The pros and cons of modern television

I have a friend who is firmly against television. When I profess my love of Netflix, he disputes it, and he finds something wrong with every television show I watch.

For a while, I didn’t really understand it. I believe there’s art in script writing, art in the acting, and art in the directing of television shows. “American Horror Story,” for example, has amazing shots that not only show you how a character feels, but makes you feel the same way. I adore spending hours on Netflix watching “Weeds” which has some of the most clever, fast-paced dialogue I’ve ever seen, thanks to writer Jenji Kohen. And then there are the actors who make up some of the better shows on television. David Morrissey, who plays the Governor on “The Walking Dead” has managed to make me hate his character, feel sympathy for his character, love his character, and then hate his character all over again. His acting is exceptional, and deserves to be noted when talking about “The Walking Dead.”

Yes, I can defend several different television shows, including these, for the art that goes into them. However, over the past few years, I have begun to have a growing hate for ABC and ABC Family original shows. My hatred of ABC Family television stems from the horrific wreckage that is “Pretty Little Liars,” a now completely un-salvageable drama. Who even knows what’s going on anymore? It makes about as much sense as putting a dog in a tutu.

However, at the tippy top of the pile of crappy television shows sits “Once Upon a Time.” When it first began, I fell in love with this story about fairy tale characters who have been banished to our world and forgotten their actual lives in the Enchanted Forest. By now, however, the story has become convoluted to the point where I can’t even tell what the writers are trying to accomplish.

Lately, the only things that seem to matter in the show have been the romances. Who will the main character choose? Will Prince Charming and Snow White have a happy ending? Will the Beast be re-united with his Beauty? It’s wince-worthy. Meanwhile, the villain actually stresses me out to the point that I want to scream at the screen. He has no purpose other than to be obnoxious.

On top of this, the show is entirely based on the Disney versions of the fairy tales that it includes. At first, I didn’t mind. For example, with the Dwarves’ names. So they’re all named Grumpy and Happy; that I can handle. However, when they brought in Ursula, from “The Little Mermaid,” and her costume was a perfect replica of the cartoon movie Ursula, I was pretty much at the end of my rope.

The acting is shoddy, at best. Robert Carlyle, who plays Rumplestiltskin, is the only actor who stands out, and this season his screen time has been limited. It’s infuriating to watch badly-written dialogue being acted by flat, uninteresting actors.

Besides all this, the writing is a disaster. Have a problem? Don’t worry, the characters have a convenient person/place/spell to fix all their troubles. What is a storyline without a little struggle? “Once Upon a Time,” apparently.

Now that I’ve described how much I hate the show, I have to confess: I can’t stop watching it. Every week I log onto abc.com and click play, sit through the commercials and wait to complain at the end of the episode.

I don’t know why this is. Perhaps it’s because I keep hoping that something will get better, and I’ll once more find the joy I once found in it. Perhaps it’s because I have hope that Carlyle will save the show. Or perhaps it’s because I have a thing for hook-handed pirates. Yes, it’s terrible, but I cling to it. Television, can give us the opportunity to see a different world from the eyes of different characters. And I always hope that the world in “Once Upon a Time” will become lovable once more.

Unlike my friend, I find value in television. But with the list of good television shows growing shorter, I have begun to see why he insists television is ruining America.

Doesn’t mean this fangirl is going to stop watching.