A Note About Our Programming In this, the Year of Our Lord, 2012.

A new year. Filled with promise and hope. Then managing expectations. Then justification, self-loathing, wash, rinse, repeat. With the new year comes a few changes in our regularly scheduled programming. Some won’t affect you much. Others, well, still won’t affect you. But you may find them interesting in some untenable imaginary universe I just thought up.

Effective IMMEDIATELY, I’m no longer going to be doing weekly reviews of shows like The Office and 30 Rock. The reasons for this are many. Well, actually, there are only a few. One, I’m tired of saying the same things about shows like The Office over and over again week after week. No, the show’s not as good as it used to be. I know it and so do you, so I don’t need to keep reminding you. Two, with shows like 30 Rock and Curb Your Enthusiasm, I find that reviews more often than not turn into recaps or “things I liked best” lists. And unless we’re discussing these shows in the context of their growth over many seasons, or comparing them to other sitcoms, I’m not convinced there’s much worth in taking them apart critically. And if that is what you’re doing, it’s not a conversation you need to be having every week. Of course, that’s just me. Your mileage may vary.

That’s not to say I’ll be completely ignoring these shows going forward. I’ll be poking my head in from time to time and chiming in at different points in the season. I imagine that between now and the end of its run The Office will do something fresh and interesting. Although I’ve been burned before.

So don’t fret! There are a lot of good dramas coming up in the next few months I’ll be looking at, including Luck, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, and… *shudder* The Killing. This year I’ll also be going back and looking at a few older shows I think people will enjoy. That I think you’ll enjoy. Because you’re the only one who’ll read this. The only one.

Happy New Year!

Dick Clark’s got the right idea, you guys. Take a hat and one of those blowy things and have a good time tonight. And remember, if you drink, drive home as fast as you can before you get all loud and annoying and ruin everyone else’s good time.

NEWSFLASH: Public Access Pioneers Field of “Television Criticizings!”

Hello, weary traveler, and welcome to Public Access! As you may know, television criticism is a largely UNTAPPED field and as one of the FIRST on the scene my hope is to enlighten you, the Constant Reader, through a series of musings, anecdotes and what the Germans call tiefgedanken. I also hope to one day convince myself that the countless hours I’ve spent watching TV, the Friday evenings spent alone at home, the tears and broken relationships haven’t all been for naught. Will you be enlightened? Most definitely. Will I ever convince myself I’m not wasting my life? The jury’s still out, but in the meantime we should all have a lot of fun.