Ravings of an Intermittent Fool

Just heard a great by Eric Burns, moderator of Fox News Watch. He said, "Now its time for our third and final break and we'll be back with your questions. Wouldn't you like to take 3 breaks every half hour at your job." Yes, yes I would.

I've always enjoyed this show since it is so outrageous and has lots of plot twists and turns. I am watching the season premiere right now and the new characters and office are quite jarring. I hope this gets better.

As a loyal ReplayTV user, I don't watch too many commercials but the recent Liberty Mutual ad did. It depicts all other drivers as being members of a Demolition Derby, complete with the garish paint schemes and the frequent collisions. What a great way of saying "you are a safe driver, but everyone else out there is complete nuts, so use our services". Great commercial and it didn't even have to resort to usual themes to get me to watch it. ;-)

The Call Letter Origins site lists many television and radio station call letters from the UK, Canada, US and a few other places along with how their names came about.

You know you watch too much tv when you just installed an uninteruptable power supply for your DVR, cable box and television.

Tareq from NBC's Average Joe used the following on Melana:

"The simplicity of your complexity is the catalyst of my infatuation."

Over the past few days, I've gotten a chance to watch a bunch of episodes of Fox's new comedy Arrested Development. What a wonderful show. Its so refreshing to see something different from a broadcast network. It really feels like a laugh out loud version of the quirky family in The Royal Tenenbaums. The actors all play fairly archetypal roles but they make them fresh through their awkwardness and psuedo-documentry presentation. I can't get enough. Even the guest stars work really well. I never knew Liza Minnelli could be so funny. That is a sentence I thought I would never say.

One last thing: why do tv show web sites use Flash so much? It pisses me off when I can't link to some piece of content because it is locked inside a stupid flash file.

Will has done a review of Line of Fire and now I have one as well. I think is a very well acted drama. The drama is split between the crime family and the local FBI field office. While they don't interact a lot, the two worlds are bridged by an FBI special agent who is in deep undercover in the crime family. I am most impressed by David Paymer's portrayl of an unlikely, nerdish mob boss and the women of the FBI. Three actresses, Leslie Bibb, Leslie Hope and all turn in great, tough protrayls of life as agents. Each character has a balancing act to Julie Ann Emeryperform (loss of spouse in 9/11, a destructive drinking & sex problem, and a young family respectively) with their important duties. I think most surprising is Leslie Hope as the Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI field office. When I found out that she also played Terri Bauer on the first season of 24, I was shocked. At first I didn't believe it was the same woman playing two very different roles with so much authenticity. We are only 5 or 6 episodes into this show and the world these character live in has lots of potential. I'm very curious to see where they take us.

I'll admit that I probably watch a bit too much TV. Here are sites I read pretty frequently to keep up with whats going on.

• Reality News Online - Gives very detailed recaps of every reality show. They cover every series (which is pretty tedious, so just skip over those you don't watch or like). The recaps are pretty detailed so this a great place to check if you miss an episode. My favorite features are reviews of strategy and analysis of the shows using game theory. Some of the articles are even written by college professors. There is a lot of gems here, just don't let all the coverage of the crappy reality shows discourage you.



• Reality Blurred - blog that covers what it sounds like.



• PVRBlog - Matt Haughey, the guy who brings you Metafilter, covers the technical, political and legal ramifications of the digital video recorder revolution.



• Lost Remote - Covers television with a bias towards television news and the future of television programing. The founder of the blog is an executive producer of at a Seattle tv station and constantly rails on people who aren't being innovating or won't face up to the realities of the digital revolution.



• Washington Post TV Column - Lisa de Moraes writes about tv and doesn't pull any punches. She doesn't fawn over stars and shows and is is very blunt about what works (quite refreshing for entertainment journalism).



• TVGuide's Matt Roush writes show reviews, ocassional dispatches and my favorite, Ask Matt. This Q&A forum is new each Monday.
  
  

As I mentioned before, I have a UPS hooked up to my cable box and DVR. Last night the power went out to my neighborhood and the DVR kept on recording for about 30 minutes (unfortunately the outage was about 32 minutes). It looks like I need a bigger battery but at least it looks like the tech proved itself.

