What I'll Miss Installment #3

Lately I have been trying to reduce my television viewing time to incorporate more reading time. Additionally, I realized that besides Oprah and the few fortuitous moments I come across a Criminal Minds episode that they haven't aired already (I swear they only show that one episode where Reed gets held hostage and addicted to heroine) there really isn't much worth watching. But I still found myself watching the dumb stuff anyway. Like The Doctors.

Unfortunately I couldn't watch the two things I really wanted to watch: late night movies and Turkish telenovelas. The best shows always come on around midnight. For some reason Arabs tend to stay up really late, and so programmers have learned that they will probably have more viewers for Legally Blond at 1:00am as opposed to a decent time like 7:30. I have to be in bed by 10:30 otherwise I cannot function the next day. Sometimes I have a heard time staying up that late.

The Turkish Telenovelas come on around 10:00pm after Oprah, and I really want to watch one. I don't avoid them because of time; they actually aren't in English. They aren't in Turkish either. Rather they are dubbed in Arabic, but have no English subtitles. (English-language programs are subtitled in Arabic.) So I don't get to watch the shows--I can only be mesmerized by their commercials.

So that is what I will miss about the Middle East--the advertisements for the Turkish Telenovelas. Every commercial break during Oprah has an ad for one of the two shows that currently plays. (Like any good telenovela, the show is only about 1 season long and a new one comes on about every two months.)

So you may be wondering how it is that an Arabic-dubbed program can capture my attention by only a mere commercial. Television ads don't influence me as much as Madison Avenue would like them too. (Case in point: no feminine hygiene commercial will ever convince me that I want to twirl during That-Time-Of-The-Month. Why do all feminine hygiene commercials involve twirling? The only way that makes sense is if by "twirling' they actually mean "round-house kicking the people who annoy you.") Back to Turkish Telenovelas. For these programs I am 100% turned into the fabulous choice of music they use for the commercials. It was a "had me at hello" fascination when someone at the MBC television station chose an Aimee Man song ("Wise Up"). I didn't know too much about James Morrison prior to the commercials, and I can now confess to loving this song:

I have heard a few other songs whose performers I have yet to discover, but let me tell you I don't turn down the T.V. volume to read during commercial breaks, like I do during feminine hygiene adverts. I turn the volume up and enjoy the good music.