Hopelessly Devoted: One Tree Hill

I have never in my life walked out of a theater in the middle of a movie I didn't like. Nor have I ever stopped reading 80 pages into a bad book or turned off a baseball game in the seventh inning when my favorite team was down 18 to 2. I'm a glutton for punishment, I suppose. Or maybe I'm just an optimist.

Readers who know me even a little would almost certainly disagree with that last statement—I'm pretty sure I heard my parents guffaw incredulously 3000 miles away—and, for the most part, they'd be right to. In spite of all my best efforts to look on the bright side or see the silver lining or do something else equally clichéd and cloying, I somehow inevitably manage to find and fixate only on the bad stuff. Except, oddly, when it comes to entertainment.

For the record, it's not that I don't recognize when a film is terrible or someone's writing is crummy or a defeat is imminent. I do. I just can't help hoping that things will take a turn for the better—that a surprise ending will redeem an otherwise subpar cinematic/literary experience or that my beloved boys in blue (go, Dodgers!) will come from behind and not break my spirit for the millionth time since I first pledged allegiance to them 17 years ago. Sometimes—as in the case of Identity, the 2003 John Cusack vehicle that started out as a third-rate horror flick but ultimately evolved into a not-awful psychological thriller—my dedication to a cause pays off. And other times—like with Game 5 of the 2009 National League Championship Series between Los Angeles and Philadelphia—I wind up in the fetal position on my floor, wailing to no one in particular about how CLOSE we were to a Yankees-Dodgers World Series and how, OH, MY DAD, we let the Phillies beat us for the league title TWO YEARS IN A ROW and NO WONDER I'm incapable of maintaining a healthy relationship—MY HEART IS HARDENED FROM YEARS OF CRUSHING DISAPPOINTMENTS JUST. LIKE. THIS ONE.

More often than not, unfortunately, the outcome is a letdown. You'd think I'd have learned by now to cut my losses early and invest only in things that are actually good (rather than things I'm hoping will eventually be good), but I haven't. I'm stupidly, irrationally committed to seeing stuff through—especially when it comes to TV. I very, very rarely abandon a show halfway through the series, even after it has jumped the shark or gone the way of the dodo or fallen victim to some other animal-related metaphor.

Aside from needing to vent about the NLCS debacle, I bring this up because it explains, to some degree, why I watch One Tree Hill.

If you've never seen the show, you can't possibly know how significant it is that I continue to devote an hour of my life to it on a regular basis. And I'm not really sure if I can put it into words. This is a series that (spoiler alert) has had not one but two certifiable psychopaths. (Maybe three, if you consider recent promos featuring Amanda Schull's character, a tennis protegé who sets her sights on Nathan's sports agent and—shocker—just happens to be a dead ringer, no pun intended, for the guy's late wife.) The first lunatic, in Season 4, was a scary-obsessed stalker who pretended to be Peyton's long-lost half-brother, Derek, in order to get close to her—and who later locked her and her best friend in the basement during prom and tried to kill them both. The second, in Seasons 5 and 6, was Jamie's nanny Carrie, who abducted little Jamie at a wedding, held his dying grandfather hostage in some random cottage in the middle of nowhere, then chased Jamie and his 22-year-old mom through a cornfield while wielding an axe. A cornfield. I kid you not. Oh, and let's not forget the gang's "regular" villain, Dan Scott, who impregnated two women within a few months of each other, blackmailed his wife into postponing their divorce while he ran for mayor, paid another woman to make his brother fall in love with her, killed said brother in cold blood, and then used his crime to make money as an allegedly reformed motivational speaker. (Those, by the way, are just the highlights. Dan's crazy runs deep. So does the show's. In one of the most ridiculous moments ever in the history of television, a dog actually ate Dan's heart—or, rather, the heart he was supposed to get in a transplant. It was cramazing. I laughed for, like, 10 minutes straight. And then I realized it was intended to be dramatic, not funny.)

Anyway, the point is: One Tree Hill is totally absurd. I could list more examples to prove it (and I may, in a future post), but for now, I'll just leave it at that.