I have had a chance to start watching a couple of news shows recently. One good, one not so good. First off, Dennis Miller has a self titled show on CNBC. I've only seen a few shows and it feels very flat. He seems far too subdued. I really think he could use a studio audience to feed off of. I don't predict this is going to stay on my roster of recorded shows.

The good is Anderson Cooper 360° on CNN. This airs between 7 and 8 EST. The show has a hip feel to it without being over the top. He actually says some cruel things and funny things about people in the news but gets away with it because he can deadpan so well. Its a great mix hard news, irreverence, pop culture and humor.

Thankfully it was an exciting game this year because I found the commercials to be fairly lackluster this year. The best commercial was Pepsi's iTunes' commercial with all the RIAA prosecuted teens. Too bad, I don't like their product and will open drink it if Coke's not available.

My old school ReplayTV was completely confused this morning. For some reason it thought it was in the year 2010 (and of course that means that there was no shows in the channel guide). I forced a network connection and after 15 minutes of slow modem downloads, everything is running correctly. Although, a tiny portion of me wants it to be broke so I can get a new more advanced one with room-to-room sharing, I don't have the time right now to deal with such a calamity.

There are certain shows that I like to watch but without a digital video recorder, it would be impossible. On such show is American Idol. Right now the format is a 1 hour show to intro 8 semifinalist and have them sing and then a followup show for 30 minutes to announce the top 2 people that advance to the next round. With my remote by my side, I can cruise through the first show in about 20 minutes and I can get through the 2nd in about 10 minutes. The 2nd show is so full awful pauses and endless promotion of next weeks show and big long build ups that you know will have to wait until 'after the break'. I don't see how people could sit through this in real time.

For years visionaries have been saying that we consumers would get to multiple angles of the "action" shown to us at once and we could pick and choose what we want to see. That has never come to be but it is certainly true that we are becoming our own "network programming execs" picking and choosing which parts of shows to watch in what order and when we watch them. I refuse to be passive about what "they" want me to see. I want to control my experience.

Cory Bergman of Lost Remote fame, has some ideas and rants on how to make the tv media better. One of his suggestions is to remove all the bloated coverage of weather and reduce it to just the forecast. Here here!

I just got finished watching the third season premiere of The Shield. Wow, I was blown away. It was a very intense hour. So many plot lines to follow, so much action. There clearly has been some time that has passed between the end of season two and this episode. I expect we will see more and more of those details provided in the coming weeks. It didn't stop there. So many more details were giving about how the Strike Team is coping after their secret heist. You can already start to see some of the potential issues that are going to trip them up this season. It was also good to see some conflict and tenson between Claudette and Captain Acevada. I suspect that relationship is going to be far more interesting than the past two season.

All in all, this feels like a wild, out of control roller coaster ride where you suspect that the cars are going fly off the track at any moment. It leaves you out of breath and anxious for next week. I personally can't wait.

Oh, and if you haven't seen seasons oneand two, the DVDs are excellent and addictive. Season one is espacially nice since there is commentary tracks for each and every episode. Check it out, I know you will enjoy it.

Cory Bergman of Lost Remote asked if anyone had a transcript of Jon Stewart's appearance on Nightline. As I feared, the DVR cutoff the interview presumablly because ABC was running late. In any case, here is what I have recorded (and be kind, this is the first time I have ever tried doing a transcript):

Ted Koppel (opening monologue): You have either seen Jon Stewart's Daily Show on Comedy Central, in which case you will understand or you haven't, in which case its probably too late to explain. We were talking this morning about those television commercials that criticized John Kerry's service in Vietnam.

Jon Stewart (being interviewed): Its like that Swift Boat thing.

Ted: Yeah.

Jon: Those guys are lying.

Ted: Which guys?

Jon: The Swift Boat guys. They're making things up. The public record is all in John Kerry's favor on this.

Ted: It appears to be.

Jon: It appears to be.

Ted: Right.

Jon: Yet, there is this moral equivalency of their story and his story. The burden has been put on him to disprove something that happened 35 years ago that is in the public record because these guys have come out. In that moment, it seems to me that public should care 'cause you have...here is the frustration of being me.

