Sunday evening while Rob and I were watching the Giants game, there was a commercial for the show that would be coming on next: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. As we watched, Rob wondered, "Why do the overly dramatic shows always follow football games? I guess because they know people will be sitting around after the game, and they'll get sucked in."

"Yeah, I guess," I replied. "Some people will watch anything." He murmured in agreement, and we sat in silent judgment of America and its indiscriminate taste in television.

The game ended, and I hopped up to do a few things before bed. Rob stayed in the living room and flew his remote control helicopter. The tv was still on, although neither of us was watching it. From the kitchen, I could hear the show beginning, and it sounded just as ridiculous as the commercial had suggested. Very high drama, very low believability. Not to mention the robots. I distinctly remember rolling my eyes at it.

So imagine my surprise when I walked into the living room to find Rob sitting at the edge of the sofa, still clutching his helicopter controller, and staring intently at the tv. I watched the show for a moment, just to confirm that it was total crap. It was. But Rob continued to watch for the entire hour, utterly compelled by what he was seeing on the screen.

Monday evening during dinner, Rob somehow brings the show into the conversation. "Dude," I say, chuckling. "That show is total shit. I have no idea why you were watching it."

"Do you want me to tell you about it?" he asks, a bit too eagerly.

"Not really," I say. Then, when he looks disappointed, I relent. "Okay, fine."

"Okay, so there's this woman, Sarah Connor. And the show begins with her burning down a lab. And when she is interrogated about it, she says that she had to do it because there are robots from the future trying to kill her son."

"Robots from the future?" I interject incredulously. "And at this point you decided to keep watching?"

"Um, yeah." He laughs, before continuing with the plot for several minutes. Soon he gets to the scene in the classroom in which the substitute teacher is actually a robot dude, and shoots at Sarah Connor's teenage son, John. "John escapes, but most of the kids in the class get shot. Including this one girl who had befriended him earlier. But then! The robot catches up with John in the parking lot, and he has his gun aimed right at John, but then at the last second somebody saves him by ramming a truck into the robot dude! And turns out it's the girl who befriended him! She was shot in the chest back in the classroom, but somehow here she is! Because...she's a robot, too. Only she's here to help protect him."

"Wow. And at this point, you STILL kept watching?!"

"Yes. But - and I'm a little ashamed to admit this - it might partly have been because the two women are pretty hot."

"Which women?"

"Sarah Connor, and the girl at the school."

"That girl is, like, 16," I tease. "You realize you're nearly twice her age."

"Thank you for that."

"In fact, it's probably illegal for you to think she's hot."

"Whatever. I'm sure the actress is actually 25 or something."

And then he tells me all about when John and this girl travel to the future. (Travel to the future?! I mean seriously, people!) It seems they can't take anything with them, not even their clothes, and so they arrive at their destination completely naked. This just might be the worst excuse ever in the history of television to show some skin, but Rob relays it to me as if it isn't completely bizarre. There might even be a touch of awe in his voice.

"Is there not enough hotness in your life," I ask, "that you need to watch what is without a doubt terrible television in order to get a glimpse of a good-looking woman?"

"No, it's not that. I'm just saying the show is cast well," he says with a grin.

Yeah, nice save. But I feel betrayed - not as a wife, but as an English major. I thought he knew better, you know? I thought he could tell the difference between solid, worthwhile writing and the kind that is cheap and meaningless. I don't care how beautiful a woman is, there is no excuse for succumbing to a shitty storyline.