Let the Storage Wars Begin

By now, most of you probably know I prefer either high or low culture — middlebrow fare is too safe, too predictable. So give me Shakespeare or give me infomercials, quirky reality shows or wacky religious programming. I don't want to get invested an hour at a time in the lives of fictional doctors or cops or lawyers: life is way too short and my disbelief is harder and harder to suspend.
For me, television serves mostly as a kind of post-supper tranquilizer. I have just enough energy left to speed-Tivo my way through a sporting event or catch up on the political bickering on Fox News or MSNBC. Of course, a microscopic amount of that goes a very long way…..
Thus, my current fascination with scavenger shows, a sign of these strained economic times if ever there was one. From American Pickers to Antiques Roadshow to Storage Wars, there is no shortage of shows that deal in finding castaway diamonds in a dustbin. And the competition is downright fierce.
Storage Wars (A&E, Tues — 10/9C) is my current favorite. A hardy (and hard-bitten) cadre of thrift shop owners, turnover artists and out and out hustlers bid on the mystery contents of abandoned storage lockers, some of which contain some surprisingly valuable stuff. Auction bidders get a brief, perimeter gaze at the goods before the bidding starts. Then the fur starts to fly…