Assignment 5- Paige Barricklow

Personally I watch TV for many different reasons. On one hand I watch TV as a way to pass the time when I have nothing else to do, if I want to do something that doesn't involve a whole lot of effort, or I want something going on in the background of something else. There are certain shows that I watch because they're mindless and dumb and provide cheap entertainment without making me try too hard. On the other hand there are many TV shows that I watch for the artistic value. I appreciate the acting, the writing, the plot, the characters, the direction, or just the premise of the show in general. In my mind, TV can function similarly to a book, movie, or video game, by allowing me to escape my life and care more about the lives of fictional characters, even if it's only for a little while.
I watch a wide variety of TV shows. When I want to watch something as mindless entertainment or background I really like to watch shows on the food network like Cutthroat Kitchen or Chopped and competitive reality shows like Dancing With the Stars, The Voice, and America's Got Talent. When I really want to sit down and watch something on TV, I'm a big fan of cop and detective shows, specifically NCIS, Criminal Minds, and Law and Order. I also really like fantasy and science fiction type shows like Merlin, Supernatural, Once Upon a Time, Firefly, and Buffy. Recently I have gotten into superhero TV shows like Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, and Gotham. Of course there are always those shows that are nothing like the shows I would normally watch, some friends recently introduced me to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and it is one of my new favorites.