The TV Shows I Wish I Could Be Watching

The urge to follow the crowd can be strong, and in television watching, this is no different. I've long reconciled myself to the fact that there are way too many shows to ever catch up on, my tastes never seem to follow the mainstream, and TV scheduling practices are evil. I find it impossible to keep up with more than four or five shows per season, and this year I've already bailed on nearly all the new shows that premiered less than a month ago, and I've been adding old favorites like "House" and "Law & Order: SVU" to the discard pile in favor of more "Babylon 5" on Netflix.

And yet, as I browse through the entertainment pages every day, I get that wistful twinge whenever I spot another breathless "did you see what happened last night?!" article about the latest developments on shows I don't watch, like "Mad Men," "Boardwalk Empire," or "Project Runway" - well, I'm actually watching that last one, but I'm at least a month behind the current episodes. You lose the fun of the communal viewing experience if you don't watch a show live, and the anticipation and speculation that happens between episodes is a bigger part of a show's success than I think most people realize. On the other hand, sometimes the commitment can be rough.

So here's a short list of current shows that I'm not watching, but wish I had the time to check out based on the chatter I keep hearing about them, and the limited bits that I've seen of them:

- Shows on premium cable - It will be a long, long time before I am in a financial position to have regular legal access to HBO, Showtime, and the Starz content that is not available on Netflix. Thus, I've largely skipped shows that have originated there, even though I keep meaning to try a few episodes of "The Sopranos," "The Tudors," and "Carnivale" on DVD. The only exception has been "Dexter," which hooked me with an edited broadcast of the first season that CBS ran a few summers ago. Right now, the big title I'm been rubbernecking over has been "Boardwalk Empire," the period gangster series that Martin Scorsese is heavily involved with. Other recent offerings I've been curious about have been "The Big C" with Laura Linney, "In Treatment" with Gabriel Byrne, and the post-Katrina David Simon series, "Treme."

- Shows that air on AMC - "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad" keep winning Emmys every year, and their fans keep wringing their hands over every episode. "Mad Man," in particular, is a critical darling that has brainy publications like "Slate" and "The New York Times" generating reflective dissections that are really just shined up versions of the "did you see what happened last night?!" blog posts everyone else is writing. I've had plenty of opportunity to see both shows, but I've never managed to sit down for an episode of either. They seem like serials that require starting from the beginning, one of the big barriers that kept me from getting into other ambitious fare like "The Wire." So having missed the launches of both shows, now it seems easier to wait them out and marathon the whole series later.

- "30 Rock" - I've actually taken several stabs at watching "30 Rock," but never quite connected with the material. The media establishment and various friends keep prodding me to add it to my schedule, and I'm pretty sure that if I had four or five episodes to run through at once, I'd get into the rhythm of the comedy more easily. I love Tina Fey as Liz Lemon and think that Tracy Morgan is some kind of secret entertainment genius, but I don't find myself coming back to the show from week to week. Just last night I made it about halfway through the big live show before interrupted. I tell myself that I'll go back and finish the episode on Hulu or the NBC website, but I know I really won't. Other sitcoms I keep meaning to watch regularly include "How I Met Your Mother" and "Modern Family."

- "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" - Yes, I still watch cartoons, especially the ones that air after midnight on Cartoon Network. The original "Fullmetal Alchemist" is one of my favorites, and this alternate version of the story, that's supposed to hew much closer to the original manga, has been very well-received. However, the reboot covers many of the same events as the original in the early going, so I only got through about four or five episodes of the new series before calling it quits. This was the same show I'd already seen, but with dodgier art and direction. Everyone I've spoken to swears up and down that it gets better, and I believe them. Anime are often slow burners that take a few episodes to get warmed up. But that's also made it easier to shuffle this one to the back of the deck for now.

- "Fringe" - I saw the recent season three opener featuring a great performance by Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham, the first episode I've watched. Comparisons have been made between "Fringe" and "The X-Files," which I faithfully watched all through the 90s up until its final season, but "Fringe" wasn't on my radar at all until recently. I love supernatural shows, and I dig the concept of a parallel dimension full of sinister doppelgangers, and that John Noble gets to play a more lovable crazy than Denethor from "Lord of the Rings." Alas, "Fringe" clashes with the schedules of too many other shows on my roster, and even though the episode I saw provided an easy in for the series, it'll have to wait until I can find the time for it.

- Humorous action-crime shows - The list is endless. "Leverage," "Burn Notice," "White Collar," "The Good Guys," and "Psych," and so many more all seem to have slipped through my fingers. I love light action shows full of snark and banter, but I have a hard time holding on to them. So far "Hawaii Five-O" seems to be sticking it out, because I can't resist the theme song, but frankly it's not as good as some of the others. Most of these shows are on cable, and I've watched mini-marathons of several like "Burn Notice" on the weekends. But when it comes to the premieres in prime time, I just can't seem to keep track of them.

So many TV shows and so little time. Maybe I'll just avoid the problem and go watch a movie.