My sister doesn't have a TV. This is Portland, Land of Crunch Granola Lifestyle Livin', and so I probably know another ten or fifteen people who Don't Watch TV (or the next thing to it, Don't Have Cable).

While I embrace all sorts of different lifestyles (don't eat anything with eyes? Good for you! Eat everything organic? Smart! Won't get in a Demon Car? Bike everywhere? Handmake all your clothes? Won't use a telephone? You get ON with your bad self!), to be quite frank? This is not one that I can ever really picture myself sustaining for long term.

There was a time when I lived by myself in Chicago when I didn't get cable, which in Chicago is almost the same as not watching TV. And considering my favorite shows aren't on network TV, I did essentially that. So I know I can. I just don't want to.

Case in point: by some magical stroke of luck, I saw that Netflix had the season premier of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip available. Popped that to the top of my queue and kept it a secret so that when I went to visit Emily, I had a nice little surprise.

Dude, it was way more than that. This TV show--now, given, I'm only going from the first episode--is smart. There are already four characters I intensely care about, one I'm fully prepared to hiss whenever he comes on screen. There are other side characters that I'm excited to see develop. It satisfies the Feminist Rules of Entertainment I read somewhere (1. Is there more than one woman? 2. Do they talk to each other? 3. About something other than men? Think about it--those are great rules. And should be so easy to satisfy. And yet so rarely are.) And Teh Funny! So much of Teh Funny that I get jazzed thinking about it on weekly. Watching it with Emily was awesome because we'd pause it and talk about it and giggle about it and squeeeeee together and I've missed having a show like that.

I can't wait to watch this more. And that is precisely why I couldn't give up my TV.