Thursday 13 - TV Shows

I don't have cable. I have a TON of kids movies in my house and pretty much every Andy Garcia movie ever made, a lot of Bruce Willis's movies, and the Lethal Weapon collection. I have maybe 10 other movies aside from that. ;) I like to have my TV on while I'm doing things around the house or playing on my computer. So most of the time...I'm catching up on my favorite shows or watching old episodes. OH...and I have this compulsion that when I decide to like a tv show, I HAVE to watch the series from the beginning. Most of my favorite shows I started watching after the first season...so I actually went back and caught up on everything I missed. I just felt "twitchy" (what I describe as that "not right" feeling in my OCD) until I was caught up. I'm weird. :P

I like a lot of TV shows. Here are 13 of my favorites:

1. CSI MIAMI - I've been watching this a lot lately. I tend to go in spurts about which show is my favorite of the moment. My favorite characters are Tripp and Walter (and Yelina when she was a regular)...but I like the cast as a whole. I really, really hope the show is renewed for another season. I started watching the show during Season 5 and have been keeping up with it since...though I didn't like the episodes that had Elizabeth Berkley in them. Her arc really didn't appeal to me. My kids actually watch this show with me (Aubry more so than Ashlyn). Aubry has become really interested in the "clues" and things like fingerprints and gun powder and how it leads to a suspect. We've had a lot of "fake blood" conversations and they understand that these kind of shows aren't real. We've even watched some videos on how movies are made and stuff. The bodies and killers don't really scare them...they're actually more afraid of the alligators that are often on the show. ;) Aubry's favorite character is Horatio.

2. NCIS - This is another show that I really love the whole cast together. It wouldn't make me very happy if they had to change any of the key players (except maybe Vance). I like Ziva better than Kate...but I do miss Mike Franks. One thing that I like about this show is there is a lot of humor for a "crime procedural" type of drama. The girls watch this show with me, too. Ashlyn likes this one more than CSI Miami. They both think Gibbs is amazing, Abby is awesome, Ziva is pretty, and the "Gibbs slap" is the funniest thing ever. I didn't start watching this show until around 2010 when I was watching my newborn niece and started watching it at my sister's house.

3. CRIMINAL MINDS - It's a very dark show but I like the subject. It's basically what I went to school for. In another life, I would have loved to join the BAU. But...I have kids so not going to be moving across the country anytime soon. I also really, really like Joe Mantegna who plays David Rossi. This is one show that I don't watch when the girls are home...it's too scary and complicated. It's easier to comprehend fake blood than acting out evil motivation and behavior. I started watching this show in 2009 or something. My mom once told me that David Rossi reminded her of my boyfriend (dark eyes, dark hair, dark skin, the goatee) and then started watching it. But the subject matter is really what hooked me.

4. GREY'S ANATOMY - I started watching this show during Season 3 when my supervisor at work was talking about it and saying I should watch it. I was given Season 1 of the show by a friend and one night I couldn't sleep so I started watching it. Then it became something we talked about a lot at work. :) At times it mirrored my life and some of the quotes (especially the voiceovers at the beginning and end) were so fitting. My favorite characters are McDreamy and McSteamy. ;) The girls don't watch this show with me, either.

5. PRIVATE PRACTICE - I didn't think I was going to like this show but I started watching it one night when I was tired of reruns and I ended up liking it. I started watching during season 2 and have kept up with it since. My favorite character is Pete but I like the cast as a whole, too (that seems to be a common thing for the shows that I like).

6. HOUSE - I started watching this show during Season 3 because my boyfriend liked it. I like House because he and I think a lot alike sometimes when it comes to human behavior and puzzles. He likes medical puzzles...I'm more of a psychological puzzles type of person. This is the last season of House and I can't say I'm very surprised...it has changed a lot over the last 8 years and there have been times when I don't even feel like watching it. I do hope it gets a good ending, though.

7. LAW & ORDER: SVU - I started watching this show in 2003 (Season 5) shortly after I got married. It's pretty much what I did on Tuesday nights and would always make sure I was home to watch it. They also ran a lot of reruns so I caught up with it pretty easily. Sometimes the subject matter is difficult because I had been a victim of sexual assault in high school. I really like the cast in this one, too, but Olivia (Mariska) has always been my favorite. I actually sent her fanmail one year and she even wrote me back (back when she was still answering her own emails). There were a couple years where I didn't follow the show as closely and this season I really miss Elliot (Chris Meloni) but the new characters are growing on me and I'm getting back into the show more.

8. BURN NOTICE - I almost forgot to list this one because it's on hiatus right now! I really, really love this show and it's actually one of the few shows I've been watching from the beginning. The cast is awesome together and I have a really hard time picking my favorite out of the 5 main characters. Sometimes Fi reminds me of myself...we're both skinny and lanky (long necks and long arms) and we both have attitudes that are a lot alike (though I'm not really big on blowing things up, myself). The new season starts in June and I'm interested to see how Fi being in prison plays out. The girls watch this show with me, too, and they really like it...they like that Michael saves everyone. :)

9. ONCE UPON A TIME - This is another show that I've watched from the beginning...though it just started this season. ;) I was all caught up on the new episodes of my shows and looking for something to watch one night...and this happened to be what I picked. I recognized Jennifer Morrison from House so that's what initially caught my attention and then I got hooked on it. :) I keep waiting to see what happens next. If you haven't, check it out! It's really interesting. It's really different...and the way they play out some of the "fairy tales" is cool.

10. THE SECRET CIRCLE - I just now started watching this show...a show about witches. I didn't know what to expect from it. My dad told me about it and all I knew was that it had Joe Lando in it so that's why I decided to check it out. ;) I was surprised...even though it's not something I typically like, I got into it. I started with Joe Lando's first couple episodes and now I'm catching up with the first 14 that I missed.

11. DR QUINN MEDICINE WOMAN - Speaking of Joe Lando...this was one of my FAVORITE shows when I was growing up. My mom, sister, and I started watching it from the pilot and really fell in love with it. We used to set the VCR to record every episode. I'm sad that it was only on for 6 seasons...I think they could have done a lot more with it. I luuuuuuved Sully. :) I have the entire series (which included the 3 movies they made after it went off air) because I thought it would be something the girls would enjoy and we could watch together. They love it, too! I love sharing part of my childhood with them.

12. SMALLVILLE - This show isn't on the air anymore, but I liked it when it was. My boyfriend started watching it in the fall/winter of 2007 and I kept getting sucked in. He was trying to catch up on the past episodes, too, and after awhile I found myself catching up on all the episodes that he'd watched with out me, too. I got into it a lot more than I expected. Ashlyn also really liked watching it with me. She called it "Clark" instead of Smallville and her favorite thing was to sing the intro song ("somebody saaaaaaave me"). ;) I think my favorite part of the show was the beginning when they were in high school. My favorite character was Chloe followed closely by Lana...but I actually really liked Lionel Luther after he went to the "good" side. I wish they would have kept Lionel, Lex, and Lana longer than they did. The end of the series started to kinda lose my interest off and on but I still kept watching it until the end. Every once in awhile I like to go back and watch reruns. :)

13. TEEN MOM 2 - This is my guilty pleasure show. ;) For some reason, I just get sucked into watching these young girls and their drama. I watched it a lot when I was at the man's house working on homework during the day. I watched the original Teen Mom as well, but I found myself following Teen Mom 2 more. Trashy Reality TV :P



So...those are my favorites of the moment! There are a lot of past shows I liked that aren't on anymore...but I've reached my 13 for this week. Maybe next week I will revisit 13 of my favorite tv shows from the past (aside from a couple that I listed here). :)