Stop Trying to Make Me Care, Network TV

Lately, I have been finding that network television is getting more and more intrusive in its attempts to make me care about shows I don't want to watch. Stop trying to lure me into getting hooked on more shows! I don't have the time.

I have already committed to Gary Unmarried. I tune in faithfully each Wednesday to find out for once and for all, will Gary Unmarried ever learn? So far, no. By the way, Gary Unmarried is NOT a good show. It is unfunny and unoriginal and poorly acted. I should really give it up, but I have a feeling one of these weeks, it will really turn around. So, I stick with it. 

For whatever reason (maybe pregnant hormones?) I find myself getting really irritated about one show in particular that seems to want me to devote myself to it like I have to Gary Unmarried: Private Practice. I guess it has been somewhat successful, because I have seen I think 5 episodes of it, but that is just enough for me to know that I really dislike it. I assume that Private Practice has poor ratings, and since Grey's Anatomy rocks and is popular, they think a crossover is the answer.

I have nothing against a crossover in theory: for one week, we get an extension of a show we like, and as payment we have to watch scenes that will probably bore us because they feature characters and storylines that we are not invested in. It's not a terrible tradeoff, and I am usually willing to take part in it. Well, ABC has gone too far. The ongoing Grey's Anatomy/Private Practice crossover event is leading into its third week.

Yes, I said third week.

What makes me the maddest is that the first week of the "crossover" consisted of a regular episode of each show, where they had cases that were not resolved at the end of the hour and eventually (the next week) would link the two shows together. Well, thanks for the heads up, ABC! I didn't figure out that the "crossover" was phony until minute 52 (thank you, DVR) of Private Practice when Pacifist Viking asked, "Have your Grey's Anatomy people come on yet?" and then laughed at me when I said no. And by the way, all I would have needed in order to be ready for the second week of the crossover would have been one statement from Addison: "Hey Derek! My a-hole brother has a brain problem and might be dying. Can you operate on him?" That would have got me up to speed. 

Anyway, now we are going into week 3 of the crossover, and I still want nothing to do with Private Practice. Only now, instead of just not being invested in the characters, I have grown to resent them. I hope they wrap this thing up this week, because I have enough to do on Thursdays without giving ABC 2 hours of my time. I mean, doesn't NBC deserve some love too?