My Own Television Paradise
Television programming draws in the masses. It is the modern day shrine for 99.9% of Americans. TV consumes us in more ways than one might think. In addition to the obvious (advertising, politics, religion, and business) TV consumes the second most valuable resource that everyone has. It consumes our Time.
Recently Rhiana and I have been debating and contemplating eliminating television from our lives. I guess I should elaborate on just what that means. Currently we subscribe to Cox Standard cable. We get about 65 Channels and use about 15 of them. In addition to standard cable we also use a very handy new age DVD service called Netflix. Cox also supplies us with super fast internet service. In all I would venture to guess that we spend well over $100.00 per month on various programming fees that bring us to look at a television screen.
I'd like to briefly talk about two of three services mentioned above before delving into the meat about cable programming.
First, I have to admit that Netflix is perfect for me. Not only am I a movie buff, but I love the valuable tools and set up that this online based service provides. Please note that this is not a commercial for Netflix. Their service is certainly a fit good for me and I encourage others to proceed with caution. To make it worth your while you have to be willing to commit to watching 5-6 movies a month to outweigh the cost of using a video store. That doesn't sound like much, but it is easy to forget and before you know it a month slips by and you've spent $19.99 to watch one movie. You must be diligent, something that sometimes I am guilty of NOT being. Additionally, for those who are still on the dying planet of VHS, Netflix can only offer you its condolences. One last note regarding video rental: I despise Blockbuster. On more than one occasion they tried to bill me outrageous fees for a video that was merely a few days past due.
Next, cable internet is my own personal drug habit. I could surf for hours and hours and hours much to the dismay of Rhiana. Sometimes I do that, but only when she is on the couch watching TV 20 feet away. I spend an inordinate amount of time at a few suspect websites. Of them http://www.firemikedavis.com/ is my vice. I really don't know why I spend time there. Yes, I do think that Indiana University basketball Coach Mike Davis should be fired. But, this site is infested with characters and personalities that blurt out racist remarks, political rhetoric, and basically offer little valuable feedback regarding Mike Davis. There are trolls galore and recently my very own username was high jacked due to minimal admin oversight. Yet, despite all those very good reasons to stay away, eventually I am drawn back in. The internet serves good purpose as well. We use it for reference and have planned a good part of our wedding with resources provided online. Rhiana and I both belong to several forums; my most recent discovery is the very helpful http://www.woodworking.com/ . As a novice woodworker it's been very helpful. And then of course there is always http://www.blogger.com/ .
On to the meat and potatoes. All in all Rhiana and I probably spend a combined 40 hours per week watching TV. That figure could vary based on our current Netflix selections. We've been talking about saving the money we spend on cable TV by downgrading to a 20 channel package which would save us about $30 per month. We've also discussed going to and all out "no cable" option which would save us about $80 per month as Cox does not offer internet without cable. Effectively that means that if we choose to shut down the cable line up we also lose the internet. This option would leave us with the $19.99 per month cost of Netflix, which we have mutually agreed we will keep under any circumstance.
Now back to my statement about consumption of our second most valuable resource. Assuming we do go to a lesser line up for cable or eliminate it all together our "opportunity cost", that is the time spent on choosing to do one activity over another, will also add more value to our life as we would inevitably be spending easily one half the time in front of the television.
So why then, knowing all of this, is the decision so hard to make? Are we addicted? Would we struggle to fill up the time that we would effectively gain back? We've discussed these issues. Mostly we answer that we would spend more time reading and cleaning among some other activities. Exercise, learning to cook better, working in the yard, walking the dogs...etc...etc...
Just what is it then that we are not willing to give up? For me there are several reservations. I'd love to give up shows like "Laguna Beach", "Sweet Sixteen", and just about anything on MTV. Some of these shows tend to be Rhiana's pick. But, I'm sure she's willing to go without my picks including football, baseball, basketball, Sport Center, and more football. We have found a few shows that bring us both together on the couch and can eat away at our time like our dogs eating table scraps.
