Goals to consider for '17 TV viewing

The best New Year's resolutions are the ones we can keep. So while we're pursuing health, wealth and happiness, it never hurts to add a few goals that don't involve giving up anything we enjoy -- including the TV remote.

This year, let's resolve to:

• Take awards, and awards shows, less seriously, because there's a lot of good work, particularly in television.

With 455 scripted series on cable, broadcast and streaming platforms for 2016 -- according to the industry's latest count, by the cable network FX -- the awards competition is greater than it has ever been.

So let's make 2017 the year we stop worrying so much about who got "snubbed" or "robbed," and remember that The Wire, one of the best TV dramas of all time, never won an Emmy or a Golden Globe.

• Stop zapping the commercials. I'm not saying anyone has to watch all of them (though one way or another, we eventually get what we pay for).

But as studies continue to show that sitting for long periods increases our odds of dying early, I'm hoping to use commercial breaks, live or recorded, as a reminder to get up and walk around.

• Put the DVR on a diet. I don't know about you, but mine runneth over with episodes I'll probably never watch.

Shifting time isn't the same as making time. So, although it's great not having to follow someone else's schedule, we (or at least I) need to be more realistic about whether what's recorded will ever be watched.

• Stop worrying so much about spoilers. If we learned anything from FX's The People v. O.J. Simpson, it's that knowing how a story turns out doesn't have to ruin anything. If we really can't abide knowing ahead of time that (Beloved Character) had (Something Upsetting/Wonderful/Almost Certainly Fatal) happen to them in the final 30 seconds of (Show That Everyone's Talking About), we'll just have to hope that whatever in our lives took precedence over TV was even more interesting.

Or hang out, online and in real life, only with people who don't watch television.

• Let go of a show (or shows). Is there something you used to watch closely that has now become background noise? After several seasons, can you now see every twist and turn coming? Or has the plotting become so complicated you couldn't begin to explain it to a friend who doesn't watch?

Topping my list of shows most likely to get tossed: ABC's How to Get Away With Murder. I don't think even Viola Davis (and an occasional glimpse of Philadelphia City Hall) will be strong enough to lure me back to the ever-more-convoluted legal drama, which returned Thursday.

• Try something new, even if it's new only to you.

TV critics may push shows like FX's The Americans and The CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend like we're working on commission, but, honestly, we're just looking for more people to talk with about television we love.

Joining shows in progress has gotten easier now that so many series' past seasons are on Amazon, Netflix or Hulu. So why not make your next binge a critical darling?

• And don't be a snob about broadcast TV. One Day at a Time, the pretty good reimagining of the 1970s-'80s Norman Lear sitcom that's new on Netflix, isn't special because it's on Netflix.

The remake, which began Jan. 6, features three generations of a Cuban American family and stars Justina Machado and Rita Moreno. It's a comedy with a studio audience -- which goes a little crazy every time Moreno enters -- and it stands out for the same reasons a show like CBS' The Big Bang Theory does: writing, acting, chemistry.

Style on 01/24/2017

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