So, why do I continue to watch it? The short answer is that I can't not, for the reasons I explained earlier. I've been with the show since the very beginning—my roommates and I watched it together in college—and I'll no doubt be with it until the very end, too. It's just my nature. But also: It's one of those things, like The Room or any movie ever on Lifetime, that's so terrible it actually comes back around to being awesome. I make fun of it (and myself, for watching it), but I seriously kind of love it. How could I not? I mean, a dog ate Dan's heart. (I will likely repeat that at least twice every time I mention the show on this blog. It's that excellent.)

Sources say chances for an eighth season of One Tree Hill are about 50/50, and as much as I cherish the show's crazy every week, I'm honestly not sure which way I want it to go at this point. Part of me hopes it gets renewed so I can postpone the almost certain letdown of its ending and spend another delicious year in senseless soapy denial, but another part knows that every episode I watch now is an hour of my life I'll miss later, when I'm curled up on the floor crying about how I gave the series the best years of my life and FOR WHAT—a few laughs, a psycho nanny in a cornfield, an organ-eating pooch, Stuart Minkus' return to television, and a frequently shirtless Robert Buckley?

Actually, that doesn't sound like such a bad deal. Carry on, Mark Schwahn.

Spotted: Betty Suarez

My dad loves celebrity sightings. He's constantly on the lookout for familiar faces: actors, musicians, athletes, politicians, random rich people, etc. When we're out together in a city that has a high star-to-civilian ratio—like New York, where I live, or Malibu, where my not-so-little little brother lives—he inevitably spots someone he thinks he recognizes. And three out of five times I get off the plane in Los Angeles, he'll greet me with a hug, a hello, and a "Did you know *insert less-than-moderately well-known celebrity name here* was on your flight?" Usually it's an anchor from a local news show. Once, it was Charo. (Cuchi, cuchi!)

I've inherited a lot of my dad's quirks and habits—our shared stubbornness, in particular, drives the rest of my family crazy—but I've yet to develop his uncanny radar for famous people. One would think, based on my affinity for Us Weekly and my excessive TV viewing, that I'd be able to sense a star and his entourage from miles away. For the most part, though, I'm totally oblivious. I once walked alongside Freddie Prinze Jr. for 18 blocks before registering who he was. And that was back in the day when he was still a semi-regular fixture in all the cheesy rom-coms I hated to love or loved to hate or maybe just kind of hated, period. When I do recognize someone, I tend to think I know them from school or work or through mutual friends. I was convinced, for example, that I went to school with this guy I saw hanging out in Cobble Hill—to the point where I almost went up and asked him if he had taken metaphysics at Columbia with Professor Collins. It was only a week later, during an episode of 30 Rock, that I realized the guy in question was Jonathan, Jack Donaghy's hilariously overenthusiastic assistant.

My dad must be rubbing off on me slowly though, because a couple of weeks ago, I had a breakthrough. America Ferrera, a.k.a. Ugly Betty's Betty, was on my flight from New York to L.A.—and I knew who she was almost immediately. It probably helped that I had seen her on TV less than 24 hours earlier, but considering she looks nothing like her character in real life, I'm going to file this confidently under progress.

Every journalist who has ever profiled Ferrera has invariably remarked on her stunning, very un-Betty-like beauty. And she is, in fact, totally gorgeous. I wasn't surprised by that. I was surprised, however, by how genuinely excited I was to see her. I even texted my dad and brother (my dad for obvious reasons, my brother because he always alerts me of his frequent celebrity run-ins) to tell them we were sharing a plane.

Ugly Betty isn't officially one of My Top 10 Favorite (Scripted) Shows Still in Production, but it probably deserves to be. I enjoy it as much as I enjoy any of the other series on that list, and I actively look forward to each new episode. Plus, I see a little of myself in Betty. It feels like we've kind of led parallel lives these last few years, so I think of her as something of a kindred spirit. When I started my job—as an assistant at a national magazine, just like her—I was naïve, idealistic, inexperienced but eager to please, slightly awkward, and disproportionately excited about everything. I was basically Betty circa Season 1, minus the hideous poncho and braces (though I did wear a lovely metal grill for six years in high school and college). Now, after some time (and more than a few near missteps), we've both grown up and into new positions. Of course, my journey hasn't been quite as...colorful as hers—nobody at my office is a Wilhelmina-type, for one, and (spoiler alert) I've never helped a colleague kidnap the baby she bore as part of the editor-in-chief's evil plan to take over the company—but I'd like to think Betty and I would be allies at Mode. If, you know, she were real and not just a figment of someone else's imagination.

