Wow...what a week this has been. Thank goodness it's almost over. There's nothing particularly interesting to write about; it's mostly problems at work that I'd rather stuff wasabi up my nose than rehash here. I did have a basketball game this past Sunday, and we lost. As I've mentioned, I'm fairly terrible, so I'm rarely a factor in whether we are victorious or not. Unfortunately, the usual suspects on our team that actually do possess some basketball acumen started playing down to my level. It's a surprise that we only lost by 6 the way we were playing. In some ways, it's encouraging. We can suck it up and still barely lose a game. Had we played like that last season, we would have lost by 20. Now...well, I guess we lose with more style.

I am saddened today because it's the season finale of my favorite tv show, Burn Notice. This show has single-handedly caused me to start watching television shows again; so, maybe I shouldn't be so sad. I'm watching far more tv now that I did 3 or 4 years ago. Luckily, I have a DVR so I can skip past most of the beer and insurance commercials, but it's starting to hurt my reading time. I seem to only read books now when I go on vacation, and that's a very bad habit. I decided I would list the tv shows that I'm watching right now to see how much of my time I'm wasting.

1. Burn Notice - As I said before, this is currently my favorite show. It's not the best show in writing or acting, but it's the most enjoyable for me. Following a discredited spy who's been thrown out of the CIA and forced to live in his home town of Miami without his identity, it's a cross between the A-Team and I Spy with a splash of MacGyver. Michael Weston, burned spy, solves distressed people's problems with his spy expertise and his two friends, a retired Navy Seal played by one of my all time favorite actors, Bruce Campbell, and his IRA terrorist on again off again girlfriend, played by the sexy Gabrielle Anwar. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...wait, wrong show. Still, Michael Weston's laconic narration about the trials and tribulations of spycraft on a budget are worth watching the show by themselves...well, them and seeing Bruce Campbell be awesome as usual.

2. The Soup - This show has been the most consistently funny half hour on tv for several years now. Hosted by a lanky and pale comedian, Joel McHale, it basically shows hilarious and horrific reality show clips and mocks the shit of them. It's a very simple format that is aped on several other stations, usually with much poorer results. The reason this one works is the writing is quite funny and McHale manages to be a likable asshole doing what is basically an extended version of SNL's Hollywood Minute with David Spade. Spade has the whole asshole thing down, I just wouldn't want to watch him for more than a minute.

3. Supernatural - I stumbled on this show by accident, which you'd have to since it's on the CW. I'm pretty sure most people don't even know what the hell the CW is. When it first aired, it looked like a Buffy clone with hunky guys to appeal to chicks, so I ignored it. After watching the 4th season from the beginning last year, I picked up and devoured the first 3 seasons. The story is about two brother who were raised by their father to be hunters of ghosts and other creepy crawlers. The concept isn't exactly original; I mean, Abbott and Costello made a career out of starring with movie monsters and that Who's on First skit. Still, the writing is top notch and the plot has evolved beyond your everyday monster of the week storyline into one of heaven and hell, angels and demons, and the end of the world. This is straight fantasy with a lot of drama, but also a surprisingly large amount of comedy. I guess it really is kind of a Buffy clone.

4. Psych - I only checked this show out because it was advertised during Burn Notice and I'm quite happy I did. The show follows the misadventures of Shawn Spencer, a super detective masquerading as a psychic for the Santa Barbara police department and his pharmaceutical salesman best friend, Burton Guster. Shawn is a lazy, underachieving loser who gets by on his remarkable perceptions and 80's references. The scripts always feel like they were thrown together in a couple of hours of a case of beer, but that's sort of the charm. The show doesn't take itself seriously and can be hysterically funny. I have no idea how the USA network, home of Silk Stalkings and...I'm not sure what else, somehow managed to end up with two quality tv shows.

5. Bones - I started watching this because David Boreanaz, or Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was on it. Usually, I ignore CSI, NCIS, Law & Order SUV, or any of the other 300 cop shows. This one is rather entertaining because they concentrate on the quirky characters instead of the "ripped from the headlines" crimes being investigated. The show is titled after the nickname of the lead character Temperance Brennan, the leading forensic anthropologist in the world. Considering that shit sounds made up, she couldn't have had too much competition. Either way, she works for an imitation Smithsonian Museum in D.C. and helps the FBI solve crimes by investigating gory and decomposing bodies. As I mentioned, the crimes are always second to characters which is how I prefer it. Story is king in movies while character is king in television. If I'm going to spend hours with someone, I better damn well like them.

6. Tosh.0 - This is actually another clip show that is a fairly blatant rip off of the Soup, but the reason it works is the same, a hilarious host, Daniel Tosh. Instead of showing tv clips, he uses clips and photos found on the web, as well as a segment which is one of the most creative on any show, the Web Redemption. In it, Tosh will do a comedy segment/interview with web clip "stars" and allow them to make up for whatever reason they ended up on the web in the first place. People like the Tron guy, the 7 year old black kid who stole his grandmother's SUV, Afro Ninja...well, you get the picture. Tosh manages to pull of the likable asshole act as well, although he's a lot darker in his humor than McHale. Any guy who comments about a girl doing competitive cup stacking with, "Okay, we get it. Women are good at putting dishes away" gets a thumbs up in my book.

7. American Idol - Haha...just kidding. That show is fucking terrible. I'd rather watch my balls being crushed by a sledge hammer than watch an elaborate karaoke contest. It's not totally a waste; it sometimes provide entertaining clips for the Soup.

Sigh...I really need to either watch less television, or watch better shows.