The Most Mediocre Ways To Spend Your Time: Part 1

When I was touring The Netherlands a decade ago with my family, we stopped at an artisan cheese factory. Why? I'm not entirely sure. That's just what you do in The Netherlands when you're 15, sober, with your family and looking for something to do. We saw some canals, went into an honest-to-God working windmill (which is actually kind of horrifying) and saw some Rembrandt. That's just what you do. Visiting a cheese factory is the next logical step. Trust me. If you're lucky, an arrant stream of pepper spray may be shot, accidentally, into your face (another story for another post). Only if you're lucky, though.


Visiting that cheese factory wasn't so horrible, though. It was cheesy-smelling and we got to sample some fresh edam, which I will probably never do again. It's interesting to see different cultures making cheese. Pun intended. (See what I did there?)

So when I started watching the first season of Ghost Whisperer on DVD, I was immediately reminded of Holland and that cheese factory. It's a show that's better watched when you're doing something else, like writing a paper or doing your taxes or playing Civ IV.

It's not a bad show: the ghosts are startling and Jennifer Love Hewitt plays the character as well as can be expected. It doesn't hurt that she's absolutely adorable. She is a counterpoint to her brassy NBC counterpoint, Patricia Arquette from Medium. The difference between the shows is that The Ghost Whisperer is much more formulaic. JLH sees a ghost, makes contact with it, understands how she can help it, and finally helps it "cross over". It's not rocket science. The alive people she tells about her gift of seeing ghosts always think she's crazy. She always wins in the end and nothing is ever left unresolved. Nice, easy cheese.

Like I said, it's not a bad show as much as it is a mediocre one. But a good mediocrity, not the kind that makes you want to die. At least not yet. I'm not better for having watched it, but it passed the time and sometimes that's all we need, right?