I broke my leg this June and, as a result, ended up watching a lot of television.

I had been planning on doing this anyways–there were a few shows I wanted to catch up on (and some that I still haven’t – someday, BSG Season 4, someday). But given bed rest, a lack of movement, and friends willing to lend DVDs and suggestions, I was helpless to resist.

I’m going to be posting a few things based off what I “learned” this summer, but I figured, now that school has officially started and summer is truly over, I would give a final tally (done vaguely in order, though some was watched concurrent):

Firefly

Avatar: The Last Airbender, all seasons

The Wire, all seasons

The Wizards of Waverly Place, season one

True Blood, all seasons

The Mighty Boosh, season one

Mad Men, all seasons

Dexter, all seasons

Or, ultimately, about 200 hours of programming.

Further posts will be about some of the actual shows I watched (though mostly not reviews – I figure that last thing the world needs right now is another review of any of these shows), I wanted to talk about some of the major lessons I have learned:

1) Watching a lot of good TV will ruin your ability to enjoy not-so-great TV. This seems pretty obvious, but man, it’s a bummer. Enjoyable semi-bad stuff is needed sometimes and it sucks that, say, after The Wire I find myself yelling at the police work on Dexter for sucking, or getting frustrated with shows for poor world-building/character development.

2) Don’t ever watch this much TV. Watching TV on DVDs means you can churn through seasons at the speed of light. Especially given the nature of my job, I would sometimes be able to knock off half of a season of a show in one day. I started Dexter last week and I already finished all the seasons. it’s an insane amount of TV and it’s really, unshockingly, unhealthy. It makes me brain feel fried and I’m glad for increased mobility and friends that force me to do more than get through shows. That said, the immediate pay-off for dramas is really nice.

3) You will dream in TV shows. Do you know how many times I have had TV characters in my dreams this summer? Way too effing many.

4) The best thing to do is to make TV social. I am fortunate that my brothers and co-workers indulge me, and so we would watch episodes together. I can watch TV alone, but I especially love it when I can voice and bounce insane theories off others, or just express rage and love. My friends all deserve awards for putting up with me this summer, when most of my conversation revolved around the character arcs of shows they had already watched and they had to tolerate me going “MAN SO DO YOU THINK SOOKIE IS EVER GOING TO GET LESS DUMB?”

5) Most importantly: balance your shows. I tried to watch something trashier and lighter in-between the more dramatic stuff. I think I would have gone into a depression coma if I followed up on my original plan of watching Breaking Bad after Mad Men – sometimes you need the more casual stuff, even if it drives you nuts (see: 1).

Coming next: my defense of the Disney Channel!