Joey Lawrence, the brother I never had

I love watching TV. It's not a secret, I'm not ashamed of it, even though there are plenty if people who try to make me feel guilty for spending all that time watching TV instead of going out or meeting new people. I meet plenty of new people even though I watch a lot of TV, and I can always go out when I want. My favorite TV -show is only on once a week.

TV is my friend. The first thing I do when I go home: turn on the TV. I might not watch it, but it's nice to hear it in the back ground while I'm cooking or playing with the kittycat. Of course I also spend quality time with my TV, it's not just something I leave in the back burner. I don't enjoy the Italian TV as much as I enjoy the Finnish TV (probably because almost all of it is dubbed here) but finally, after 3 years of living in Italy, I've developed my TV-routine. And here it is.

Monday through Friday

I work during the days and I don't watch TV in the morning, so my TV-day starts when I get home at 17.30.

If it's Letterman-day, then I watch Letterman (it's in English, hooray!!). I haven't figured out why it's on during some days and some days not (and at different time slots as well), but when I get home from work I always check if it's Letterman-day or not. If I'm lucky and it's on, then I watch it while I'm making dinner. And it's awesome. I also amuse myself by reading the Italian subtitles and laughing at the silly mistakes they make with the translations.

David Letterman's not nearly as funny when translated in Italian

After that I turn on Deejay-TV, and I watch Perfetti ma non troppo (Less than perfect) and Melissa&Joey (with the always adorable Joey Lawrence, SEE THE ADORABLE LINK HERE). That's my sit-com dosage for the day. I also used to watch Big Bang Theory but the only channel that showed it was cancelled. Or maybe it was cancelled from my TV since I was watching it too much.... hmmm.....

After that I usually take a break, do something useful like wash the dishes or torture the cat. Or watch How I met your mother from the DVD (equally useful as torturing the cat).

Around 8pm I turn on MTV and watch Modern Family. It's a double header which means an hour of quality TV. On Tuesdays there's a special treat around nineish, Awkward (LINKETYLINK). Again, a double header, so needless to say I don't go out much on Tuesdays.

At this point (Awkward excluded) we've arrived at 9pm, and then comes the hard part. There's usually nothing interesting on. So what do you do? I take a shower and prepare myself for bed. Because at 10pm starts the Cosby Show, which by the way is called "i Robinson" here in Italy. Go figure. (My friend's say it's because they wanted to use the family name, but since Huxtable is impossible for them to pronounce they had to come up with something easier, and chose the Robinsons).

The amazingly beautiful Clair Huxtable (aka Phylicia Rashad)

So I watch the Cosby Show in bed (where I of course have my second TV) until I fall asleep.It's the perfect kind of a show to watch when you're tired, since the jokes are easygoing, relaxed, and the colorful jumpers of mr Cosby make you consider very carefully what to wear the next day to work.

Saturday through Sunday
I'm less TV oriented during the weekends actually. Since the cat's been waking me up super early lately, I sometimes watch the 3h marathon of Case da incubo (How clean is your house) in order to get good household tips, seeing that I usually clean the apartment on Saturdays. On Sunday mornings my favorite thing is to eat breakfast in bed and watch the Bold and the beautiful (in Italy it's called just Beautiful) for a few hours until 11am. Seeing Brooke go after Eric, again after 20 years, makes me feel like my personal life isn't in such a bad shape after all.

"Brooke, I'm the father of your sister's brother's cousin's dog walker's
favorite uncle's daughter. But more importantly: will you marry me?"

So there you have it folks. Of course I sneak in a few DVD films here and there, and some British TV comedies like Big Train or Spaced ( see links BIG TRAIN AND SPACED). Oh, and I've recently started going to the cinema again! A week ago we went to see Snowpiercer. I usually don't like scifi, but this one was a real treat. I give it 4 stars folks, even if it was full of unnecessary violence, disgusting filthy people and it almost made me have an anxiety attack.

Yes it seems I watch a lot of TV, but so what? It has taught me new languages, it gives me good tips on how to use coca cola to clean your toilet (never ever drink coca cola folks, it's freakin poisonous), and growing up together with actors who are of the same age as you (such as the cutie-pie Joey Lawrence) makes me feel like I'm watching my own brother's life on TV.

Awwwwwwwwwww,
just look at that face!!!

TV has been my friend no matter where I am in the world. It's the one thing we all have in common. When I travel, the first thing I do when I get to my hotel room is turn on the TV and see what the local shows look like. Not because I want to stay at my hotel room and watch TV the whole time, but because I'm curious. It's my family away from home, my safe haven when I'm all alone. I don't prefer it's company to my friends' company, but I don't undermine it either.

I've never had Sky or any other kind of pay-TV, and actually I'm afraid that if I had, I might get stuck at home for days and days. So thank god for normal TV and the fact that sometimes there's just crap on and I have to find something else to do.

Finally, a message to all the Finns: stop whining about the re-runs during the summer and the lack of TV channels. The shows you get are actually awesome compared to what I have to watch over here, they're in the original language, and they're not just Finnish or American shows, but also British, German, French, Swedish and what not. You also got nice advertisements during the breaks, and instead of having 50 equally boring shows for cooking, baking or making-a-mess-with-chocolate, you have Kokkisota and Sokkokokki. It's all good, just enjoy it!

Yes, even Salatut Elàmàt.