Lost sucked us in from the start. We originally did not watch it on TV. About a month after the first season DVD came out we both got bit by the bug to see it. Bitten so bad, that we almost spent $50 late one night at the grocery store to see it as Best Buy had already closed hours earlier. We resisted and rented it on Netflix. We watched and watched and watched, until it was all gone. We devoured the first season DVD set and immediately following had a hunger to see more. The characters are welcoming and diverse, yet through the second season have now evolved into a darker more Darwin-esque group. The mystery of the castaway island continues to wind a strange and ever expanding path. New dangers at every turn seemingly outweighing the previous threats by only a fraction. All while leading you just far enough to forget the past problems and shoving you slightly enough to embrace the ones at hand. Genius writing and an excellent cast bringing us to channel 6 promptly every Wednesday at 9.
Dog the Bounty Hunter is quite possibly THE BEST reality show on TV today. We love Dog, his wife, his kids, and his bounty hunter family. This guy is possibly the hardest working 50 something on the face of the planet. Underneath the bleach blonde hair and flashy Oakley sunglasses is a guy who cares more about his job and family (and in some cases the people he brings in) than he does about the money. His wife is absolutely the best match in the world for Dog and you can tell they truly have something special. He keeps his business in the family, having two of his sons working for him tracking down criminals that have skipped out on high stakes bail. But the story doesn't end there. Dog once walked the wrong side of the law, rumored to have once beaten a murder rap. And of all the "I won't do it again's" and "I'll turn over a new leafs" that people in law enforcement hear, this guy is actually walking the walk. Dog and his crew amazingly track down dangerous drug dealers, hookers, and multiple offenders while only employing good judgment, a can of mace, and a lifetime of bounty hunter experience.
Moving to the other side of the law The Sopranos pinned us to the couch long before we were together. I must admit that Rhiana got me into the show. And I haven't looked back since. With ghoulish story lines about the modern day Mafioso, Tony Soprano, and his uncanny knack for cracking skulls and twisting arms The Sopranos rocks our world. The plot lines allow speculation after almost every episode and could lead in a number of directions, but usually never go the way we expect. Although we don't have HBO we do receive our fair dose of mobster mentality via Netflix. The final season debuts very soon and we've briefly considered adding HBO to our line up simply to have access to what may be the demise of the Bing Club comprised of Tony, Corrado, Pauly, and Sylvio. Because let's face it, if Christopher is strong enough to turn on Adrianna (as he did in the end of last season) he has finally proven that he has what it takes to follow in Tony's footsteps.
From shady crooks to dirty cops, we now have the spiraling parallel careers of Vic Mackey. One career as a drug enforcing special vice team leader and another as a tiptoeing criminal de'jour. Shawn Ryan has hit an absolute home run with FX Network's late night drama "The Shield." The first season sunk its dirty meat hooks into me in one scene that was repeated time and time again in the original promotional commercial. Vic uses a phone book to assault a suspected child molester and the strategy works as he extracts a confession that leads the men in blue to save a kidnapped 8 year old girl from the basement of an abandoned L.A. house. Some shows push the envelope, but this one picks it up off the table and shoves the damn thing down your throat. A TV mature rating and late time slot give the show latitude to include a more realistic dialogue, although sometimes it seems suspiciously calculated. After losing steam over the last two seasons, the current version of the strike team is now on the offensive and for the first time the audience is beginning to see that Vic has moved to murky depths to protect the secrets of his past.
Finally, after all the laws have been broken, we seem to find that Law and Order draws a majority of our time budgeted for TV. An evolving cast, an endless array of syndication, and a variety of formats, Law and Order gives us a multiplicity of storylines to choose from. With characters ranging from cynical homicide detectives (Det. Lenny Briscoe, Det. Joe Fontana), to righteous assistant district attorneys (Jack McCoy, Ben Stone,) to an array of aspiring TV starlets (Jill Hennessey, Angie Harmon, Elisabeth Rohm) L&O has it all. The show has been ever expanding since its inception in 1990 and currently holds rank as the longest running TV show on the air. We joke that you can find an episode running on one of many channels that it runs and reruns on 24 hours a day. Kudos to the producers at NBC for bringing us a show that engrosses us with the life and crime of New York's finest and the judicial process.
