Movie Night

The mail at our house consists mostly of grocery store fliers, a few bills, credit card applications, and the occasional letter.  But about once a week we'll receive a Netflix mailer with a new movie or television show in it. My wife and I don’t always have the same taste in entertainment, so there is usually some negotiation involved. We can usually find something we’re both interested in, but there are some film genres she simply cannot abide.

Last week saw the arrival of the new Star Trek DVD, and I couldn’t have been more excited to watch it. Her reaction, however, was less enthusiastic:

“Well, I guess tonight is Geek Night”, or something to that effect.

Well, yeah. I’m a geek, but she knew that before she married me. She didn’t mind so much back in graduate school, when she needed help with her with statistics homework. Thing is, you don’t get the Statistics Help without the Star Trek Love. It’s the Full Package. I think she understands and accepts this, up to a point, but when I asked her to watch Star Trek with me, no dice.

“C’mon. You might like it. There’s some really good looking actors in it. You know that guy who plays the villain in ‘Heroes’? He's Spock.”

Stupid me, but “Heroes” wasn’t helping my cause. She’s more the “Ugly Betty”, “Grey’s Anatomy” demographic. If only they’d cast America Ferrera as Nurse Chapel, I might have had a shot.

And Grey’s Anatomy? Now there’s a show I should like, but no. It’s set in my native Seattle, in a hospital staffed primarily with gorgeous women, and I enjoy medical dramas (ER was a mainstay with us for years).  But the vapid, soap opera melodrama just leaves me cold. Maybe if they performed all their surgeries topless, I’d watch.

This week, “Terminator Salvation” came in the mail. I’m a little worried that someday my wife will realize she can log into our Netflix account and modify the queue any time she wants to. Then it’ll be “Made of Honor” and “Julie and Julia” for me. Oh well... I wonder if Julia Child ever cooked in the nude?