I’m still fighting this stupid sinus infection and feeling very holiday-challenged. All I really want to do right now is curl up under the covers.
When I feel this way I crave Comfort TV, less caloric than comfort food and possibly a bit healthier. My Comfort TV consists of makeover, decorating and cooking shows, and a smattering of comedy. Some of my favorites are What Not to Wear, (both the American and British versions), Changing Rooms (crazy decor, cute designers and all the different British accents–what’s not to love?), Emeril and Whose Line is it Anyway?.
The one drawback to Comfort TV at this season is the commercials, which bring out my inner Scrooge like nothing else. Tops on my Most Egregious Commercials List:
- Singing greeting cards held by mute human beings swaying to the tinny electronic tunes. Blech.
- The one that says it’s not your clothes (music, favorite color, neighborhood, etc…) that say the most about you, it’s your watch. Blech again. (Did they not think to include the books you read? Philistines.)
- Electronic learning toy commercials that imply your child will not get into college if you don’t buy them. (How about buying them books instead? How about actually reading with them?)
The good thing is one can escape to commercial-free Comfort Reading. My favorite providers are Georgette Heyer and Loretta Chase. When I’m done with this post I’m slinking back to bed with LORD PERFECT.
Do you indulge in Comfort TV or Comfort Reading? What are your favorites?
And which holiday commercials bug you the most?
Elena
www.elenagreene.com
P.S. The picture is of Bill Gorman playing Scrooge at the Cider Mill Playhouse in Endicott, NY and looking a good bit better than I do at the moment!
“He went to Jared.” We don’t even *have* a Jared around here.
And last night, they showed the most horrible holiday filk wanting Road Runner.
I have good excuses for not being in the holiday spirit, but comercials like these are NOT helping.
Overstock.com because the woman’s voice doesn’t quite match her, so you know it is dubbed in.
Elena, I too hate those computer learning games commercials and I no longer have little kids. Sometimes I envy the new things for children but not these, especially the ones that come with horrible graphics.
Comfort TV????
What Not to Wear, both versions, I LOVE!!
How Do I Look? a similar show on the Style Network
The Look for Less, also Style Network
Project Runway, but it is not on now, so Top Chef will have to do.
House Hunters.
Clean Sweep (tho I have not seen it;it might have disappeared.)
Clean House, on Style Network, not as good as Clean Sweep but very similar.
Split Ends, also Style Network. This one is fun because a big city hair stylist switches places for a week with a small town hair stylist.
Okay, do you think I need too much Comfort TV?????
We have Tivo, so I almost never see commercials anymore.
Comfort TV? Iron Chef (either version), Good Eats. I love Alton Brown. Along with The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and The Office, that’s just about all the TV I watch these days. I’m too busy–though if Joss Whedon comes back to TV, I’ll make time.
Comfort reads are all about re-reading the classics for me–Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, the Chronicles of Narnia, etc.
There’s a STYLE Network? (The mind boggles!) On regular cable TV? I better run downstairs and check if I receive it.
Probably the only entertaining commercials I’ve seen are during the Superbowl game. The rest are pure drek.
Pity about the commercial for Overstock. It’s one of my favorite online shopping sites.
I’d rather read than watch TV or movies. It’s always comforting to read.
OK. I take that back. I do have Gerald Butler and Phantom of the Opera waiting. But exciting isn’t comforting, so perhaps this doesn’t count in the tally.
A chance to win Jenna Petersen’s newest book and on the day I’m leaving for a trip? NO FAIR!
Sending virtual hot soup your way, Elena, along with sinus-infection-zapping antibodies.
eeks! I forgot to be sympathetic to Elena!!! I hope you are on antibiotics, you poor baby, and that your husband is taking up the Christmas slack. Nothing worse than a sinus infection.
My husband and my next book both have some health problems. And so I’ve been losing myself in rented DVDs of Season 1 of Big Love and Seasons 1-2.5 of Battlestar Galactica. Both highly recommended, though neither one of them is warm, fuzzy, or comforting (except in the way that narrative is always comforting and good line readings take one out of oneself). Oh, and then there are the co-ed locker room scenes on Galactica.