Yeah, I need to get out more.

Primetime Pop Quiz | Parade.com #4

There are few things I appreciate more at the end of a really long day than coming home, kicking off my four-inch heels, and settling in for a night of TV with my roommates, our dog Bella, and some no-fuss Chinese takeout. This week was nothing but long days, so being able to relax at night felt even better—especially since almost everything I watched was really, really good.

Every show has an occasional throwaway episode, but I think my favorite series did pretty well across the board this time. (Spoiler alert if you're behind at all.) Chuck officially became a real spy, Jacob answered some big questions about the Island on Lost, Betty got her braces off, and American Idol finalized its summer tour lineup. All that—plus Dancing With the Stars, Law & Order: SVU, FlashForward, and more—is in this week's quiz. Get to it, faithful viewers! And, as always, thanks for tuning in. 

Primetime Pop Quiz | Parade.com

Calling All Browncoats

Commence geeking out...now.

Patton Oswalt talks about his 'Firefly' comic book

Primetime Pop Quiz | Parade.com #3

In my mind, there are four main categories of TV watchers: the loyalists, who defend their favorite shows to the death (even after a series has jumped the shark); the fair-weather fans, who watch when things are good but bail when they're not; the discerning devotees, who watch only a few select shows; and the everything enthusiasts, who watch, well, everything. I'm in the first and fourth categories, which is great for the purposes of this quiz but problematic in terms of scheduling. I love so many shows, but they all overlap, and I refuse to give even one of them up. Do any of you have that problem? Or do I just watch too much TV? (Don't answer that.)

This week's quiz features some favorites I've mentioned before—Lost, Ugly Betty, etc.—as well as a couple of previously uncovered series—Mercy, House, and, per the request PARADE reader pbs fan, Antiques Roadshow. Thanks again to all of you who tuned in last week, and please keep coming back and commenting. I'm having a lot of fun writing this quiz every week—I hope you guys are having fun taking it, too.

Primetime Pop Quiz | Parade.com

Primetime Pop Quiz | Parade.com #2

Thanks to everyone who tuned in to last week's edition of the Primetime Pop Quiz! I want you all to know that I'm taking this job very seriously—I've spent much of the past seven days curled up on the couch watching TV, even using Hulu during commercial breaks to catch up on missed episodes. It's a tough job, let me tell you. But I am honored to be doing it.

Last week was a great week for television. (Insert spoiler alert here.) Monday's episode of Chuck was among the season's best, Tuesday's Lost brought the redemption of Benjamin Linus, Wednesday gave us closure on the Ugly Betty house fire, and Thursday yielded American Idol's Final Top 12. Plus: Gossip Girl and 30 Rock came back from hiatus, Jennifer Lopez made an appearance on How I Met Your Mother, and the NCIS team solved a case of double identity. All that—and more—is covered in this week's quiz. Click through to take it and pass it on. And if you don't see your favorite shows this week, leave a comment and come back next week to see if they made the cut.

Primetime Pop Quiz | Parade.com

Tuned In: Sanders Bohlke

I, like many of you reading this right now, love music. A lot. To the nth degree and then some. I'm the kind of person who creates a soundtrack in her head to go along with all the big moments in her life; who wishes the world really were a stage, like Shakespeare said, but for a never-ending musical in which everyone sang their feelings at really inappropriate moments and occasionally danced down the street in cheesy, choreographed togetherness. I never go anywhere without my iPod, and if I'm at home and not watching TV, I'm almost certainly listening to one of my 8 million personalized playlists in iTunes. Or baking. Often both.

