Why did it take no TV to make me stop watching shit TV?

I can't speak for everyone on the planet, but... I am not in the sole control of my TV, or my TIVO.

On any given day, there's movies on there I don't like, Oprah's I'd rather get eye cancer than watch... and then Cashmere Mafia, which makes feel very serial killer-y. I really need an hour of women telling me that they have a place in the workplace? Really? What is this, 1955?

I like it better on Madmen when it's done in context and nobody's trying to convince you it's a comedy.

But in the dry spell that has been the wrtier's strike, I have discovered Weeds, Battlestar Galactica, The Sarah Conner Chronicles (Nerd!), Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and I absorb Grey's Anatomy like a sponge.

All of them: Scripted.

Don't get me wrong. There are some reality shows I like: I like the end of American Idol, I enjoy Celebrity Apprentice, and I can find myself absorbed in Amazing Race, provided the people in it aren't all complete tools.

But the shows that get my loyalty... are the ones that are written. With stories. And characters. And plot lines.

Everybody talks about this strike sending people screaming to the internet. But I think there's something else happening too: It's sending them screaming to DVD box sets and netflix.

I think you're going to find that people are seeking out good TV. And for all we know, that's good news for shows like 30 Rock, shows that are on the bubble that people are finding for the first time...

...and will return to when they're back on the air, brand new.

Foolishly optimistic, I know. But a boy can hope.