Is it me, or is Thomas the Train boring?

I guess I should make a little addendum to my previous post, in order to tell the whole truth... We went to another birthday party this past weekend, and this time around, A did not need any warm up time.  It was nice to see him play next to the other kids, he had a blast and didn't want to leave. He totally loved the cake too, and kept coming back for more. Since we are doing so well, I think we should have a party with the same people every  weekend, to keep it going. On that note, his birthday is coming up, and we'll see how he behaves on his turf...

 Now, back to our subject of the day. Up until now, A hasn't watched much TV at all. The American Pediatric Association advises against any TV until age 2. While I think that's a little extreme, we did keep him away from almost any TV until A was 18 months old, and since then, he has only been watching very few shows that we carefully pick for him, and he is usually only allowed one or two a day.

 We have French DVDs of Barbapapa and La Petite Taupe. What's nice about them is that the stories are very simple and are self contained 10-minute shows. We have a few Sesame Street DVDs, but A only really likes to see Cookie Monster sing "C is for Cookie". My biggest beef with Sesame Street is that an hour of TV is way too long for a toddler!
Lately, we have started watching the Mickey Mouse Club House and Max and Ruby. I like both shows, just wish they were shorter.

And then, there is Thomas... A loves trains, and consequently, likes Thomas. We have a train set at home, he also likes to go play with the "tchoo-tchoo"sets at Barnes & Noble and at the library, and I think that's great.

at the library, playing with Thomas

We have a couple of Thomas DVDs at home, but the truth is, I hide them. Why? Well, first, I think A doesn't understand the stories and is just hypnotized by the trains. He usually gets very upset when I turn it off, more so than with the other shows. In addition, a lot of episodes feature angry, mean trains, which, in my opinion, can set a bad example when you're too young to sort through the good and the bad guys. Finally, I find the show incredibly boring, and I'd much rather be doing the Hot Dog Dance than feeling like a cow watching trains go by on the Island of Sodor. Sometimes, I wonder if the last reason isn't really the main reason for hiding the DVDs.... but, so what? If I have to watch toddler programming, I should at least get to pick which one.

Are there some kids' TV shows you just don't like? Which ones and why?