Ted: Alright.

Jon: I have not...I cannot do that. I can only walk up to that line. I can only point at it and go, makes some rather good monkey noises. But, i can't...

Ted: You're doing...

Jon: I don't have the credability...

Ted: You're doing the dancing monkey thing again.

Jon: But I don't have the credability to be able to say, I can only do in Joke form. Which by the way, I'm fine with.

Ted: But you see, the problem with that Jon is and here is where the Republicans have John Kerry dead to rights. They're saying, "Wait a second, refresh my memory now. When he came out there and said, 'John Kerry reporting for duty'."

Jon: Right.

Ted: "When he has made every public apperance in recent memory in the prescence of his band of brothers."

Jon: Yes.

Ted: "When there is not a public appearance that doesn't in some way..."

Jon: ...Reflect on his Vietnam experience.

Ted: "...reflect on the Vietnam experience."

Jon: Absolutely.

Ted: "Then the Vietnam experience becomes central."

Jon: Absolutely relevant, but that doesn't make the lies true.

Ted: No, but...

Jon: And that's the difference here.

Ted: But it makes them particularly resonant. In another words, if he hadn't made such a big thing. And he was doing that of course to contrast his service in Vietnam.

Jon: Right.

Ted: ...with George Bush's service in Vietnam...

Jon: But, but, lies being resonant...

Ted: or not in Vietnam as the case may be.

Jon: doesn't mean they shouldn't be called. You know that's, that's...I think that's the frustration. When you talk about the frustration. I do think its an interesting point. The frustration of the viewer when you watch that. they're looking for somebody. I believe right now the media rewards which team plays the game better. In other words, when people are saying, "George Bush is going to win". What they're not saying is "He is the better man, with the better policy and is giving the American public an honest description of what he is going to do." What the people are saying is, "These guys are good! They're playing this game like masters. Like maestros." They are conducting this election in such a....with such expertise and the Democrats don't have that expertise. They're not making any conclusions based on policy. They're making it based on strategy and that the frustration I think at least I feel.

Ted: I think you are arguing about the difference between fact and proof. Which is the great problem with journalism. Let me explain.

Jon: Fact and Truth?

Ted: Fact and Truth.

Jon: Are you going to tell me that the Holocaust didn't happen?

Ted: For the sake of argument, Let's say President Bush comes out there Thursday night and out of the blue talks about that well-known drug dealer and pedophile Ted Koppel and my colleagues then...

Jon (breaks into the frame and talks to the camera): Are you getting this?

Ted: And my colleagues then, the next morning say the President of the United States last night in a surprising diversion from the rest of his speech accused ABC host Ted Koppel of being a pedophile and a drug dealer. Are they factually correct in reporting that the President of the United States said that? Is it news that he said that? Sure it is. Is it the truth. No. The truth may not emerge until...

Jon (breaks into frame again and addresses the camera): Or is it...

Ted: Or is it...

Jon (still full frame in the camera): We'll be right back...tomorrow on Nightline, Ted Koppel's resignation.

Ted: Come back here, Stewart. But do you get my point?

Jon: Right.

Ted: There is a difference between facts which are reported immediately.

Jon: Right, Right. But here is where I think news is going to go...

Ted: Its a fact, these veterns were in Vietnam, they themselves were on Swift Boats...They are saying these things. The truth may not catch up for another week or two.

And that sadly is where the recording ended. Anybody have the details on what happened next?

I just put together a transcript of Jon Stewart on Nightline and damn that was a lot of work. Thank God for the ReplayTV's "go-back-seven-seconds button". I have a new found respect for people who do this kind of work for a living.

Finally got around to watch my recoding of LAX and I have to agree with the Boston Globe's opinion that this show is essentially the Love Boat in the airport. This is my same feeling of their show Las Vegas (i.e. Love Boat in a casino). Granted, this is a pilot, but this thing is all over the place both stylewise and characters. As far as style goes we are treated to:

• Tons of elapsed time photography
• Wide shots of terminals
• Slo-mo bumbling baggage handlers
• Slo-mo super closeups of Heather Locklear feet in a really slow reveal of her character

There there is the characters. There is every cliche in the book: Bumbling baggage handlers, idiotic cops, gambling problems, characters with drinking problems, drunk pilots and so on.

