Surviving The Strike

So, this writer’s strike is really cramping my lifestyle. If it weren’t for my beloved HBO favorite, The Wire, I’m not sure how I’d be surviving. The only other shows that still have any fresh episodes left that I enjoy are Law & Order: The Mothership (which really has gotten interesting once again now with the addition of Jeremy Sisto and the whole Sam Waterston shakeup) and Friday Night Lights. But my evenings of nonstop four-hour blocks of television? Over.

Partially since I’ve been bored out of my mind as a result of the strike, and partially because I needed to get off my ass, I’ve been getting to the gym regularly lately. Luckily, my new gym regimen is also helping with the TV withdrawal. My gym has a “cinema” room, where those working out can check out whatever random movie the gym staff has decided to put on at the time.

The movies they pick? Consistently terrible. Plus, there’s no viewing schedule and they rarely post the title of the movie, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to come in during the middle of some unnamed flick. But yet, I love it. I’m seeing 30-45 minutes of movies that I never in a million years would pay to see, and trying to figure out what the hell is going in when I come in 2/3 of the way through a movie like Unstoppable is pretty excellent in a totally hilarious way.

My new theory is that the gym staff actually has very good taste in film, and that they’re just picking the most insane fare to screw with the minds of gym-goers. What else could explain why they played The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift last week?