Ira Glass and the OC

You guys know that I love Ira Glass and want to be his intern. Or boss. Or friend. Or peer whom he respects and buys quirky-thoughtful birthday presents for. I found his confession of loving The O.C. totally endearing. He and his wife always watch it and when the theme song comes on they sing it out loud together. They know it's nerdy, but they love it. I love it! I have never seen The O.C. (is it good? Should I TIVO?) But Christian and I are like this with Law and Order. It's the comfort food of TV. It's always on. It follows a predictable pattern. I know to expect an unexpected ending. And when it starts. . . Christian and I sing along in parts: "Bow bow" "Duh duh duh duh duh." "Bow bow." "Duh duh duh duh duh" "Deedle leedle leedle leedle leeee!" And so on. I'm not a fan of SVU but I have grown to love Criminal Intent. At first I was an L&O purist. I just look back at myself and laugh!

One day before we got hip to Criminal Intent, Christian's mother told us about a whole episode. She talked about Detective Goren and how he's like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. The details were lost on us because when someone is telling you about a show you don't watch (and I have done this to people with whole SEASONS of Lost and Heroes) you kind of, oh what's the phrase? Don't care.

Then we started watching Criminal Intent during the writer's strike and found out that he is like Sherlock Holmes. He's brilliant! His partner, Eames, is the only person who really gets him. Christian loves Eames and understands their relationship the way I really understood the relationship between Mulder and Scully. Unlike Scully, who has gotten much thinner over the years, Detective Goren just gets fatter and fatter. He's also a little pigeon-toed. His mom is Rita Moreno. His dad is a serial killer. He once gave his no-good brother his coat. One time I looked Bobby Goren up on Wikipedia and I was proud to find that there was not a single fact about him there that I didn't already know. You really get to know a person watching them on TV ten times a week.

Which is to say nothing of my real favorite, Mike Logan or the show's new host, Jeff Goldblum. Anyway, Ira Glass was watching The O.C. and one of the characters mentioned his radio show, This American Life. "Is that the show where those hipster know-it-alls talk about how fascinating ordinary people are?" Can you imagine? I can imagine. I can imagine tuning in to Criminal Intent after the murder set up, when Goren and Eames come on the scene. Eames would be all, "How about that blog Every Day I Write the Book. . . Ever heard of it?" And Goren would reply, "Is that the one where the stay-at-home lamester talks about how thrilling ethnocentrism is?" And I would die a little.