I will probably give this another viewing if nothing else is attractive in its timeslot jjust to see if they work out the kinks, but I am not expecting much.

One last thing, and this is one of my pet peeves. Like a lot of shows that are filmed in LA, this show uses the Los Angeles Convention Center as a stand in for a large open public space (in this case an airport terminal). If you have ever been in the building you will suddeningly realize that this building shows up in tons of movies, commercials, and television shows and of course hardly anyone goes to any length to hide this fact. In the pilot episode, they didn't even change the signs in the building. They have a bunch of money to spend for this episode and they can't put up a fake sign or two or cover the ones that are up?

Update: I've seen a couple of episodes since and I think this one is a goner. It can't decide if it is going to be dark serious drama or Love Boat-esque fantasy farce.

While watching Survivor the other night it struck me that when voting people out, there is so many variations on how the contestants spell each other's names. You would think that being stuck out in the middle of nowhere with these people would afford them plenty of chances to learn this simple bit of information. Although, truth be told. I bet asking a fellow tribe member how to spell their name shortly before tribal council must be a big faux pas.

Of all the new tv shows this fall season, I have been most pleased with Lost from ABC. Basicly the plot is that an trans-Pacific flight crashes in the middle of nowhere onto a mysterious island. The crash survivors are equally mysterious and that's all part of the fun: trying to figure out the backstories of the survivors and what in the world is going on with the island. I won't give anything away but its got me excited and has me tuning in next week to find out more.

A couple of asides: The production values for a network broadcast show is tremendous. The CG work is excellent and the initial confusion of the crash is expressed so well to the viewer...you are confused and disoriented along with the characters. Also, the series is shot in Hawaii as far as I can tell and its always nice to see such beautiful vistas week in and week out.

ABC is on a roll this new fall season. I've already said Lost is excellent. Add Desperate Housewives to this list. Its all about a series of familes who live on one block who are forced to stop and think about their own lives and happiness after one of their seemingly perfect friends commits suicide. Its got intrigue, comedy, drama and a nice juicy mystery (just why did she kill herself?). The show is well written and I have yet to see a weak link in the ensamble cast. Its got me tuning in each week (and by the way ABC seems to be rerunning this show on Saturdays). Check it out, you won't be disappointed.

While running today, I caught a marathon of Season One of Arrested Development on FX. What a pleasant reminder of the funniest and wittiest show of last season. The Season One DVDs will be released Tuesday. I highly recommend picking this show up or at least renting the discs when they become available. The writing and acting are superb. They really make such a weird and twisted family come to life. Also, all the twists and turns all come for circle for some amazing conclusions which remind me of Seinfeld at its best. Reading my previous review of the show, I can't help but think I like it even more than I did then. Good news on that front, according to the show website the second season starts on Sunday November 7th. I can't wait and neither should you.

Tom Shales on Arrested Development is a good take although it doesn't come close to really explaining how funny this show is. Then again, I find it really hard to describe why its so great. Previous posts on AD here and here.

Ricky Gervais of The Office fame on Fresh Air. Its a nice short listen.

Like I said before, I love Lost but what ABC is doing with the schedule is driving me up the wall. First off, NBC started ER at 9:59 PM on the east coast. That causes conflicts for people who use DVRs to record a show like CSI and ER. The DVR will miss one of the shows because they overlap for that one minute. They are ways around this with creating manual recordings, but it is a hassle. Well ABC took this up two notches.

After finding out that Lost on Wednesdays was a hit, they started extending the show until 9:01 PM on the east coast. This cuts into shows like West Wing which starts at 9:00 PM. Once again, a conflict like this can be handled with manual recordings (which I have done). Well, I was surprised when i can home tonight and the West Wing wasn't recording. It turns out the culprit was ABC. Lost is now ending at 9:02 PM.