I'm pretty pleased with my music library, too. And when I say I like a little bit of everything, I really mean that I like a little bit of everything. My taste runs the gamut from Britney to Bright Eyes, Justice to Jay-Z, Dylan to Disney. (I actually have "Colors of the Wind" on my iPod, right between All-4-One's "Colors of Love" and Ani DiFranco's "Come Away From It," a remnant of my Barnard days.) Only about a third of my music is stuff I've found on my own, though. The other two-thirds came from friends' recommendations or—surprise, surprise—TV. I discovered The Avett Brothers, for example, after hearing "I and Love and You" on a recent episode of One Tree Hill. (Yes, I watch One Tree Hill. We'll revisit that topic in another post.) I opened my ears and heart to Ivy because of Veronica Mars. And I fell in love with Ryan Adams watching Seth and Summer fall in love to his cover of "Wonderwall" on The OC. Gossip Girl gave me The National, Grey's Anatomy gave me Ingrid Michaelson, and now Brothers and Sisters and Private Practice have given me Sanders Bohlke.

I first became aware of Bohlke a few weeks ago, when his song "You" played behind a conversation between Luc and Sarah on Brothers and Sisters. Only snippets of the melody were audible, but what I could hear, I loved. Then, a few nights ago, there he was again, singing "Misdirections" in the final moments of Private Practice. It was beautiful, haunting. I wanted more. So I tracked him down online.

According to his website, Bohlke is a singer/songwriter hailing from northern Mississippi. His first album had a bit of a folk slant, but it seems like his style since then has evolved and spilled into other genres, most notably acoustic rock and soul. If I had to compare him to someone, I'd say he sounds like a cross between Ray LaMontagne and James Morrison, but I think that probably does all three artists a disservice, since each has such an original and distinctive voice. Bohlke's is at once mellow and barely contained—his music is incredibly soothing, but there's a kind of energy and passion to it boiling just beneath the surface. Listening to him feels like walking but being always about to break into a sprint.

If you're interested, you can find a few of Bohlke's songs on his MySpace page. "You," unfortunately, is not available, but "Misdirections" is there, as is "The Weight of Us," which has apparently been featured on Grey's Anatomy, One Life to Live, and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Clearly, someone at ABC is a fan. And now so am I.


Artist: Sanders Bohlke
Heard on: Brothers and Sisters, Private Practice
Sounds like: Ray LaMontagne, James Morrison
Listen to: "Misdirections," "The Weight of Us," "Somewhere"

Breakfast in Bed: Teen Soaps

It's a cold and rainy Saturday here in Brooklyn. The view from my second-story window looks like a ruined watercolor, blurry from the downpour and gray all over. I'll have to brave it eventually, but for the moment, I'm staying warm and dry on my living-room futon. Bella, my roommate's too-cute-for-words golden Lab retriever, is curled up on the floor by my feet. I've got coffee, blankets, and Breakfast in Bed. Life is good.

Breakfast in Bed is one of my favorite ways to whittle away lazy weekend mornings. And sometimes—depending on the weather, my mood, and how hermit-like I'm feeling—lazy weekend afternoons, too. It's 11 hours and four courses of delicious self-indulgence. And none of it has any fat, sugar, or calories.

Wait, what? Where does one find this alleged phenomenon?

Believe it or not, dear readers: SoapNet.

It should be clear by now that I'm not talking about breakfast of the eggs, bacon, or pancakes variety. Which is not to say I don't love that kind of breakfast, too. I just haven't figured out a way to eat it for 11 hours straight without gaining 20 pounds or slipping into an irreversible food coma. (If any of you can solve that problem for me, I'd be eternally grateful.) No, the kind of "breakfast" I'm gorging on is SoapNet's oh-so-brilliant weekly marathon of soapy teen dramas: three hours of The OC, two hours of One Tree Hill, FOUR hours of Beverly Hills, 90210 (I *heart* Dylan McKay), and two hours of Gilmore Girls.

I know what you're thinking. And, no, I don't watch all 11 hours, and, yes, I do have a life. Breakfast in Bed is just what I put on while mentally preparing to paint the town all sorts of red. Right now, for example, I'm enjoying an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 in which (spoiler alert) David inherits a ton of money from his grandfather and goes on a crazy spending binge in Vegas that ends with him passed out in a hotel room after being robbed by two girls he met on the Strip. (I've seen it before.) And, in a little while, I'll be lapping up lots of lively dialogue and mother-daughter hijinks on Gilmore Girls. But later I'm heading out in the storm to meet my friend Jessie for dinner and drinks at Char No. 4. My real, flesh-and-blood friend Jessie. See? I don't hang out with just fictional people. I'm totally normal.

