I think it's a sign of respect to say what you hate as well as what you love. It shows you take television seriously enough to want it to be great.And her remembrances of formative experiences with television are awakening an emotion I haven't had in years: jealousy of people who grew up steeped in TV culture. I watched television only sporadically as a young child, and Ghostwriter, Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego and Early Edition (For which, so much love. I really should do a post on that later and convince all the Friday Night Lights fans out there that they need to check it out.) and didn't have cable until I graduated from college and moved to DC. Most of the time I feel like that's a good thing. It lets me experience TV with a lot of surprise, and pleasure, and wonder, all characteristics that I hope make me a fresh critic. But when I think back on seminal TV moments, my experience, and my memory, are sometimes crabbed. Really, Tina and Alex's kiss on Ghostwriter and Kyle Chandler's hookup with the hot redheaded journalist (you've gotta get your career inspiration somewhere) on Early Edition are about it for me.
I am jealous that I'll never catch up. And even if I do, I'll never have the experience of watching seminal telvision in its context, witnessing the rising greatness of The Simpsons as it happened, watching The Sopranos obsessively so I can discuss it. Not that it's going to stop me, mind you, and not that I didn't do a lot of other terrific things during my non-television-watching years. But it is a bit of a regret.