This kind of nonsense has got to stop. It just might push me over the edge to get a dual tuner DVR so I can raise digital middle finger to the programming executives who dream up these annoyances. What would be really nice is if these shows were out on the web somewhere so I could download them. They could have commercials embedded in them even.

I've just gotten word, that a guy I used to work with is making his Comedy Central debut tonight. Josh Sneed worked along side me at P&G and spent his nights doing stand up. When he was only playing in town, I used to go a lot of shows and definitely knew how to bring the funny. I always knew that he would be successful because he had a real passion for comedy and is relentless in promoting his career. He'll be on Premium Blend tonight at 10 and the show will be replayed tomorrow, the 11th at 8pm. All times EST. I've got the DVR all setup and can't wait.

This is a few weeks late, but the great PVR Blog has a very nice review of Beyond TV. It is a PC based DVR system that I would like to add to my office/exercise room to supplement the ReplayTV in the living room. It looks like a great product and the price seems very low. I think this will be a great addition to the Msacolino household.

Here is another item that is late coming but is a good read if you are confused by all the new terminology used in the high end television market. Slate has a very long and detailed article on top tvs. Besides going through all the types of technology used, they give you the best examples of products in each space. Its also the largest number of sidebars that I have ever seen in one Slate article.

The ever so thoughtful Matt Haughey has posted "So you got a PVR for Christmas, now what" over at PVR Blog. Its chock full of links to forums and official/unofficial sources of help for your wonderful new toy.

Do it yourself DVR

As I've mentioned it before I hate it so much when the networks (specially NBC) starts it shows at oddball times like 9:59. Whether it is to juice the Nielsons, screw over PVR users or try to steal marketshare from rival networks, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that its an impedance on the consumer. Way to go networks....iss off the very people you wish to consume your content.

In any case, PVRBlog is reporting that NBC is having a change of heart for the fall season. I hope this is true.

What The Amazing Race lacks in opportunities to show off strategical thinking in a competitive reality show, it certainly makes up for it in spades as a travel fantasy. I prefer to watch reality shows that invole some sort of strategy, bargining or allying oneself with others to meet some goals. The difficulty of doing that and the emotions it brings out in people makes for fabulous drama. The Amazing Race doesn't really have that but the premise of traveling around the world is certainly a dream many of us have. That's why I was pleased see a blog by Edward Hasbrouck who seems to be some sort of guru on independant world travel. He has penned a series of blog posts that use each episode of the show as a jumping off point to discuss travel related topics. I've spent a few hours going back thru posts for the last few seasons and he covers a wide range of topics like traveling safely, taking the less beaten path, finding the best way from point A to B. It makes for good reading and I look forward to reading Edward's posts when the new season starts this fall.

Its a sad day. Word is that Fox is canceling one of the funniest shows on tv, Arrested Development. Save our Bluths is the fan petition site set up to save the show.

Update: I now know why people seem to be finding this post as of late. Welcome all. I join in your sadness that we might loss this show. I just got thru Monday's episode and I was tremendously impressed. So very self-referential, so mocking of the network and very funny. I am surprised the network let them poke fun at them.

Neat picture showing a live scene being filmed and its subsequently showed on a television. Notice the differences in the live shot and what is on the tv.

PVRBlog has a short article on the new High Def TiVo. The article links to a video demonstration of the device and it looks very impressive. It has a laundry list of features that I would like to see in a new device including twin HD tuners, front mounted LCD screen to show what is being recorded, CABLECard slots, ability to add external storage and an updated remote control.

One hokey thing is that you won't be able to just hook up any External SATA hard drive to the box to get more storage. According to the presentor, you will need a hard disk that has some special TiVo software on it. They will be glad to sell you such a device that will be color matched to the rest of the device at what is sure to be a pretty premium. That's a shame but I bet that will be one of the first things that gets hacked.

I'm pretty reluctant to change from my first generation ReplayTV since it doesn't have a monthly fee, but it were to break at somepoint, this TiVo sounds like the way to go. I just hope they get it to market sooner rather than later.

The Shield made its return to TV last night for the first episode of the fifth and presumably last season of this very dark cop show. I've written about this show before and this episode doesn't disappoint. The show effortlessly blends the chaos of the police work as well as exposing the intimate details of all the characters. You can already see the triangles of conflict being drawn up and if you are like me, you are itching to see how all this conflict and drama plays out.

