Eternal Arguments... Televison Preferences

Once when I was in college, I told a classmate that I was a big fan of the X-Files. My classmate then asked me if it was just because the lead actress (Gillian Anderson) was hot. Boy, was asking THAT question a mistake! I went on a 45 minute rant on all the things I LOVED about the show that had absolutely NOTHING to do with Gillian Anderson's hotness. (Any one of my friends can tell you about being on the receiving end of those rants, my dear readers. While *I* enjoy them, it seems that NO ONE ELSE does.) Since then, that particular accusation has been levied at me dozens of times by friends, co-workers, even random strangers that get caught up in my conversations because we're stuck in line for a movie. Yes, that has happened to me. A LOT.

The most recent person to levy this accusation was my sister. (Granted, this was about a year ago, but still.) Despite my best interests, I couldn't make her understand that I don't care about the attractiveness of actresses. It's Hollywood, EVERYONE there is good looking. I bring this topic up because of a show I tested to see if I would enjoy watching the show enough to really invest in it. The show is called Rogue and stars a favorite actress of mine, Thandie Newton (Mission Impossible 2, Crash, Chronicles of Riddick). And before you ask, yes, I find Thandie Newton to be a very attractive woman.

Isn't she gorgeous?

In the show, Newton plays an undercover cop whose son is killed and becomes obsessed with finding his killer. It seemed like an interesting premise. Usually a concept like that gets one episode or maybe a two part ep on another series, not its own series, so I thought I'd check it out. In my pre-watch research, I found out that Thandie Newton was cast as the cop, Grace Travis. Given the movies I've seen her in, I was encouraged by her choosing to work on the show. An actress of this caliber doesn't choose second rate material. So, I decided to watch the two part pilot episode.

When I watched the show, I found out that the main villain of the show was played by Marton Csokas (xXx, LOTR, Bourne Supremacy) this was even MORE encouraging. But as I watched the show, I found myself not connecting with the characters; not empathizing with the mother who just lost her child. Since this is the main emotional point of the show, this was disheartening. By the middle of the show, I was getting bored. Now this being a non US based show, the producers threw in a curve ball: a nude scene with Ms. Newton. I was surprised since I had NEVER even heard of Ms. Newton doing any nudity in her work. But it was a quick overhead shot in the shower, so it wasn't really a big deal. I kept watching, hoping to find SOMETHING worthwhile to get me invested in the show.


But, by the three quarter mark, there was nothing. I didn't care that the mom spent a whole 4 months obsessing over her child's death while the father seemed to have gotten over it. I didn't care that the obsession isolated the mom from her daughter. I didn't care when the mom blew her cover and then told the truth to save her life. And when she went back home and started a rough sex scene with her husband (again with all the nudity that implies, remember this is a NON-U.S. show), I TURNED OFF THE SHOW.

Yes, you read that right.

In the middle of a sex scene with a woman I find very attractive, while she was doing nudity for what I think is the first time ever, I WAS BORED. There was no interest whatsoever. I stopped the show, erased it from my computer and watched the latest episode of Criminal Minds. A show about hunting down serial killers that has no nudity whatsoever, but a great deal of blood, violence, and death; THAT is what I chose over watching a hot actress getting topless and screwing. That is my proof.

 I don't care about the attractiveness of actresses. I care about their talent. Their ability to make me suspend my disbelief long enough to get me emotionally invested in the story they are trying to tell, or the philosophy a show presents, the world they offer me a glimpse into, or at the very least, the PEOPLE whose lives they offer me to watch. And if I don't care about any of that, I won't watch the show. I won't even finish an episode!


Please, my dear readers, tell me that at least ONE of you understands where I'm coming from on this. Sound off in the comments below.