Hi! I'm brbl, and my Special Skill is watching television.

Years ago, I was involved in one of those professional "retreats" where people who already know each other in an office setting get together at a resort to learn more about each other as people.  At the first session, a facilitator asked us all to introduce ourselves to the room, and identify our "special skill." Some people said cooking.  Others identified a sport.

I said "watching television."

My colleagues laughed.  "No, really, I'm very good at it," I explained.

They laughed again.  Perhaps no one wanted to admit that they, like me, thought television was important.  Regardless, I certainly watch a lot of it.  Don't get me wrong--I lead a very active life away from the TV.  I love my life and I'm fortunate enough even to love my job.  But some days, spending some quality time with my DVR is what really makes me feel like myself.

Most years I make an effort to watch at least one episode of every new drama.  In fact, a couple of years ago, I embarked on a project not only to watch at least one episode of every new drama that aired on network or cable TV, but also to review it for my friends -- sort of an "I watch it so you don't have to" project.  I was inspired by the proprietor of the blog OneBee.com, who had a similar project going for a while.

But it seems silly, after a couple of years of studiously writing reviews of shows, to continue restricting access to a relatively small group of friends.  Television is important, after all. So I'm taking this project live, starting with the Fall 2013 Network Season.

If all goes as planned, mostly, it'll be reviews of new shows.  I'll also do some occasional musings about shows I'm enjoying or abandoning, and about television more generally.

The earlier iteration of the project had some ground rules, and I'll try to stick to them, as follows:

• I could go on forever about some shows, but I think it's more challenging, and probably much more useful, for the reviews to be short.  So I try to stick to a brief "premise/promise/verdict" format for each review, and then come back to longer discussions later in a show's life. 

• I'll try to post a review of each new show before its second episode airs.  But reality creeps in, so that won't always be possible.  When I can't get to a show fast enough, I'll note that it's waiting on the DVR, and review it on the basis of multiple episodes.  

• I probably won't get to many shows aside from dramas.  I often enjoy comedies, and sometimes enjoy reality competitions and docu-shows, but I more often skip early episodes of those and rely on others' recommendations to decide what to watch.  But when I do watch new non-dramas, I'll post reviews of them too.

•  Some shows I just can't bear to watch.  This doesn't mean they're bad, necessarily--some of them are probably great--just that I know I probably won't enjoy them.  This is often true of shows about "irreverent" lawyers (I'm talking to you, Franklin & Bash); and shows about petulant teens having sex and/or communicating poorly (say, for example, Gossip Girl).   Both make me feel all ranty, albeit for different reasons.  

•  When I encounter a show I can't watch--either because it's so far from my taste or because I simply can't find the time--I'll assign it some number of "SimonBakers."   SimonBakers are, to paraphrase OneBee (who had his own scale for such things), "a measurement of my disapproval for a show I don't watch."  I picked Simon Baker for this dubious honor because although I've never watched a whole episode of the Mentalist, I have somehow developed the impression that Simon Baker's character on that show is smug and judgemental...which is exactly what I'm being by holding opinions about shows, like the Mentalist, that I've never made the effort to watch.

New ground rules may emerge as time passes.  But for now, that's it.  So watch this space!  We'll see how long I can keep it up.