I watch television because, compared to other forms of entertainment and ways to waste time, it's a relatively cheap way to spend an hour or twenty (especially when you're not the one paying for it).  It's another way to connect with people and to learn and understand more about yourself.  It can be educational.  It's a really good way to distract the kids I babysit when I don't want to go outside or when I have to clean up a mess they made.  Sometimes I really love relaxing on the couch with a cold cup of green tea and a bag of pretzels and a whole season of Gilmore Girls.

I love television because of the plots, the characters, the dialogue in a well-written show.  I love watching relationships bloom or fizzle out.  I love living through fictional people in fictional worlds that are ultimately just parallel universes to ours.  They allow us to have more than one life at a time and to explore options unknown to us beforehand.

I hate television because of the stereotypes and the social schemas they drive into our heads.  Recently TV has been trying to veer away from such things by popularizing the nerdy kid or showing a stereotypically popular person as being unhappy with her life, silently coveting the simplicity of the life of the girl next door.  Sometimes the head honchos decide to make a public statement with their show about a real-life issue, like an eating disorder, or abuse.  While that may not necessarily be a bad thing, it complicates the true objective of the show - to make money.  My feelings on this are complex, and even I don't fully understand them.

I love a lot of shows on CBS and USA.  I watch those two networks almost constantly.  TNT also has some enjoyable shows, as does TLC (I'm a sucker for Say Yes to the Dress) and SyFy.
I like:

• Warehouse 13
• Rizzoli and Isles
• The Big Bang Theory
• Psych
• Necessary Roughness
• Covert Affairs
• Castle
• How I Met Your Mother
• Suits
• White Collar
• Grey's Anatomy
• other cop shows
• other spy shows.