TV Shows I Was Really Into...Until I Wasn't.

Show: Game of Thrones

How Long I Lasted: One season and about three episodes into Season two.

Why I Stopped Watching: Two things: 1. The only character I cared about was dead, and 2. those damn baby dragons.

Show: The Walking Dead

How Long I Lasted: Four & a half seasons (Two Seasons too long)

Why I Stopped Watching: By season four, all of Frank Darabont's brilliance had faded and it became clear the show was written by sub-par intellects who only knownhow to repeat themselves every single year.

Show: Parks and Recreation

How Long I Lasted: 2.25 seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: Started out funny but by season three, I felt a desperate hysteria creeping in. 

Show: 24

How Long I Lasted: Three seasons (4-6)

Why I Stopped Watching: It went from mildly clever to painfully ludicrous and beyond contrived.

Show: Supernatural

How Long I Lasted: Six seasons

Why I Stopped Watching: My TV broke and by the time I got a new one, I no longer cared.

Show: Justified

How Long I Lasted: Four Seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: Took too long of a break between binge-watching seasons and lost the flow. 

Show: Better Call Saul

How Long I Lasted: Two seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: It was no "Breaking Bad" and that became more and more obvious as it kept shying away from the more interesting elements of its predecessor. I'm sure it all pays off eventually but as of now, I don't really care.

Show: Agents of SHIELD.

How Long I Lasted: 3.5 Seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: After a rocky, dull start, seasons two and three kicked into high gear with some amazing storytelling. Then season four turned into a listless, meandering mess.

Show: American Dad

How Long I Lasted: Unsure. At least four or five seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: Once the show seemed to have lost interest in comedy and just started doing hamfisted surrealism, ya boy was out!

Show: Millenium

How Long I Lasted: Two seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: After one hell of a setup at the conclusion of a second season the producers wrongly assumed would be their last, the show was renewed for a third season that was the clear result of network interference.

Show: Growing Pains

How Long I Lasted: 3/5 seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: The whole purpose of the Mike Seaver character (Kirk Cameron before he became an insane religious fanatic) was to provide a counter-point to the button-down, conservative Eighties expectation of boys in the middle class. By having Mike suddenly become a college student, the entire premise of the show was betrayed and, believe me, it only got  worse from there. So many old man sweaters!

Show: Dallas

How Long I Lasted: Nine seasons

Why I Stopped Watching: The infamous "It was all a dream" dismissal of an entire season wasn't, in and of itself, so terrible, but it happened right after the strongest, most dynamic season since the early years. Unforgivable.

Show: Santa Barbara

How Long I Lasted: Three seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: Yes, I watched a soap opera! I was really young, damn you! But even I couldn't handle so many different faces playing the same characters.

Show: Gotham

How Long I Lasted: Half a season.

Why I Stopped Watching: An intriguing premise simply cannot make up for so much uneven acting.

Show: Mad Men

How Long I Lasted: Two seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: Once I realized the mystery surrounding Don Draper was the only thing holding my interest, season two became a laborious slog.

Things That Make you go "Aww!"

When I see the below pic of the new "Charlie's Angels," my first reaction is to say, "Aww." They look like children playing big people games. Infantilization is swiftly making it difficult to take actors seriously in certain roles because they still look and act very much like pre-teens and teenagers.  No wonder it's a flop.

Never mind that it's already been remade once or that there's only one pretty one (the one in the middle) or that Elizabeth Banks has clearly lost her mind, that still says it all!

And people wonder why I express almost zero interest in seeing my work adapted by Hollywood!

All Trumped Up.

Approximately one month ago I was challenged to write a script. It was during one of those two-couple dinners that are all the rage and somehow the topic turned to Donald Trump and his antics regarding the whistle-blower whose claims you can read up on by clicking here if you somehow don't know or recently were the recipient of a closed-head injury.

At some point during the lively conversation, I said, "Wouldn't it be funny if Melania turned out to be the whistle-blower?" The person sitting directly across from me jumped up in her seat, pointed at me and exclaimed, "If you write that, I'll get it produced!"

"As a script?" I said. I'd recently seen what she and her group of filmmakers were capable of and was reasonably impressed.

"Yes. I have actors who would love to be in that."

She's an actor, too. I had a pretty good feeling who she wanted to play. The very next day I realized the idea was burning a hole in my brain and I had no choice but to start writing it. I decided to go for complete satire, with characters who openly, cluelessly and unrepentantly admit to the worst possible aspects of human behavior as if they're discussing a grocery list. It took a month to complete the first draft but I am pleased with the result.

Taking into account budget constraints, which every play or script I've ever written does, I set the whole thing in a small room where a senate sub-committee gives the increasingly obnoxious president, his attorney and his VP a chance to admit his wrongdoing before the actual impeachment trial begins.

I plan to publish an excerpt of it in a couple days on my Patreon page. That's right. You gotta pay me at least a dollar to read it. Imagine the nerve of a writer wanting to get paid for his work!

A link will be posted soon so check back~

R.I.P. Burt Reynolds

Burt saw this coming, hence the book "But Enough About Me" but it still hurts to lose one of the iconic actors of my youth. Because of his incredible sense of humor despite all the screwing over he received from Hollywood, the cartoon below is both appropriate and fitting. A fond farewell to the man who chose fun roles over heady ones because that's how he chose to live his life.