"Justified"

Lately the wife has taken to watching the TV series by that name. Although we don't get regular TV, Netflix is available via the internet. So she's pretty stuck on it.

I watch it too, but find it disturbing on some levels. The gratuitous T & A turns me off and has me considering bypassing the show altogether.

Maybe it's a case of being increasingly grouchy in my old age. As a matter of fact more than one person has commented on my "Puritanical" mindset and how it's grown, especially since reverting to the Catholic Church.

But the GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) principle is always in effect. If I found a mystery series similar to this I'd probably toss it due to the smut.

Right now I'm remembering an incident that happened with my aunt, Sister Mary Beatrice of the Sisters of Notre Dame. She was quite intelligent, spent a lot of time furthering her education to the point of acquiring a Masters in English.

Anyway, one of her pastimes was reading current literature. She came across one novel (this was in the 60's) with what she felt was unnecessary vulgarity. So she wrote a letter to the author, complimenting him on his work and citing her objections with the observation that any writing with real quality didn't need to dive into the gutter. He replied to her, thanking her for her comments but noting he hadn't written the book with Catholic nuns in mind as an audience.

Not being one to quietly shut up and go away, my aunt replied by asking him just why wouldn't he expect Catholic nuns to read his works? That ended the exchange, he may have felt he'd met his match. She had the effect on more than one person. God rest her soul.

I'd guess the same logic can be used for television programs. If it's really a quality piece of work, the T & A should be minimal, if that's needed to "sell" the product then we might as well be talking about porn. FWIW, even during my rowdiest days as a sailor I couldn't read porn novels or watch skin flicks, they were too damned boring!

So what's the point? There is none really, this post was written for me to sort things out in my own plodding, nonintellectual way. If you've endured it for this long, cheer up and leave me a comment. I'll remember you in my prayers, you've probably earned that.

As for my wife, I'll cite my reservations with the show and let it lie there. I'm not her conscience nor her father and she's suffered through several of my favorite flicks in the past. When she turns on the tube I'll go read a book.