Well, there are a lot of reasons. First of all, watching TV keeps you from doing other less mind-numbing activities. Like reading. And WRITING. I think it was the brilliant and lovely Donna Levin (agent and author of Get That Novel Started) who said, "Television is hemlock to a writer."

Consider how many you hours spend each week watching the idiot box. It's kind of like writing down everything you eat in a day. Very eye-opening. You think, "My goodness!" Think of all you can do if you just don't turn the damn thing on.

Consider also that there is no payoff. If you think of time as being like money, then TV is a bad investment for which there are miniscule returns. Time is better off invested in other things.

Never mind the rising costs and depleting quality of cable. And DISH? Don't get me started.

But here's the latest reason. And to write about this, I must admit I was drawn into yet another show that I had to watch every week. Yeah, I wasn't going to watch it, but I did. And I got hooked. On REUNION. It was a good premise. It focused on six Class of 1986 graduates. On the night of their 20 year reunion, one killed another. Each episode represented one year, and it progressed. It was told in flashbacks and present day scenes, and it featured music from the year of the episode.

Okay, so it's only one show, and it'll be done soon. No biggie.

But here's the joke. They cancelled the damn thing. And the producers said that thirteen episodes isn't enough to properly wrap it up, so now the fans who were suckered into watching will never know the outcome. Nope. Never. Not ever.

Well, fuck 'em. That's the last new show I watch on FOX. Or any other network. This is the last time I will get into a new show, only to see it cancelled after a few episodes, so they can clear the slot for another incarnation of THE SIMPLE LIFE or some other dipshit reality program so we'll have even more non-celebrities clogging up the airwaves.

This is good. Because I have a novel I want to finish before Bouchercon and I have almost forty books sitting on the shelf to the left of my desk waiting to be read. And I have other things I can and should be doing.

Fugghedaboutit!