My Top 10 Favorite (Scripted) Shows Still in Production

It's ridiculous, but picking 10 shows to feature in this list was actually really difficult. Turns out I watch a lot of TV. And though I obviously like everything I watch to some degree, a few shows are dearer to my heart than others. (You may notice that my Guilty Pleasure of the Week, Cougar Town, is not mentioned here. I still stand by what I said about the show before; I just wouldn't necessarily put it on my Must List.) So, here they are—my official Top 10 Favorite (Scripted) Shows Still in Production.

1) Dexter. I never thought I could love a killer, but Dex proved me wrong. He's now among my favorite television characters of all time. And this past season had one of the most compelling story arcs I've seen from any series ever. The writers on this show continually raise the stakes beyond anything I can even imagine.

2-3) Mad Men/Friday Night Lights. Both are so brilliantly acted and superbly written that I can't pick one over the other. I cherish Don Draper and Coach Taylor equally (but for very different reasons).

4) Lost. Lost used to be my No. 1 with a bullet, but somewhere in the middle of Season 3, I started to feel as if I was just always going to be, well, lost. Thankfully, the show found its footing once Lindelof and Cuse negotiated an end date with ABC.

5) 30 Rock. I love Tina Fey. I want to be Tina Fey. And 30 Rock is one of the smartest, funniest half hours on network TV today.

6) Chuck. If you have to ask why, you haven't been reading my blog.

7) Glee. Fun fact of the day: I'm a former show-choir nerd. Back in high school, I was the proud, sequin-wearing, jazz-hands-waving president of the Temple City Brighter Side Singers. Ergo, Glee appeals to my sense of nostalgia. But it's also just kind of awesome. And Jane Lynch is seriously excellent as Sue Sylvester. She deserves a post all her own.

8) How I Met Your Mother. The show seems to have veered from its original premise a bit, but it's still one of the most consistently entertaining comedies on television. Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel are pitch-perfect as Barney and Marshall, respectively.

9) The Office. I laugh out loud approximately once every two minutes while watching this show. It's amazing to me that the writers keep finding new ways for Steve Carell's Michael to act hilariously awkward and inappropriate.

10) Bones. I've loved David Boreanaz ever since his Buffy days, when he lived around the corner from my then-pregnant aunt and occasionally made small talk with her about the baby and the weather. But if I hadn't been a fan before, I definitely would have become one after watching Bones. Boreanaz is great as Booth, and the chemistry between him and Emily Deschanel is, for lack of a better word, explosive. The murder cases are generally interesting, too, but they're not why I watch the show.


Five Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)
Greek
Ugly Betty
Gossip Girl
Californication
Modern Family

Fictional Characters I Would Date in Real Life, Part 1

(A little housekeeping note: Since this is a blog about TV, I'm limiting myself to only characters who have appeared on the small screen. Otherwise, this list would be, like, four times longer. Also, in instances where characters might be considered age-inappropriate for my 25-year-old self, please consider said characters people I would have dated when I was younger or would someday date when I'm older.)

Jim Halpert, The Office
Okay, I know he's married now. And I love him and Pam together. But let's pretend for the purposes of this list that he's single. (I'm already suspending disbelief by treating him as a flesh-and-blood person; taking his made-up wife out of the picture doesn't seem that much more absurd.) Jim is playful, funny, easygoing, and kind. He's just a really nice guy. And sometimes that's enough.

Chuck Bartowski, Chuck
My fondness for Chuck is well-documented on this blog. I think he's adorable. Slightly awkward, but adorable. And I love that he has no game. He's completely charming without even meaning to be. What you see—in terms of personality, at least—is what you get, and what you get is sweet, sincere, and sensitive. Plus, he's had the same best friend since he was 6, so you know he's loyal. And lest he be mistaken for a total softie, there's that whole super secret spy thing he does in his spare time. Hot.

