Karen Tortora-Lee and Stephen Tortora-Lee would like to announce the marriage of their Netflix Account to their Wii Console.

The bride wore a dazzling red Netflix wrapper; the groom stood wordlessly next to my TV anxiously awaiting her arrival.  From the moment they locked codes it was a divine union.

It’s only been a few weeks, but ever since Netflix gave yet another option to view their catalog instantly I have been virtually glued to my Wii (which is embarrassing, since I bought it months ago specifically for the Wii Fit, enthusiastically boxed a few rounds with a cute little animated guy the first day, threw my shoulder out of whack, and never turned it on again).

But the funniest thing is, Stephen and I are watching more Television now than we did before.  And by Television I mean actual TV Shows.  The bulk of our instant Queue is comprised of shows like The Office, Dexter, Dead Like Me, Columbo, Torchwood, Rescue Me, and Doctor Who – a mishmash of current network TV, cable shows current and completed, BBC shows, and 1970s specials.  There’s something alluring about watching a TV show on your TV – all the while knowing it’s not actual TV that you could get any other way than by creating it with your own magic Wii wand.

But wait!  There’s more!  Since I don’t have cable, shows that have eluded me are now at my finger tips for the watching.  And I can be as fickle as I want with them.  For instance – I couldn’t help but tune into a few “Jon And Kate Plus Eight”s to see if you really could see that train wreck coming way back from Season One. (You could).  But after 3 random episodes from 3 random seasons (something about pumpkin picking, something about a mega garage sale, something about going through a haystack maze) I was done.

I spent one Saturday afternoon watching all the LA Inks I could tolerate – which turned out to be too embarrassingly high a count to admit to here.   Suffice it to say, I had to work backwards and watch a few Miami Inks in order to wean myself off of the whole tattoo culture.  I later stenciled a picture onto my forearm with a sharpie just to see how it felt.

I feel like I’ve just discovered TV for the first time.  And coming from a TV junkie like me – -  that’s saying a lot.  Well done, Netflix and Wii.  May your marriage be a long one.  And may I be guilted into using my Wii Fit to work off all those Colombo episodes that are going straight to my couch potato butt.

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