So, of late I have been watching a lot of netflix.  I usually don’t because I’m reading or rereading something.  And as a book addict, well I sort of agree with all book nerds that the best things lie between the covers, movies never live up to the original form and TV is a form of the deliberate dumbing down of America.  So when I found myself sick and reading was too much effort-I started watching netflix shows (on my 13 year olds netflix account).  Once I got past the shock of some of the shows I didn’t know she was watching, I started looking at shows for me.  And I found myself watching “Good Witch” from the Hallmark Channel.  It’s a plucky story of a widowed mom who lives in a quirky town with her 15 year old daughter and her two older stepchildren who are out of the house.  Catherine Bell is a witch in this small town who decides to open her home as a Bed and Breakfast.  As I watched episode after episode of this show I realized it’s a sanitized version of the Gilmore Girls.  Instead of sarcastic wit and insane townspeople, we have magic feelings and sappy story lines.  No one is having sex, but we have a lot of townspeople working together to bring bizarre festivals to life.  And I realized that this dichotomy is one we are facing in everything today.  Instead of sarcastic banter we have vitriol.  Instead of challenging plot lines we have super heroes.  And instead of leaving each episode of a favorite TV show feeling a little bit guilty for enjoying all the pop culture banter and the snarky commentary of Lorelai and Rory–we have this empty feeling as though that’s an hour we will never get back…