The Art of Television Marathons

Each year for the past several, the local PBS affiliate runs a marathon of fun opposite the Super Bowl coverage. For several years it was 10 hours of Robot Wars (a show which, like Iron Chef, I never seem to tire on). Appropriately for the first station to bring Monty Python to the United States*, there was a British Comedy marathon for a year or two. Anyway, this year they're doing a really ridiculous Rosemary and Thyme mystery marathon. The whole point of a marathon is to be able to have something on in the background that you can check in and out of with absolutely no thought necessary. You should not have to watch carefully in order to be able to follow. Also, as much as I love** Felicity Kendal, she's no Angela Lansbury.

Anyway, there are lots of acceptable television shows that are marathon material: Project: Runway, Futurama, The Woodwright's Shop***... but none of them are mysteries.

I'm still trying to figure out what I will be doing if The Game sucks (as, well, it has for the past few years) instead of drinking wine and watching robots smash into each other...

*The station president at the time? The father of those Wilson brothers. Just think about that next time you're staying up late watching that Britcom bloc on your affiliate. (I'll be sleeping, thank you very much. Unless Good Neighbors is on. The rest I really would rather leave than take.)
**lots
***Which I love almost as much as I love Night Court. Seriously.