Brendan Dorff, My Boys
This is so clichéd, and I hate to even admit it, but: I'm kind of a sucker for bartenders and baristas. Drummers, too, but that's a problem for another post. Brendan isn't exactly a bartender or a barista, but he does occasionally tend bar at the club he co-owns with his buddy John. Which means, of course: free drinks! And, more importantly, a go-to hangout spot. A place, perhaps, where everybody knows my name. (Isn't that the dream?) I don't love Brando just for his connections, though. I also love him for his taste in music, his eternally youthful energy, and his tight-knit group of friends. I think you can tell a lot about someone by looking at the people with whom he chooses to spend his time. Brendan's pals are a quirky but endearing bunch. And I appreciate the fact that his oldest and best friend is a girl. Plus, he loves baseball, so I'd always have someone to take with me to games.

Justin Walker, Brothers and Sisters
I admit—his history with drug addiction is, um, less than ideal. In his defense, though, he's been clean for a while, and now he's studying to be a doctor. Well, kind of. He may in fact be failing out of medical school—what happened to that story line, writers?—but he's at least trying to do something meaningful with the rest of his life. Honestly, I'm not sure what it is about him that appeals to me. He just seems like he has a good heart. And while I'd obviously prefer that any potential mates not have substance-abuse issues, I think his past has actually made him a stronger and more resilient person.

Tim Riggins, Friday Night Lights
My tortured 16-year-old self would have written notebooks upon notebooks of epically bad poetry about Tim Riggins. I mean, the guy's a football star with a bad-boy streak and a soulful loner vibe—he's pretty much every angsty teenager's dream come true. I never would have stood a chance.

Matt Saracen, Friday Night Lights
With Matt, on the other hand...well, Matt is different. Matt's the guy I would have been friends with for three years while pining over Tim—the guy I would have turned to when Tim showed up at the Panthers team party with Lyla Garrity on his arm. I would have loved him dearly—but I wouldn't have realized I was in love with him until he started dating Julie Taylor. (Adolescent me always wanted what she couldn't have. Not much has changed in that respect, actually.)

Logan Echolls, Veronica Mars
Logan is a hard choice to defend. He can be a colossal jerk when he wants to be—but he can also be incredibly thoughtful and warm. Beneath all the smug, rich-guy bravado beats the heart of a romantic who's just been hurt one too many times. And can anyone really blame him for being so guarded? In three seasons of Veronica Mars (spoiler alert), he lost his girlfriend, his mother, his father, his best friend, and the love of his life. I'd be a little tense, too. High school me would have fallen hard for that angry/wounded act. Everyone wants to save and be saved.


Still to come: Fictional Characters I Would Date in Real Life, Parts 2 and On (it's an embarrassingly long list), plus A Few I Wouldn't Touch With a 10-Foot Pole

Guilty Pleasure of the Week: Cougar Town

I need to preface this post by saying that I hate the term "guilty pleasure." My opinion is: If it's legal and it makes you happy, why should you feel bad about liking it? There are already plenty of things to feel legitimately bad about—the war, the economy, Conan's absence from late-night TV—so when you find something that puts a smile on your face or takes your mind off whatever crisis has dropped into your lap recently, you should embrace it and hold onto it and be glad that it exists. I, for one, will not apologize for reading Us Weekly or owning 52 pairs of shoes or loving cheesy pop music or watching Never Been Kissed every time it's on cable. Those things make my life better. And that's far more important to me than being cool.

That said, I recognize that some indulgences come with a stigma. I may be at peace with my celebrity-gossip obsession, but plenty of people find it superficial and a waste of time. The same, sadly, is true of many of my favorite TV shows. Which is why—even though I feel no guilt over my fondness for "bad" TV—I'm naming Cougar Town my Guilty Pleasure of the Week.

I'm sure at least a couple of my friends/readers will desert me for writing this, but Cougar Town is actually kind of good. I was put off by the title at first—"cougar" is another term I find maddening—but once I got past it, I discovered that the half-hour sitcom is really pretty funny.

