Random Tuesday Observations on Summer TV; or, What am I watching this week? (With a short detour into radio and sports commentary).

My lonely solitude ended today with the return of my wife and daughter from school and thus my Television watching has been reduced from 10 hours a day back to three or four. Below are some random notes on my recent TV discoveries:

• The Tudors fucking rocks. Despite the fact that they've taken more than license with the history (some of it is surprisingly good; some of it is downright odd - the conflation of Henry's two sisters, for instance, is a strange choice). It's as good as Rome and in a time period that I actually know some stuff about.
• I've watched Cold Case a couple of times recently (I haven't really watched it since I was trapped in a hotel room in Salt Lake City in 2004 while on a job interview for a job that I didn't get) and it's absolutely destroyed me. And I don't know why. Partly it's the stories, which are infused with more pathos that I've seen on TV in a while and partly it's the fact that almost all of the stories involve kids growing up and reckoning with the stupid things they did in high school or earlier and partly it's the excellent choice of music (big ups to the special Bruce Springsteen themed episode).
• Countdown with Keith Olberman has now become appointment television for me. I know he's the devil, but he's my devil. "The Worst Person in the World" is the best 60 seconds of television on any given day.
• I'm officially old, because the best part of my day is watching the reruns of the previous night's Daily Show and Colbert Report which are on at 9:00 our time (we get the west coast feed). An hour of fake news followed by a half hour of real news. Seems about right.
• I'm officially addicted to Mike & Mike in the morning. In fact, I now listen almost exclusively to ESPN radio - Mike & Mike, The Herd, Jim Rome (not on ESPN) (I podcast Dan Patrick) only grudgingly give way to NPR in the afternoon.
  
• I'm very glad for the Cavs - I lived in Ohio when LeBron was a high school kid tearing up the Akron city league. That said, I've got to go with the Spurs. Anyone who had to live through the Frank Brickowski and Artis Gilmore days deserves as many titles as they can get.
• All of this is just killing time until Rescue Me and The Closer return (and that Philadelphia show - can't remember the name right now).