Staying Awake

I don’t think I ever saw a complete episode of Perry Mason.  The same goes for Wagon Train.  Some television programs, no matter how popular or even good, are just, for some of us, soporific.  No matter how hard I’d try, they put me to sleep.

Back in the 1990s, there were a number of television scholars who argued that television actually acted like a drug, that the rhythms of the broadcast could influence the body’s autonomic nervous system.  I kind of believe it.  Of course, I was a kid in the 1950s with an early bedtime, and my premature unconsciousness might have been fully explicable by other factors.  But somehow, it was triggered by specific programs, and with reliable regularity. And in the Golden Age of Television, if you snoozed, you (literally) lost.  The program disappeared into the ether, never to be seen again until the summer rerun season.

It was a serious problem for a future English major, for it interfered with my understanding of classical narrative structure (Exposition-Rising Action-Climax-Falling Action-Denouement).  I was usually out halfway through the Rising Action, and seldom experienced the relief of resolution.  It helped create an unsatisfyingly ambiguous world view, I think.

Eventually, I just gave in to the inevitability of media-induced sleep.  My sister even gave me, as  a Christmas present, a clock with a timer to shut off the TV so I wouldn’t have to wake up to do it myself.

I got to thinking about this the other day as I was watching a recorded episode of PBS’s Grantchester that I’d fallen asleep on during the rising action the night before.  It still happens, and annoyingly enough with programs I really care for.  I’m 67 with an early bedtime.  But I no longer have to miss programs, thanks to the technological miracle of the DVR.  Parts of my life experience can be recycled in a way never possible before.  Similarly, if I have to go to the bathroom or let the dogs out, I can pause the action and not miss important (or trivial) dialogue.  I CAN CONTROL TIME! (Yes, Dr. Who is one that still reliably puts me to sleep.)

And my world view has come to include resolutions and endings.