I try not to watch a lot of TV.  I’ve got other things to do.

But I’ll cop to it; I’ve whiled away the odd idle hour watching a few things on TV.

And while nobody asked me, I’ve got a few observations.

• Operation Repo:  I’ve known for a while that the show was scripted, and not remotely “reality”.  But the latest round of plot lines make me wonder if they’re not hoping to be picked up by Lifetime TV.
• Hard Core Pawn: I don’t think I saw more than an episode or two of “Pawn Stars”, the grandaddy of the “how much is all this crap worth?” genre.  It never really grabbed me much.  But I like the Detroit-based “HCP”, if only because, scripted or not (and it’s just gotta be scripted), I can so totally relate to Les Gold’s quiet slow burn with his endlessly-feuding children.  It’s given me the
• Hotel Hell:  If you were waiting for a kinder, gentler Gordon Ramsey, Hotel Hell is the show for you.  I, however, was not waiting for that Chef Ramsey.
• Top Shots:  Not even sure if the show is on the air anymore.  But watching it, I noticed first that the plot, format and pacing were exactly the same as Project Runway, only with marksmanship instead of fashion.  Then I noticed the used exactly the same incidental music  – between segments, to foreshadow things, everything. It is, from a production standpoint, literally Project Runway with guns!
• Master Chef: Master Chef covers the waterfront, from the sublime to the ridiculous.  Ridiculous: the spectacle of the two non-Ramsey judges (Hector Alizondo Joe Bastianich and Flounder from Animal House Graham Elliot) audibly wincing as they sing the praises of Wal-Mart steak, apparently prodded by a rolled up and sharpened wad of product-placement checks.   On the sublime upside, Becky Reams is the new Casey Thompson.
• LIzard Lick Towing: On the one hand, coming up with new “home-spun” lines for Ronnie Shirley (“that lady was greasier than an undercooked burger in a fat guy’s underwear on a hot day”) has got to be keeping some good writers in work.  On the other hand, I give Amy Shirley another season of bodybuilding before she turns into Skeletor.
• Combat Pawn:  They’ve done the impossible: taken one of my favorite subjects (firearms) and a reality-TV subject I”m slowly warming up to (pawn shop dramedy) and added excruciating tedium!

That shoudl do it for now.