I’ve never been a regular TV consumer. When I grew up we had a crappy black and white console TV that got five channels. Two were UHF, which means they were not network affiliates. For my younger readers, there was a time when TV signals were sent over the air to people’s homes. That meant everyone had a big antenna on the roof and that meant family men were good at using a ladder to get on the roof so they could adjust the antenna for the football game. And that meant men had no time for hair gel or half thongs, but that’s a topic for another day.

Anyway, the point is I never developed the habit in my youth because the options were not very good. As much as old farts like me like to romanticize the past, things like TV are way better today than in my day. For a long time, I did not own a TV. I had plenty of ways to fill my free time, mostly involving liquor and women. A woman I was romancing talked me into buying a TV, which I did, thinking it may help the cause. (It did, in case you’re wondering.) Still, I have no beef with television, even though I’m an infrequent consumer.

Most of what is on TV is crap. It is harmless crap, but it is crap. I cut the cord primarily because I got tired of paying for crap I was never going to watch. So many nights I flipped on the set only to find nothing worth watching. I have pretty low standards and it was still tough to find anything worth my time. The few series worth watching, required me to plan for their airing and that’s not an investment I’m in the habit of making. Recording shows is fine, but that too requires planning and I’m just not that interested in it.

That 267 word intro is what is called a statement of interest, by the way. Now you know where I stand on TV and why. My biases are declared and I can now move onto the meat of this post.

So, the miracle of BitTorrent allows me to watch popular series when I want and as much as I want. If I have a few hours to kill one evening, I can watch a season of some show that is/was popular. Living in the world, getting asked about my TV viewing habits on a regular basis, means I feel the need to watch the more popular series, at least the big hits. Otherwise, I risk being a weirdo. Most of anyone’s social interactions are meaningless small talk anyway so keeping tabs on pop culture helps me grease the gears like a normal person and avoid saying in public the sorts of things I post here.

So, I’ve been binge watching some of the hit series of the last few years. I watched all of Breaking Bad in about two weeks time. I can see why people were devoted to it. It was very well done. Good writers and sensible actors can make for a very entertaining television. Binge watching changes things a bit, but if I had started watching it when it was current, I would not have tried to keep up with it. I’m just not willing to make that sort of commitment to a television show. Watching five episodes in a row, however, is a great way to do these long form serials.

I’m now watching Sons of Anarchy, which I think is still going, but maybe not. I could look it up but then you get the spoilers and that takes away some of the fun. I just finished season three and I have enjoyed it. I know a fair bit about motorcycle clubs, but even so, I’m still enjoying it. That’s the thing with TV. You have to accept that it is not going to stick too close to reality. The club they portray in the show is ridiculous, but that’s not the point. That’s just a vehicle for the drama. Al Qaeda has not killed as many people as the Sons of Anarchy in just two plus seasons.

This is most obvious in the case of the series Vikings. I’ve read a lot about the Vikings, their culture and history. Given their impact on Europe, it is a requirement for history buffs. Plus, they make for fun reading. The show is taking poetic license to a whole new level, but it is OK. They get the big stuff right enough to make the story work. The writers appear to have decided to skimp on accuracy in order to entertain and I cannot fault them for it. The whole point is to entertain, after all.

One of the things that seems to pop up in the popular series is the idea of fraternity. In all of these shows, the ways in which men bond with one another is an essential part of the story. The first long form cable drama to make it big was the Sopranos, a story about men in a criminal organization. The Wire relied on similar themes, just with different races and different types of crimes. The three shows I mentioned above are pretty much all about fraternity. That’s probably part of the appeal. In modern times, men no longer belong to clubs and fraternal organizations so maybe these shows tap into something there.

Similarly, these shows are populated with manly men. Movies and network TV have gone the other way. Action heroes are now 100 pound pixies in Lycra body suits. The stars of TV comedies are feminine beta males. These cable shows go the other way from the rest of the culture. In fact, they track more closely to the portrayal of men in movies during the 40’s and 50’s. The stars are gritty and working class. The willingness to do violence is not wrapped up in self-doubt and guilt. That’s the point of Breaking Bad. The main character becomes a man at the point when he realizes he enjoys being the bad guy.

The other thing that I see a lot of in these shows is the importance of family. The Sopranos was about the main character juggling the demands of two families. Breaking Bad is all about the main character trying to take care of his family after he is gone. Sons of Anarchy is a motorcycle version of Hamlet with a healthy does of Oedipus thrown in. Kevin Williamson had a nice take on it a while back. Maybe the emphasis on family as a themes in these shows taps into the general angst over the break down of the traditional family. Maybe it is just an easy way to write a drama. Sometimes, the simple answer is the right one, but my gut says there’s something going on there.