If you've never seen it, the series focuses on Jules Cobb, a 40-something divorcée played by Courteney Cox, and her tight-knit but dysfunctional circle of friends and neighbors in the suburban cul-de-sac where she lives. Cox is good, but the show's strength is its ensemble. Christa Miller (Scrubs) plays Jules' sarcastic best friend, Ellie; Busy Phillips (Dawson's Creek) is Jules' feisty 20-something employee, Laurie; Josh Hopkins (Ally McBeal, Swingtown) stars as Jules' womanizing neighbor and potential love interest, Grayson; and Ian Gomez (Felicity), Brian VanHolt, and Dan Byrd play Ellie's husband, Jules' ex, and Jules' son, respectively. As individuals, they're silly and enjoyable; as a group, they're irresistible.

I have to add, also, that it's nice to see Courteney Cox all endearingly neurotic again. I appreciated her wanting to do something different after Friends, but I thought her character on Dirt was kind of awful. She's at her best when she's bubbly, bright-eyed, and just a little batty. Jules does some crazy things, but she does them for good reasons and to great comic effect.

Here's the thing, though: Cougar Town is not for everyone. I guarantee that some of you will hate it and think I'm insane for devoting a full 30 minutes to it every week. (Probably the same some of you who rolled your eyes at my tabloid habit.) And that's okay. Is it the greatest show on television? Not by a long shot. Does it occasionally miss the mark? Absolutely. Are there better ways to spend my time? Sure. But there are also worse ways. Honestly, the half hour or so I spend with C. Cox and friends is one of the most relaxing parts of my week. It's fun, mindless entertainment, and it gets me out of my head for a while, which is rare. I love shows like Lost, Mad Men, and Dexter, but sometimes it's nice to watch TV without holding my breath for the better part of an hour. Judge me if you must—I like Cougar Town, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Primetime Pop Quiz | Parade.com #1

They say the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one. So here goes: My name is Allison, and I watch a lot of TV. I'm not entirely convinced this is actually a problem, but my friends—who have seen me through series finale after series finale and sat through many a Say Yes to the Dress marathon with me—might beg to differ.

In any case, it seems my addiction has paid off. Every Monday after today, I'll be recapping the previous week's must-see shows in a short quiz at Parade.com. This week's covers everything from The Bachelor to Lost. (Spoiler alert if you're behind an episode.) Check it out, pass it on, and come back for more next week, when I'll cover Monday's game-changing episode of Chuck, Tuesday's Lost, the return of Gossip Girl and 30 Rock, and more.

Primetime Pop Quiz | Parade.com

10 Reasons You Should Watch "Chuck"

1) You have an inner geek. We all do. Mine gets her kicks from grammar books and Renaissance literature, plays with a Rubik's cube on the subway, finished the entire Harry Potter series in just over a week, and not-so-secretly loves Michael Cera, board games, and kitchen appliances. She also watches Chuck every Monday and sometimes wishes she had an Intersect in her head to teach her how to play darts or throw a boomerang or disable a bomb. Admit it—you wish that too.

2) Your real life is woefully devoid of covert missions and cunning adversaries who threaten every day to destroy the world as you know it. Maybe that's a big assumption. Maybe you actually do fight evil in airplane cargo holds and take down elaborate crime rings on a regular basis. If that's the case, you probably shouldn't watch Chuck. It'd be like working all day in an ice cream store and then going home and devouring a pint of Chunky Monkey. If you're like me, however, and you don't moonlight as James Bond in your spare time, you can fulfill all your spy fantasies vicariously through Chuck. It's the perfect compromise: You get all the action but none of the heart-stopping fear.

3) Captain Awesome is, in fact, awesome. Ryan McPartlin was supposed to appear in only a handful of episodes, but his character (Devon Woodcomb, better known to viewers as Captain Awesome) was so popular that the show's writers beefed up his role and made him a series regular. Awesome is Chuck's brother-in-law—a handsome, athletic cardiologist who speaks fluent Spanish, enjoys hang-gliding and rock-climbing, and knows how to tango. He's almost annoyingly great, but McPartlin is so perfectly cast that you can't help but like the guy.

