Television

I feel like I’ve been away from the United States long enough to be disconnected with the pop culture. I’ve heard the new James Bond movie is out now and isn’t there some lame-looking romantic comedy about Christmas? (I’m just guessing about that lame Christmas movie – I assume there’s one every year.)

We get South Africa and British tv and they are a little behind the United States. They show American programs a season or two behind. “Boston Legal” just started season 4. One channel has season 1 of “Dirty Sexy Money” and another has season 2 (it’s so confusing to watch out of order, but I can never remember which channel is showing which season). I resisted watching that show for a long time but now I’m unfortunately hooked.

Is there a show called “Carpoolers” in the United States? If so you should check it out. I suspect it’s an American show rather than a British one because it takes place in Los Angeles and none of the actors have British accents. But I never saw it on in the States. I’m starting to love this show. It’s not as great as “Arrested Development” (nothing ever will be), but it’s filling a void left by the “Seinfeld” and “Simpsons” reruns that aren’t on here. And it has Jerry O’Connor, who I think of as the poor man’s Jason Bateman. It’s created by Bruce McCullough of “Kids in the Hall”. (All the Kids are Canadian, which makes me think it could just as easily be a British show as American.)

I kind of miss the “South Park”/“Futurama” hour on Comedy Central. I really miss “The Daily Show” and “Colbert Report”. CNN International does a half-hour weekly global edition of “The Daily Show” and it’s not nearly enough Show to keep me happy.

We have a channel called “go” that’s only on for four hours every night. It’s the Commonwealth cousin of the CW. It shows stuff like “Gossip Girl” and “Greek” and I’m positive it must have had “One Tree Hill” and “Gilmore Girls” on at one point. It seems to be stylized after an Atari game, its branding is all green and pixilated.

There’s a South Africa reality channel with the most hilarious TV-show name of all time: “Spa of Embarrassing Illnesses.” I can’t believe I haven’t found time to watch that yet.