New to the cast this season is Forest Whitaker who plays a Internal Affairs officer who is tasked with bringing down Vic Mackey and his Strike Team. Forest does a fabulous job with the role. Full of bravado and arrogance when he needs to be and shamelessly vulnerable and open to people he is trying to con. He also has this nervous twitch about him that makes you think he just might be off his rocker. I don't want to spoil things for people who haven't the seen the show, so I will leave it at that.

Lastly, my advice still stands to watch this show straight thru on DVD. Go rent the disks and treat yourself to a huge sweeping epic.

One last thing, I still have much hate in my heart for FX's insistance on using an almost all Flash website. Man that is irritating.

I like tv. I really do. I've written a lot of entries on the subject. However, I am no where near obsessive enough to create a Google Map of the world of 24. Not only are the areas where events are supposed to take plus shown, but the actual filming locations for some of the scenes are also marked.

Ski Jumping has never been one of my favorite sports to watch. The runs appear all too similiar and since everyone competes seperately, it gets boring after awhile. Furthermore, to the casual observer, its really hard to understand why some guys go further than others. Oh and lets be honest, almost all of us are casual observers of this sport since its on tv in the US once every four years.

That changed tonight when I saw a camera that traveled with the skier down the hill, thru the air and to the landing. It was a compelling piece of tv, much like its summer games companion, the diving camera that falls in sync with the athlete. The only disappointment was that NBC didn't use this footage nearly enough.

Over the weekend, the friends had a discussion about why cowbells seem so popular at the winter olympic sports. We were at a loss to explain the why and we could only agree on the fact that it is annoying. I have found the answer and it is a simple one. You can't clap your hands in mittens.

This is pretty late notice, but for those who are into FX's Rescue Me, the third season starts tonight. It does a wonderful blend of surreal imagery, actual comedy and some gritty drama. Plus, the theme song (C'mon C'mon by the Von Bondies) and opening credit sequence is the best I have ever seen.

Its very cool to see that a company Monolith MC is offering pre-built, pre-configured DVR machines that are based off of MythTV. One wonders how much support and maintence is required to keep a machine like this running. If my ReplayTV ever dies completely this might be a good solution.

( via PVRBlog )

Just finally caught the first two episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Damn what an enjoyable two hours. Sorkin really knows how to write smart, dense, non-patronizing dialog. Its like the magic from those first few seasons of The West Wing has returned.

I discovered this morning that my ReplayTV unit hasn't been able to connect to download its channel guide information for the past few days. This is when I discovered that my usual trick of pressing 2-4-3 Zones to bring up the Diagnostics Menu to force a connection wasn't allowing my Replay to connect. It just kept on saying that my device wouldn't connect. After much troubleshooting and net searching, I came this post on howto change your modem settings for the ReplayTV device. This let me choose a lower baud rate and the connection went right thru. This makes me a very happy person.

Also, as an aside, I discovered that the key combination 4-1-1 Zones brings up the version dialog for the ReplayTV. This told me I was running version 3.02 of the firmware which was compiles in Feb. of 2002. I just had a conversation this week with a friend where we discussed how often I was getting software updates for the device. Apparently not very often. :-) However, thru some more searching, version 3.02 appears to be the latest version for my model of ReplayTV.

I was flipping the TV while tonight and came across one of those ubiquitous clips shows that you see on cable that purport to count down the top 25 of actors, surfers, child stars, and so on. This particular incarnation was about models. I caught the segment on Brooke Burke. They gave a long list of her modeling credits and then said the following, "But Brooke isn't a bimbo, next in her career she showed that she had brains by staring in E!'s Wild On". For anyone who has actually seen that show knows this is very faint praise.

Seeing this article on DVRs and Political Ads really makes me happy to be a DVR owner and it reminded me of a situation last night I had while exercising. I was watching football while running on the treadmill in our basement (which doesn't have a DVR attached to it). Since I normally never watch live tv, I was astounded by the amount of political ads. There seemingly was one or two per commercial break. Thankfully, I put the tv on mute and turn on the iPod for such occasions but it was still bewildering.