Thanks for the sympathies, ladies! I am on the right antibiotics and slowly getting better. It’s the slowly part that is so annoying.
Pam, sorry to hear about the husband and the next book. Hope both are on the mend SOON.
Best wishes for recovery, Elena!
We mute out commercials, or fast-forward over them, so I fear I have no idea what ones are out there! Except those shown in movie theatres…
Oh, I know. I hate all car commercials.
Comfort TV:
Star Trek (the original show)
Friends
Stargate anything
Jane Austen movies on DVD
DVDs of Grosse Point Blank, Footloose, Batman, Room With a View, Disney movies
music videos
searching on “cute kittens” on YouTube
Comfort Books:
Louisa May Alcott
Diana Wynne Jones
Alexander Key
Meg Cabot
Georgette Heyer
Joan Smith
okay, better stop now before I get carried away…
Cara
I hope you get well soon Elena!
I hate all commercials. I admit to not watching TV too much. For I rather watch something on DVD. My DVD selection is better than what’s on TV, for me that is, for I’m picky.
Diane I so hate that overstock commercial too! I’m surprised I’m not the only one who thinks it’s dubbed too.
Alas, I dislike so many commercials, I can’t think of any. LOL But I like the Geigo neanderthal dude (poor guy!), loved the Ditech guy when he was on. And there was that cereal one with the employee crunching away while not being able to hear his boss in various things, like getting fired, but just by sitting there and not hearing over his crunching, he gets promotions and a new office and whatever. 🙂
And I never even heard of Jared until like two days ago when I first saw the commercial. LOL
And the overstock.com woman always annoyed me anyway, so this is a new reason why to dislike her! LOL 🙂
Comfort tv — the really good Mulder X-Files episodes, Phantom of the Opera, Colin Firth, I mean Pride and Prejudice (LOL), Star Wars, Star Trek, I Love Lucy as soon as I remember the latest time TV land changed it too (ugh). And whatever else I could put down.
Oh yeah, anything with Sean Connery, of course. 🙂
Lois
Oh, I watched Pride & Prejudice this week and loved it all over again.
I have to limit my obsessive watching of favorite movies because I’ve been known to watch so many times that I can hardly stand the movie anymore–I did that with Raiders of the Lost Ark. I don’t want that to happen to Phantom of the Opera!!!
Oh, Elena, you have my sympathy! Sinus infections are the worst. Take your meds, and stay warm!
This last weekend I watched an old (and weird) comfort movie, a very old, bad recording of a made-for-TV movie called ‘A Ghost in Monte Carlo.’ It’s from a Barbara Cartland book, wonderful costumes, gorgeous production values, terrible acting, and a heroine who needs rescuing not once but THREE times. That and a glass of wine was just what I needed to get away from the holiday doldrums. 🙂
Elena, feel better!
I do both comfort reading (Anne McCaffrey or the latest Regency) and comfort tv (La Femme Nikita or Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Must be DVD, though, because those commercials drive me crazy, too. There’s one of a little girl singing some distorted version of Jingle Bells and then just wandering off in the middle of it. Am I really supposed to think that’s cute? Grr… Oh, and the car commercials with the bow on the car. Who gives a car for Christmas? Anyways.
Diane, I miss Style Network. Adelphia doesn’t carry it. *pouts*
Awwww, Mina, you can’t watch all the tacky Style network shows that consume way too much of my time!!!
Where’s Style Network? I couldn’t find it. Is it a Premium or Digital channel? I don’t have either of those. Phooey!
Where’s Style Network? I couldn’t find it. Is it a Premium or Digital channel? I don’t have either of those. Phooey!
Style Network is certainly not a premium station like HBO but it is probably on more than the basic tier. We have Cox Cable here in this part of VA.
Keira, You can check http://www.stylenetwork.com. There’s a spot around the middle of the page where you input your zip code. Hope that helps! I like some of their shows but still enjoy the What Not to Wears (on TLC and BBC America) best.
The only problem is they make me want to run out and replace most of my wardrobe. 🙂