been watching them with sort of regularity. So today, I thought I'd talk a little bit about them...

Life Interrupted

There's this thing that I love to do, maybe you do it too - I love watching a film or TV show and figuring out where I've seen that actor or actress before.   Or sometimes, I just love watching a programme with characters from previous favourite television shows and imagine that they are still those characters in this new show.  Does that make sense?  For instance, Kerr Smith used to play a character called Jack in Dawson's Creek who is gay.  In Life Interrupted, Kerr Smith is now Ryan, a radio DJ who struggles with his girlfriend's unexpected past showing up.  Ryan and Cate (his girlfriend) have troubles, and I'm thinking 'well obviously they're going to split up because Ryan (Jack!) is actually GAY!' At the risk of sounding loopy, perhaps I shouldn't share much more of this with you all.  But besides Kerr Smith, there's also Shiri Appleby who was Liz Parker in (one of my favourite shows ever!) Roswell.  And Britt Robertson who went on to do the show The Secret Circle. Life Interrupted had a two series run in the US before it got cancelled.  N and I have since watched the entire first season and we'll soon watch the second.  I can't resist Jack and Liz.

Revenge

Gah, how much do I love this show?  I have no idea why we didn't watch it straightaway when it first aired (because, HELLO! look at that cast! Everyone is in it!) but we didn't.  And now I'm catching up.  We're about 10 episodes into the first series now and I can hardly bear those nights when N and I can't curl up in bed together and watch more of this show.  I was unsure at first if I'd like to watch any programme so full of manipulation and bitchiness and well, revenge. But I love it to bits.  Plus, it has Eric from Gossip Girl, Rebecca from Brothers and Sisters, Kyle Valenti from Roswell, and the girl who played a young Jennifer Garner from the film 13 Going on 30!

Merlin

I adore Merlin.  I love the story of King Arthur in general, but I've also just been a huge fan of the BBC TV programme since it aired all those years ago now.  Originally it was just me, watching the show when I got the chance, in between the boys hogging the remote to watch terrible children's cartoons.  Then, E joined me.  I think it was when he saw that there are dragons and magic involved.  I started to explain more about who Arthur is and who Merlin is and some about Camelot and everything and he was pretty fascinated.  It's helped that we've taken both boys to castles and they both have swords and shields and knight costumes.  For awhile, it was just E and me, cuddled up on the sofa and then finally N and the Littlest joined in.  Now watching Merlin is a family thing, which I love.  We managed to record all of two previous seasons so that N and the Littlest didn't miss as much.  I adore the relationship between Merlin and Arthur the most and it appears that my boys think it's just as hilarious! 

The X Factor

Some of my favourite memories growing up are watching television programmes as a family.  There was this thing called T. G. I. F on ABC, which was basically two hours of family entertainment.  I remember watching Boy Meets World and Step by Step.  I remember watching Full House and Perfect Strangers. Later there'd be Hangin' With Mr Cooper and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.  I loved sitting as a family and watching TV shows together.  This may have been because of my hugely dysfunctional family, but it was seriously a highlight of my young childhood, so I'm always aware of and appreciate the time that N and I spend doing things together as a family, including watching TV. 

And the boys go crazy about The X Factor.  There was a time when the Littlest could say 'Simon Cowell' but was still unable to say 'Daddy' properly.  I loved when E had a massive crush on Cheryl Cole and blushed furiously.  E will hear a song on the radio and remember that it was song on The X Factor once, even if it was three years ago.  Both boys swing about in the living room and pretend to be Dermot O'Leary and say 'You're Saturday night starts right here.'  And I love all of that.  Those will always be my reasons to carry on watching The X Factor. 

And though we've recorded the first episode (or is it two by now? more?) but still haven't watched it, I am still ridiculously excited to watch Homeland.  I adore Claire Danes (Angela Chase all grown up!) and I love Homeland.  Dying to watch it already. 

So that's what I've been watching lately, what programmes have YOU been watching?