This is pretty cool, NBC is offering full episodes of 30 Rock online for viewing. That is awfully nice of them.

Alec Baldwin wants to leave 30 Rock. All I can say is: Noooooo. If this goes thru, this would make me a very sad panda. Alec's character on 30 Rock is one of the best things on that show and the show itself is the best comedy on tv since Arrested Development. Jesse Thorn shares this sentiment very eloquently.

This is excellent:

Great effort on someone's part to edit all that scenes together and mix in the music. Although, I don't envy whoever had to sit thru all of that to pick out the relevant bits.

Fast fact for the day...Marisol Nichols who played the role of "Audrey" in Vegas Vacation was acting CTU Los Angels chief Nadia Yasser 10 years later. Interesting career. 10 years prior she plays the daughter of Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo and now she plays a middle eastern woman who is taken to task for her Islamic faith. Oh and back in 1999 she had a supporting role in a film called The Sex Monster.

SnapStream is releasing a 10 channel DVR. That's a nice piece of hardware for the home rack. Wonder how much noise and heat it generates.

In what is fairly obvious (but they do have empirical data), the CEO of TiVo mentioned that the most recorded (and thus popular) shows don't equate to the most commercials being watched. This makes sense that if you are into a show you are going to be watching intensely and if you are watching intensely you will be focused on skipping the commercial when the come on to interrupt the show. What I think would be more interesting is if they listed the shows in which the commercials are skipped the least. Outside of news and weather, it really makes sense to timeshift everything you watch if you can (I suppose there are some weirdos out there that have a special thing for Weather on the 8s). If I had to guess which shows were most recorded but don't have the commercials skipped it would be shows intended for small children who haven't learned of the power of fast forwarding or for shows that people run as background white noise. The later should be concerning to advertisers because they eyeballs they are paying for might not really be paying attention.

Fire up the DVRs, The Shield is having its season seven premiere this evening. This will be the last season for this cop show and I will miss it greatly when it completes. You have to admire any show that makes you root for such despicable characters. I do however predict they will get their comeuppance in the end. Since this was filmed after the brouhaha concerning the ambiguous ending of The Soprano's, I doubt they will take that tact with end of this series.

If you haven't noticed, along with the last season of The Shield, FX is running a new show called Sons of Anarchy about an outlaw Motorcycle Club in a fictional Northern California town. Once again FX has hit the mark for a drama that brings us into a world that few people ever get into. And just like most FX dramas they don't coddle you with lots of exposition. They just jump in and throw characters and terminology at you and expect that you can figure it out. The network did put together a nice blog that explains some of the policies and protocols of motorcycle clubs down to their clothes and what all the different patches mean. It is pretty enlightening and their attention to detail really is impressive.

I have a few hours of DVR time devoted to recording season and series premieres of shows. In a 200 channel universe this means a lot of dreck is captured my hard disk. Little did I know how bad this could get. The other day I had noticed a show called Speeders on Tru TV had been recorded. I paused and thought, no that really can't be all there is to a tv show is there? I played a few minutes of the show and found myself slackjawed at what I was seeing. The show consisted entirely of the following formula:

1. Profile "tough" cop


2. Watch cop pull over someone for speeding


3. Watch cop interact with people being caught with speeding while being filmed by a television crew


4. Listen to the cop give a little "moral of the story" soundbite

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Could there possibly be anything worse than this? How can people get entertainment value out of this? Plus, this is on Tru TV so if you get this channel you get dozens and dozens of other channels...quite possibly hundreds. There is no reason for things like this to exist. I'm not one to moralize about the horrors of tv. I love television; can't get enough. Just please watch something halfway decent.

Oh wait it gets worse. I stop to think there are literally dozens if not hundreds of people employed to make a show like this from camera people to editors to lawyers get releases to PAs to "creative" people at the network. There are people wandering around where this is an item on their resume.

If I had people read my blog let alone comment perhaps I would get dinged for being an elitist. Lord knows there have been 100 episodes of Speeders so far so perhaps there is someone out there that likes this show.