So please pardon me for ranting about TV for so long. As you can tell (if you are still reading), leaving TV is not an easy decision. One we have yet to decide on.
Recently Rhiana and I have been debating and contemplating eliminating television from our lives. I guess I should elaborate on just what that means. Currently we subscribe to Cox Standard cable. We get about 65 Channels and use about 15 of them. In addition to standard cable we also use a very handy new age DVD service called Netflix. Cox also supplies us with super fast internet service. In all I would venture to guess that we spend well over $100.00 per month on various programming fees that bring us to look at a television screen.
I'd like to briefly talk about two of three services mentioned above before delving into the meat about cable programming.
First, I have to admit that Netflix is perfect for me. Not only am I a movie buff, but I love the valuable tools and set up that this online based service provides. Please note that this is not a commercial for Netflix. Their service is certainly a fit good for me and I encourage others to proceed with caution. To make it worth your while you have to be willing to commit to watching 5-6 movies a month to outweigh the cost of using a video store. That doesn't sound like much, but it is easy to forget and before you know it a month slips by and you've spent $19.99 to watch one movie. You must be diligent, something that sometimes I am guilty of NOT being. Additionally, for those who are still on the dying planet of VHS, Netflix can only offer you its condolences. One last note regarding video rental: I despise Blockbuster. On more than one occasion they tried to bill me outrageous fees for a video that was merely a few days past due.
Next, cable internet is my own personal drug habit. I could surf for hours and hours and hours much to the dismay of Rhiana. Sometimes I do that, but only when she is on the couch watching TV 20 feet away. I spend an inordinate amount of time at a few suspect websites. Of them http://www.firemikedavis.com/ is my vice. I really don't know why I spend time there. Yes, I do think that Indiana University basketball Coach Mike Davis should be fired. But, this site is infested with characters and personalities that blurt out racist remarks, political rhetoric, and basically offer little valuable feedback regarding Mike Davis. There are trolls galore and recently my very own username was high jacked due to minimal admin oversight. Yet, despite all those very good reasons to stay away, eventually I am drawn back in. The internet serves good purpose as well. We use it for reference and have planned a good part of our wedding with resources provided online. Rhiana and I both belong to several forums; my most recent discovery is the very helpful http://www.woodworking.com/ . As a novice woodworker it's been very helpful. And then of course there is always http://www.blogger.com/ .
On to the meat and potatoes. All in all Rhiana and I probably spend a combined 40 hours per week watching TV. That figure could vary based on our current Netflix selections. We've been talking about saving the money we spend on cable TV by downgrading to a 20 channel package which would save us about $30 per month. We've also discussed going to and all out "no cable" option which would save us about $80 per month as Cox does not offer internet without cable. Effectively that means that if we choose to shut down the cable line up we also lose the internet. This option would leave us with the $19.99 per month cost of Netflix, which we have mutually agreed we will keep under any circumstance.
Now back to my statement about consumption of our second most valuable resource. Assuming we do go to a lesser line up for cable or eliminate it all together our "opportunity cost", that is the time spent on choosing to do one activity over another, will also add more value to our life as we would inevitably be spending easily one half the time in front of the television.
So why then, knowing all of this, is the decision so hard to make? Are we addicted? Would we struggle to fill up the time that we would effectively gain back? We've discussed these issues. Mostly we answer that we would spend more time reading and cleaning among some other activities. Exercise, learning to cook better, working in the yard, walking the dogs...etc...etc...
Just what is it then that we are not willing to give up? For me there are several reservations. I'd love to give up shows like "Laguna Beach", "Sweet Sixteen", and just about anything on MTV. Some of these shows tend to be Rhiana's pick. But, I'm sure she's willing to go without my picks including football, baseball, basketball, Sport Center, and more football. We have found a few shows that bring us both together on the couch and can eat away at our time like our dogs eating table scraps.