4) You can only watch Firefly: The Complete Series so many times in a year. I miss Joss Whedon's short-lived space-age Western as much as the next Browncoat, but Adam Baldwin as John Casey is almost as brilliant as Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb—and certainly better than no Adam Baldwin at all. Casey is essentially Jayne anyway: He's quick to shoot, slow to trust, surly with a well-concealed soft spot, and hilariously short-tempered. He also shares Jayne's predilection for inanimate objects (see: Bonsai tree, Crown Vic, a firearm named Vera) and once very nearly betrayed the people he was hired to protect (see: "Chuck Versus the First Date," "Ariel"). If you have no idea what I'm talking about but correctly think you're missing out, finish reading this list and then immediately track down a set of Firefly DVDs.

5) Your first impression is probably wrong. I'll admit: When I first heard about the show back in 2007—PARADE featured it in our Fall TV Guide—I thought it sounded completely ridiculous. A nerd downloads a computer into his head that causes him to go all cross-eyed and flash on random top-secret government files? Yeah, right. I only tuned in to the pilot because I thought Zachary Levi was cute, but two episodes in, I was hooked. As the show's title character, Levi is charming, vulnerable, endearing, goofy, and—incredibly enough—believable. And if he doesn't win you over, someone else surely will. In addition to Adam Baldwin and Ryan McPartlin, whom I've already singled out, the cast includes Yvonne Strahovski as Chuck's handler/love interest Sarah, Joshua Gomez as Chuck's best friend Morgan, and Sarah Lancaster as Chuck's sister Ellie. There have been some pretty fantastic guest stars, as well, including Rachel Bilson, Dominic Monaghan, and Chevy Chase.

6) You have a heart. Let's get personal for a second. It's a widely known—and mostly accepted—fact among my family and friends that I'm, well, less than sentimental when it comes to relationships of a romantic nature. I'm the girl who laughs at lines like "You complete me" and yells at the TV when people choose love over work. But even I can't help melting a little when Chuck looks longingly at Sarah and then smiles sadly—which, by the way, happens at least twice every episode. The chemistry between Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski is incredible. It brings out a soft side of me I didn't even know I had. You can't not root for those two to make it. I think even the Tin Man would feel a twinge watching them.

7) Laughter is good for your soul. And on Chuck, there's plenty of it to go around. I defy you to be grumpy or sad watching Buy More employees Jeff and Lester (a.k.a. Jeffster!) perform "Mr. Roboto" at Awesome and Ellie's wedding. It's impossible.

8) There are no rules. And if you think you've figured out the game, you're probably wrong. Chuck's writers aren't afraid to shake things up. They do it often and they do it well. Plot twists are par for the course, and even characters you think you know could turn out to be other people entirely. Three seasons in, I'm still not sure where everyone falls on the spectrum of good and evil. And I like it that way.

9) You're a sucker for the underdog. Chuck is David to Goliath, 2004's Red Sox to Joe Torre's Yankees, and Susan Boyle to Simon Cowell all rolled up in one. Both the character and the show have confronted superior opponents—The Ring and NBC, respectively—and both have triumphed, against all odds. Case in point: When the series failed to attract large-enough numbers last April and faced the possibility of cancellation, fans launched an elaborate "Save Chuck" campaign to get it renewed. On the air date of the second season finale, they rallied to purchase footlong sandwiches from Subway, one of the show's biggest sponsors. Zachary Levi himself led an army of supporters to a Subway in Birmingham, England (pictured). Viewers also started "Have a Heart, Renew Chuck," for which people donated money to the American Heart Association in Chuck's name. By May, more than $17,000 had been raised. That might seem like a lot of fuss over one little show, but if you watch it, you'll understand.

10) You have no reason not to. It's on Hulu, so if you have a life outside TV or, like me, you just have 8 million other shows to watch on Monday night—which is a grievance I'll cover in another post—you can catch up on your own time, on your own terms. And if you watch an episode and hate it, you've lost nothing except maybe 43 minutes of your life, which you probably would have wasted on something else down the road. But I don't think you'll hate it.

Photos courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/bramus/ / CC BY 2.0 (Rubik's cube), http://www.flickr.com/photos/ravenu/ / CC BY 2.0 (Adam Baldwin), and http://www.flickr.com/photos/vagueonthehow/ / CC BY 2.0 (Zachary Levi)