Eveyln Barge
Assistant A&E Editor
Around this time every year I’m faced with a challenge of immeasurable complexity that threatens to destroy my grades in virtually every class. It’s not fatigue from lack of sleep and it’s not the nasty cold my roommate and I have been passing back and forth.
It’s the start of a brand new TV season.
Because all my favorite shows have returned to the air, I’ve been on self-imposed house arrest since early last week. Last year, when I didn’t have a television in my dorm room, it was tremendously easier to deal with the sudden onslaught of must-see programs.
Whenever I found myself facing a homework crisis due to excessive TV exposure, I went into my room, shut the door and turned on the fan. That last bit is a handy tip I learned from my former roommate. The white noise from the fan drowns out background sounds, including the ones from people laughing and watching TV in the next room.
Unfortunately, this year I’m rooming with a friend who has an equally bad case of TV addiction. No amount of fan blowing can mask the noise coming from a set that is two feet away.
Before we moved in together I tried to warn her that bringing her TV might prove disastrous for both of us, but she just wouldn’t listen. Now, not only do I have to watch all my favorite shows, but her favorite programs are also worming their way onto my must-see list.
All it takes is one television show to get the ball rolling.
For me, the instigator program is always the WB’s “One Tree Hill.” I honestly hadn’t watched a single minute of TV besides the nightly news since school started. That didn’t last long, because the season premiere of “One Tree Hill” aired last Tuesday and nothing could stand between my favorite high-school melodrama and me.
My roommate and I have devised a complex strategy that allows us both to be away from our dorm room when the show comes on at 9 p.m. This involves a full working knowledge of the television’s programming function, careful consideration of VCR recording times and a stockpile of blank videotapes.
If my addiction were restricted to “One Tree Hill,” it wouldn’t be so difficult to manage. But, once I’ve had a taste, I find myself seeking periodic fixes of television’s finest sensationalism.
Pretty soon, I’ve watched three hours of the “C.S.I.” marathon on Spike TV and there’s no sign I’ll be stopping any time soon.
Clearly, I’m in need of an antidote to my TV-watching compulsion. Short of building a fortified wall around the television set or hiring someone to peel my face off the screen every night, a temporary solution is to avoid my room until I complete all important assignments and projects. By staying away from the television set, I can avoid becoming obsessed with too many shows while it’s still early in the season.
If that doesn’t work, perhaps someone will stage an intervention, but I hope that he is immune to my addiction.
Last year, a friend thought she could help drag me away from a riveting episode of “The O.C.” She didn’t have much success. In fact, now she’s in my room watching TV every night because she became my roommate. I guess it must be contagious.
09-30-2004
