Comforting couch company

My friend Katta and I met at the public service TV-station here in Umeå in the early nineties. We both worked for the Swedish National Television (Sveriges Televison), she as a script coordinator, I as a reporter.

I loved working in television. Television is the love of my life professionally. I love the creative process, the teamwork, the nerve during live broadcastings, the excited and extremely focused feeling in the control room everyone doing their utmost. The fact that the chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and there can’t be any weak links at a live broadcast, each and everyone rising to the occasion bringing their professionalism into the room and the production. Wow, my pulse is rising, just thinking about it.

Katta used to express how she liked working with television because TV often means a lot to people out there who are lonely. That TV becomes a friend, a comfort, and she felt good about being a part of that.

At that time, the early nineties, I had a family with to young sons, an extremely active lifestyle and a huge social life. I practically didn’t watch TV. For two reasons. There wasn’t any time for it. And I wasn’t that interested. I watched the news of course, I was a reporter after all, and working on different shows and programs I watched those, but other than that… not really.

I always felt bad about that. I mean, I loved working in television, why wasn’t I interested in watching?! The truth is, my love was for the creative process. For finding the story, the pictures and words to tell it, the music enhancing the feeling of it, and oh how I loved finally being in the editing room putting it all together, creating the ultimate expression of it. I can feel myself expanding right now, just putting words on it!

I never really got my friend Katta’s very humane angle on our profession. The whole thing about lonely people. Because I wasn’t. I wasn’t lonely in that sense. I hardly had a minute by myself. I was in my early thirties and my life had always been busy with people. I just didn’t get it. Because I didn’t know. I had no clue.

Since five years back I am spending a lot of time on my couch. My back problems have put me their, with a little help from a cancer experience. I know now what it is like to be lonely in the sense of spending most time by myself. And the TV has become an important part of my life. A real friend. I am looking forward to the evenings and practically know the TV schedule by heart, although this winter it is so packed with goodies that it’s actually hard to keep it in my head. And lucky for me, bringing a lot of nice company into my home!

A very fortunate thing about spending September in Seattle combined with my back being out is that I am allowed watching the Emmy Awards and all the season premieres and the new shows coming up! This fall (2012) I fell right into the high-tension drama Scandal, a White House intrigue created by Shonda Rhimes. I liked it a lot and hoped it would find it’s way to Sweden. As Nashville, the story about one falling and one rising country singer which didn’t even go on air before I left, but there were high expectations, so was I happy that both of them showed up here only a couple of weeks later! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; want to know what my whole TV week looks like? Well, here it is!

Let’s start on Sunday. Boy, that’s actually the busiest evening of the week, which is a bit frustrating as Sunday is also my blog writing day, stressful in a nice way. Sunday evenings Swedish National Televison (SVT) rules! Starting out 8pm with the acclaimed Australian drama series The Slap (Örfilen), followed by the Swedish drama “En pilgrims död” (The Death of a Pilgrim) about the unsolved murder of the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme 1986, ending the evening with the excellent Showtime production The Big C. How is that for a start for the upcoming week? And as that’s all public service and no commercial breaks there is hardly any time even to sneak away to the bathroom!

Monday comes with Nashville  (Channel 3) written by Callies Khouri (Thelma and Louise) which I have to say is holding up to the expectations. And the music signed Elvis Costello and Lucinda Williams among others is great, some is painfully beautiful! Channel 4 delivers right after a Danish crime series Dicte, those Danes, they know their crime!

Tuesdays is Maestro (SVT), a BBC format where six celebrities learn how to be conductors, quite fun if you are into music or have insights in conducting. Channel 3 brings the sit coms The New Normal and The Mindy Project, also new acquaintances from Seattle in September. And then SVT did the right thing: they are the network broadcasting the already highly praised Girls!

Wednesday is my absolute favorite with two Shonda Rimes in a row on Channel 5: first Grey’s Anatomy and then Scandal. Wednesday is also my choir rehearsal evening so I am recording those for watching later. Although my evenings are so packed with good programming that I hardly can find time to squeeze them in! About Grey’s Anatomy: I could fill one single posting on that item and I probably will some day…

But we need to move on! Thursday, there is actually some space. By coincidence I found the American crime series Person of Interest on Channel 5, a former CIA agent contacted by a computer nerd/billionaire - sounds like Bill Gates but isn’t. Together they are monitoring people intervening in the right moment to prevent crime. I can’t find any hard facts about this series, but it’s worth watching, if not only for an extremely handsome CIA agent…

Then there is Friday with the Swedish/Norwegian talk show Skavlan on SVT, often followed by a movie that works. And Saturdays right now is the Swedish tryouts road tour for the Eurovision Song Contest (actually not that fun watching alone, it needs company), followed by Mr. Selfridge, a British drama series that has to do as we will be out of Downton Abbey for a while!

Now. Then there is the closing of every weekday. At 11pm The Killing is on air at Channel 4, a Danish story set in Seattle directed by Veena Sud who wrote the script. It’s such an odd combination. And I am watching every frame, amazed about how true they are to the setting. Grey’s Anatomy could be anywhere; there is only the Space Needle views and some ferry telling where we are at. But the Danish The Killing lives and breathes Seattle. The geography is right down to the point, the Larsen family really is located in Ballard, the Waterfront project is a player, there is the billionaire who wants an arena, the ferry ride actually has a purpose, even the area codes on a list in a 3 second pic are right: 206 and 425! The only thing I object to is the eternal poor down, even though I do understand the temptation. It rains a lot in Seattle, although more drizzle than rainstorms, but it works with the dark story. And I am also wondering about the casting of Joel Kinnaman as detective Holder, why choose someone with a Swedish accent? Anyway, it keeps me up late every week night!

So, you see, I am busy person! And I am thinking it would be very different for me working in television now than 15-20 years ago. I now know exactly what my friend Katta had insights in long before me. That good television can be a really important friend. Bringing you an imaginary but big, warm family to enjoy and be grateful for. Comforting couch company.

Oops, it’s time for the Sunday evening Swedish National Television marathon, got to go!