Highbrow or lowbrow, bro?

This past Sunday night, we faced a bit of a dilemma in our house. The English drawing room, cucumber sandwich and Earl Grey tea sipping drama, “Downton Abbey,” was scheduled to return for its third season, while at the same time, on another channel, was the dirty, dumb hillbilly reality show, “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo!” Halloween special. My wife was torn.

I did not have a dog in this hunt. My wife controls the remote, so for the most part we watch TV shows where women try on wedding dresses, couples go apartment shopping and housewives scream at each other. My wife also switches channels ever...