Lost sucked us in from the start. We originally did not watch it on TV. About a month after the first season DVD came out we both got bit by the bug to see it. Bitten so bad, that we almost spent $50 late one night at the grocery store to see it as Best Buy had already closed hours earlier. We resisted and rented it on Netflix. We watched and watched and watched, until it was all gone. We devoured the first season DVD set and immediately following had a hunger to see more. The characters are welcoming and diverse, yet through the second season have now evolved into a darker more Darwin-esque group. The mystery of the castaway island continues to wind a strange and ever expanding path. New dangers at every turn seemingly outweighing the previous threats by only a fraction. All while leading you just far enough to forget the past problems and shoving you slightly enough to embrace the ones at hand. Genius writing and an excellent cast bringing us to channel 6 promptly every Wednesday at 9.
Dog the Bounty Hunter is quite possibly THE BEST reality show on TV today. We love Dog, his wife, his kids, and his bounty hunter family. This guy is possibly the hardest working 50 something on the face of the planet. Underneath the bleach blonde hair and flashy Oakley sunglasses is a guy who cares more about his job and family (and in some cases the people he brings in) than he does about the money. His wife is absolutely the best match in the world for Dog and you can tell they truly have something special. He keeps his business in the family, having two of his sons working for him tracking down criminals that have skipped out on high stakes bail. But the story doesn't end there. Dog once walked the wrong side of the law, rumored to have once beaten a murder rap. And of all the "I won't do it again's" and "I'll turn over a new leafs" that people in law enforcement hear, this guy is actually walking the walk. Dog and his crew amazingly track down dangerous drug dealers, hookers, and multiple offenders while only employing good judgment, a can of mace, and a lifetime of bounty hunter experience.
Moving to the other side of the law The Sopranos pinned us to the couch long before we were together. I must admit that Rhiana got me into the show. And I haven't looked back since. With ghoulish story lines about the modern day Mafioso, Tony Soprano, and his uncanny knack for cracking skulls and twisting arms The Sopranos rocks our world. The plot lines allow speculation after almost every episode and could lead in a number of directions, but usually never go the way we expect. Although we don't have HBO we do receive our fair dose of mobster mentality via Netflix. The final season debuts very soon and we've briefly considered adding HBO to our line up simply to have access to what may be the demise of the Bing Club comprised of Tony, Corrado, Pauly, and Sylvio. Because let's face it, if Christopher is strong enough to turn on Adrianna (as he did in the end of last season) he has finally proven that he has what it takes to follow in Tony's footsteps.
From shady crooks to dirty cops, we now have the spiraling parallel careers of Vic Mackey. One career as a drug enforcing special vice team leader and another as a tiptoeing criminal de'jour. Shawn Ryan has hit an absolute home run with FX Network's late night drama "The Shield." The first season sunk its dirty meat hooks into me in one scene that was repeated time and time again in the original promotional commercial. Vic uses a phone book to assault a suspected child molester and the strategy works as he extracts a confession that leads the men in blue to save a kidnapped 8 year old girl from the basement of an abandoned L.A. house. Some shows push the envelope, but this one picks it up off the table and shoves the damn thing down your throat. A TV mature rating and late time slot give the show latitude to include a more realistic dialogue, although sometimes it seems suspiciously calculated. After losing steam over the last two seasons, the current version of the strike team is now on the offensive and for the first time the audience is beginning to see that Vic has moved to murky depths to protect the secrets of his past.
Finally, after all the laws have been broken, we seem to find that Law and Order draws a majority of our time budgeted for TV. An evolving cast, an endless array of syndication, and a variety of formats, Law and Order gives us a multiplicity of storylines to choose from. With characters ranging from cynical homicide detectives (Det. Lenny Briscoe, Det. Joe Fontana), to righteous assistant district attorneys (Jack McCoy, Ben Stone,) to an array of aspiring TV starlets (Jill Hennessey, Angie Harmon, Elisabeth Rohm) L&O has it all. The show has been ever expanding since its inception in 1990 and currently holds rank as the longest running TV show on the air. We joke that you can find an episode running on one of many channels that it runs and reruns on 24 hours a day. Kudos to the producers at NBC for bringing us a show that engrosses us with the life and crime of New York's finest and the judicial process.
So please pardon me for ranting about TV for so long. As you can tell (if you are still reading), leaving TV is not an easy decision. One we have yet to decide on.
posted by Jeremy @ 11:22 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home