Calling it Quits

My husband says I think too much. I am sure he is right but this is just an unfortunate aspect of my otherwise happy-go-lucky personality that I can’t seem to turn off.  (Did I mention I also struggle with sarcasm?)

Mixing this think-to-muchness part of me with the part that loves to wind down with a little escapist television can be a lethal combination. As much as it pains me, I need some sort of internally coherent logic that justifies watching something that others might consider either objectionable, pointless or both. Since we haven’t ever had cable, I have been limited to things I could catch while on vacation or visiting family—that is, until my iPad and precious TV apps came along. Oh, happy day.

Still, over the years I have been forced, with great pain and regret, to drop a number of shows for various reasons. Survivor was one of the first to go for all the bikinis and the justification of deceit and backstabbing. A number of shows have been weeded out for the constant promotion of the gay agenda. Despite their liberal leanings, I thought I would always have PBS. Masterpiece Theater, Antiques Roadshow and History Detectives all rank among the best of the best as far as I am concerned. Even better, who is going to criticize you for zoning out to PBS, home of Sesame Street and Frontline?

But even this safe haven has been breached of late and has me looking for cover. It started with a few Masterpiece Mysteries and Masterpiece Contemporaries that shocked me with their sexual content. Still, one hates to play the part of the prude. I was one of the first to hop on the now crowded Downton Abbey bandwagon. Sure there was Thomas but it seemed a side story worthy of ignoring. Over the course of the last two seasons, however, I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the shows apologetic campaign for homosexuality, along with other plot lines that seem to be headed for adultery.

Last year I thought I had found a show with an incorruptible premise—Call the Midwife. How could a show about delivering babies in 1950s East End London go south? Half the characters are nuns, for crying out loud! Imagine my surprise, then, when suddenly nuns are justifying incest, nurses are casually referring to premarital sex, and on the last episode everyone is turning a blind eye to abortion.

This last episode was it for me. Recently I have felt a deep shame for our nation’s participation in the killing of the innocent and while I don’t know where this shame will lead me, the least I can do is turn off the TV. If I could, I would call the midwife and tell her how mystified I am at the simultaneous celebration of the miracle of life and the justification of ending that life before it has begun. I guess this show and many like it suffer from the same warring factions as my brain. Hopefully, good will win out in the end, but I am not holding my breath.