Instead of doing escape reading this past week, I have been watching escape (or “mindless”, as I refer to it) TV.  And, you know, it’s not so bad.  I gave up on The Good Life when the plot became rather outrageous and the jokes a bit offensive, but several other series have caught my fancy, and fortunately, when they first premiered this season, I had the foresight to set them to “record series.”

Timeless, a time travel series, is one I really like.  My Cultural Historian friend would be appalled and spend the whole viewing time picking out inaccuracies, but I find the adventures suspenseful and the subplots that carry over from episode to episode engaging. What WOULD happen if we travelled back in time and changed some tiny detail?

Designated Survivor is also turning out to be a “bring you back next week” experience and has some of the best acting so far. Also, Speechless, a timely show about a family dealing with a severely disabled member, has some fine comedy actors as well.

Series I have followed since their inception include The big Bang Theory, Gray’s Anatomy and Scorpion.  The Big Bang always makes me laugh, and I have followed those lovable geniuses/nerds from high schoolers to responsible (?) adults.   Gray’s Anatomy has seen many changes over the thirteen or so years I have faithfully watched it, but new, interesting characters and new, interesting plots keep arriving.  The medical cases and miracles are not of as much interest to me as the interactions and relationships of the characters.  The writer is a genius and writes herself into corners only to get out of them in ways that have you saying, “I never saw that one coming!”   Scorpion is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat all hour, shouting, “Oh no!” at the TV, and “action packed”? The show invented the term.

Obviously, I have done very little reading this past week, except for the lovely Gentleman in Moscow, which I am drawing out to make it “last longer.” I did get about 2/3 into an insipid romance novel (Why I ever started it is a valid question) that showed up in my LFL which I thought I would like, and I finally put it back in the LFL for someone who will like it more.

Since I will be grading final papers starting Wednesday, I doubt I’ll do much other reading, so maybe I’ll watch more episodes of mindless TV until being ready to make a big stab at my TBR stack of books over Thanksgiving Holiday.

Happy reading (or watching, as the case may be).