I want my TV

Not MTV. You can keep that. But television...I love me the television. YES I HAVE OFFICIALLY GOTTEN PAST MY UPBRINGING.

You see, television in my household growing up was, like, taboo. Reading Rainbow and Wishbone were all I could get away with (and now you know why I am the way I am). Everything else was verboten, and let's do keep in mind that we only got about six local channels. There was very little harm that could be done. Even still, I snatched bits of Batman Beyond and Hysteria and Animaniacs when my mom was at her vet tech classes (and now you know why I am the way I am), and even The Drew Carey Show and Third Rock from the Sun when I was in middle school. I can still sing that damn radio spot that the local FOX network used to pimp out that block of scheduling: "Now after Drew it's time for Dick! What could be more fun? (''Cause I'm an IDIOT!').

(Wow. How much brainspace am I wasting?)

Then we had cable for about a year in high school (so my parentals could watch BYUTV, natch), and I covertly watched VH1 videos in the morning before getting on the bus, and fell in love with Stargate SG1 in the evenings when my parents were out fulfilling their callings. O I was such a bad seed! And then...oh, and then. See, the very weekend I graduated from high school my parents moved to New Hampshire and left me with my grandmother until I went to college. GRANDMA HAS BASIC CABLE, PEOPLE. Lawdy it was a glorious summer. I watched Firefly before it got canceled, Grease about a zillion times because it was on VH1's "Movies That Rock", a good chunk of some season of The OC. It was delish.

And every time I visit dear G-ma, I spend most of my time there eating and watching TV. I love television. Mom would be ashamed, but come on! I still read more than anyone else alive, probably. I have learned to love more than one form of media, that's all. It's like loving broccoli AND cauliflower.

All this to say that I am very excited for the Gossip Girl premiere tonight, and that excitement leads me to wonder if people can be judged by their taste in television shows. I love GG, yes, but I also love Mad Men, everything in the Whedonverse, Stargate and X-Files, LOST (except for that damned finale), True Blood, and pretty much every cartoon Bruce Timm ever touched. I adore Glee. I love Justified. I watch Dexter with bated breath. Some of these fall into some modes or genres, some into others. My reading taste and general proclivities predict that I should be watching Spaced, 30 Rock, Mad Men, and maybe The Office. My musical taste suggests that I ought to gravitate toward Metalocalypse and other Adult Swim programming. My movie tastes indicates that I should be viewing Futurama and Star Trek. Where are these trashy pop shows coming from? What in my psyche sees something recognizable and true in Gossip Girl? I HATE rich people. What does it mean that I really want to watch Nikita and will likely torrent the first ep when I get home tonight? Why do I find Glee endlessly compelling? It ain't because it's deep (it's probably because I love musical theatre).

Television. I have no answers for these very significant questions. Only excitement at downloading tonight's vision of Blair and Chuck making up and having a lovefest right? rich white indolence.