Yeah, yeah, the book was better!

I know sometimes I’m just contrary, telling people I just don’t care that much for television.  Honestly, I could live without one.  When my husband is out of town (or the house), I just don’t turn it on.  I know I could probably find lots of shows that would get me hooked, but I just haven’t–and I haven’t missed it.  I will admit that I watch Jeopardy regularly (almost on the level of Rain Man and Judge Wapner), but not much else.

Movies are about the same. I like the experience of going to the movies:  popcorn and Cokes that cost most than a nice meal out, the forty-five previews before the real show begins.  Actually, that’s the part I don’t like.

Nevertheless, I fell into the Facebook trap today and started clicking on the right side of my page where all the movies appear with the question, “Have you seen this movie? Yes? No?”  The problem is that I know I’m feeding some kind of unreliable information about myself to invisible marketers somewhere.  These kinds of questions don’t tell anybody much.  They are more like Scantron tests instead of essay tests.

Just because I’ve seen a movie doesn’t mean I liked it; just because I haven’t seen a movie doesn’t mean I wouldn’t.  Clicking away, I didn’t respond to some–simply because I didn’t like the lead actor perhaps.  More often, though, I wanted to add comments.  Some movies I’d seen so often I could quote the lines with the actors.  (That, by the way, was the subject of the poem I wrote for Poetic Asides this week.) Others I have seen only because nothing else was on television, and I wasn’t driving the remote control.

These days I tend to avoid rather than seek about movies based on books I love.  I have also realized that the remake of any movie I love will fail to measure up. I’m sure I’m showing my age when I prefer Robert Redford’s Gatsby to Leo’s, for example.

I will, however, watch To Kill a Mockingbird, O Brother! Where Art Thou? or Dr. Zhivago–any of those old favorites that stand on their own, whether they make me cry (just a little) or laugh at loud. Maybe one of these days, I’ll even figure out how to find a good movie at the Redbox!