Barking Carnival's Guide To Longhorn Sports Alternatives: Television!

This is a Golden Age of Television. The quality of writing, acting, and sheer creativity found in original cable television programming over the last decade is unlike anything in the history of the medium. Who says a well-crafted drama or comedy can't fill the gap left by your underachieving sports teams?

It can.

Of course, being part of a sports community assumes that we're all watching the same game. That we can then endlessly dissect and argue over. With television, one is too frequently left having these conversations...

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Can't wait for the Mad Men season premier.

Can you believe I've actually never seen it?

It's really good.

I got caught up on my Justified on DVR last night though. Fantastic.

I hear it's great. Haven't seen it.

Extremely well done. You should watch it.

Will do. Is it as good as Breaking Bad?

I hear that's really good. It's on my Netflix queue. I'm sure it's better than my favorite guilty pleasure The Walking Dead.

Oh.

Finally, recovering after the disastrous Season Two. I never thought they'd get off of that farm...

That's good to know. I've never seen it. So I have nothing to add.

Cool.

Cool.

Is Homeland worth seeing?

You bet your ass, it is.

Fantastic. Why?

I haven't seen it. I just know that it's good. But you should definitely watch it.

Ah.

Hey! - finally: Season 3 in Game of Thrones! Tyrion has been marginalized, the White Walkers are mobilized, and the Red Wedding is on the way, which will be the ultimate freak out for....

Don't tell me! I'm just finishing the second book. I'll catch up on the HBO series after I'm done with Book 3.

Oh. Okay. Well, you're going to freak because Robb's....

No! Please. Don't.

Okay.

Did you ever catch Kroll Show? On Comedy Central?

No, but you sent me a Youtube clip of "Rich Dicks." Funny.

Yeah, it's great. Check out "Too Much Tuna" and "A Day in the Life of a European" and "Wheels, Ontario." If you like those, you'll get a good sense of the comedic sensibility.

Yeah, I probably won't do that. Started watching Girls.

Girls is the definitive television for an entire generation of plain Northeastern girls and the people who think we care about them!

You watch it?

No. No one actually does. That's its power.

Man, there's so much good television now.

So much.

SO MUCH!

Dexter?

Don't have Showtime. Does anyone?

I'm surprised to say this, but Downton Abbey is really good.

Phenomenal.

Finally, we've found a show we're both watching!

I haven't seen it. I just...felt pressure to say that it was good.

The Bible mini-series?

Read the book.

The Vikings?

Game of Thrones without tits and dragons.

There's so much good stuff out there, though!

You bet.

But no one is watching the same shows.

Correct.

So you and I can both discuss specific plot points on episodes of Webster and Facts of Life from our childhood because back then we were all forced to watch the same garbage and build community from it, but we can't talk about Breaking Bad or Justified because we don't share the same micro-viewing habits at the same moment in time and there are fifty seven different shows worth watching - is that the sum of it?

Yep.

Sooooo.

So.

Okay, well call me if you ever want to talk about some old episodes of Miami Vice or Cheers.

Will do.