What to do with my unbearable amount of free time, I wondered? The answer was of course, daytime television. Not soap operas. I already watch one and I don’t have the energy for another. Not talk shows. They annoy me. What’s left?

The daytime small claims court shows. And wow, since the last time I checked, their number had tripled. So I decided to try a few out and over the last two months, I’ve watched an episode of almost all of them (I might have missed one or two) and for those of you at home looking for something to watch, maybe this will help you.

Cristina’s Court – The first few times I watched this, I really enjoyed it. Judge Cristina was very sympathetic, very emotional and I almost always agreed with her. And then the parade of celebrities started. Not actual celebrities but like F-list celebrities like Butch Patrick from The Musters, or some blonde chick from the Cathouse on HBO. Chyna, the wrestler. Miss India. And every time they came on, Cristina would stop and introduce them with some clips or go over their career and it just got to be too much. It was less about the case and more about the people and that was so boring to me.

Divorce Court – It’s a shame that I had to stop watching this one as well. I really really liked the judge. She’s smart and funny and her judgments were always sound — but every episode was exactly the same – some woman thinking her man was cheating on her. It was insane and I just couldn’t sit through it anymore. If the judge ever switches shows, I’ll tune in.

Judge Alex – I only just set this on my DVR but so far I like it. He’s great at interrogation, which means nothing slips through and no one can get away with anything.  The jury’s still out on this one, but so far it’s a keeper.

Judge David Young – I also really like this one. He’s very smart, very funny and I can’t think of one show where I didn’t agree with him.

Judge Joe Brown – Also a recent addition to the DVR. He’s very technical and low key — uses a lot of big words, which in itself is fine, but over a half hour, it can feel like too much. I might drop this one from the DVR if that proves to be the case more often than not.

Judge Judy – The classic. She has no room for bullshit, doesn’t waste any time on back stories and I can’t think of a single time I disagreed with her. She was a late addition to the line up but still a keeper.

Judge Maria Lopez – I’ve watched her since the beginning of the experiment and at the time, I liked her. But the longer I watch, the less I enjoy it. Something about her grates the nerves after a while. She’s very smart and she knows it. She takes great delight in treating the people in her courtroom like lesser individuals, even those in the right. I might drop this one.

Judge Mathis – Nine times out of ten, I think he’s fabulous. He’s very funny and interesting and I almost always agree with his judgments. But he tends to harp on the fact that he grew up in Detroit and constantly asks people about drugs, if they were on it, if they sell it, if they were ever addicted and it’s a little much.  But for the most part, I like him.

People’s Court - Ah, Judge Marilyn Milan. My absolute favorite. She’s incredibly fair, even when she doesn’t want to be and she’s not afraid to take anyone to task if she feels like they’re in the wrong. She’s the best one on television by far and if you’re going to watch just one judge show — I think the classic People’s Court is the one.

Once I’m back at work full time, I won’t have the time to watch television like I can now, so lot of the shows I watch on a daily basis will have to be cut but for now, while I have the time, they’re fun to watch.

The upside to this is occasionally the same series covers the same story and you get a chance to get an update. A&E’s American Justice covered the Marty Tankleff case. He was convicted in his late teens of murdering his parents on Long Island and has been fighting for release ever since. There were a lot of interesting elements to the case — unfair interrogation techniques, investigation procedures and even some celebrity help (James Gandolfini showed up at a hearing) but American Justice ended with Marty still in jail. I think the show was produced between 2003-2005, I can’t remember the exact date.

This morning, I watched an episode of CBS’s 48 Hours Mystery that taped last night and I almost deleted it from the DVR when I realized that it was the same case. But then I remembered that American Justice had been a few years ago and maybe there was some new developments. I was glad I watched because this time, the show (produced within the last year and first aired in 2008) ended with Marty being released and starting college on Monday.

It’s nice to know my television addiction has an upside

I spent the first hour of the new year arguing with WordPress and Enthusiast. I’ve finally started to work on the Nora Roberts fan site and using WordPress (I’m so obsessed with it, it’s sad) seemed like the best way to create the site quickly, efficiently and thoroughly. But of course, it’s never that easy. I had to do some creative work with Enthusiast, rename a function that I thought was supposed to fixed in the last upgrade, but eh. Enth is freaking fabulous otherwise, I’ll take what I can get.

It just struck me how thoroughly people have to design these scripts. In the three years I’ve been using Enthusiast, this was the first real script I’d had so I think that’s great kudos to Angela for designing it. I don’t know where I’d be without it.

I was watching another episode of 48 Hours Mystery on the Discovery Times Channel and I realized that I’ve got some weird television habits. My favorite channels are Discovery Times, History Channel, International History, and A&E. I love to watch all the true crime  shows (and read the books) — and one of my absolute top ten television favorites is HBO’s Oz. Do you think that makes me just a bit twisted?

Anyway, I’m off to finagle with WordPress a little more than head to bed. Happy New Year again