[Musings] Life with out Cable/Network TV
I realize that I post a lot babbling under the heading [Musings] but when I am in the mood to blog the blogging blog, I am usually in a relaxed contemplative frame of mind.
This week marks my five month mark without any form of cable or network TV at home (my wife has gone a lot longer without it, about six months, refer to my posts on the Distributed Lif e(tm)). I have to say, my life is better without the constant onslaught of commercials. I feel my brain working again. I find I have more time in the day. I also experienced something I have not experienced in a while, an enjoyable holiday season. I had an epiphany about this last night while I was watching the season 2 of Millenium Xmas episode. My epiphany was that this was because this was the first holiday season in a long time where I was not bombarded by excessive amounts of holiday cheer (aka commercials telling me that if I truly loved someone, I would buy them X). I enjoyed the season for the spirit of the season, family, friends, and egg-nog (I realize there is some other stuff like religion and the winter solstice and whatnot in there somewhere, but holidays for me are about family and friends and remembering the year in review).
We take the extra money we are saving from not having a cable bill and are buy DVD sets of our favorite shows, movies or books and video games. It is much better experiencing TV without commercials (even public TV is fraught with commercials)...
...[mental interruptions: I am sitting in a coffeehouse named J&S and they roast their own beans, a batch just finished roasting and I am now enjoying the smell and site of freshly roasted coffee...a slice of heaven...]...
Anyways...
My list of DVDs that we have purchased or plan to purchase are:
Family Guy (all seasons)
Millenium (seaons 1 and 2)
Andromeda
X-Files (all the good seasons only)
The Avengers (Emma Peel episodes only)
The Prisioner (all)
So I am not being coherent. I am going to end now as my download of Parition Magic (I didn't know they were purchased by Symantec, but I should not be surprised, rumor has it Veritas was just purchased by Symantec) is almost complete and it is time to shrink the WinXP parition on my work laptop so I can install SuSE 9.2 Pro (with the new job I have moved over to an almost complete *nix workstyle and work lifestyle, I only have windows now for gaming at home).
I thought about talking about the President's Inaugural speech, but I am still too pissed off, so I won't.
3 comments:
>This week marks my five month mark without any form >of cable or network TV at home (my wife has gone a >lot longer without it, about six months, refer to my >posts on the Distributed Lif e(tm)). I have to say, >my life is better without the constant onslaught of >commercials. I feel my brain working again. I find I >have more time in the day.
I have truly begun to understand how much of television is like crack for the lazy. It is also a pervasive and underwhelming media. If you graded TV from A to F on its fulfilling its potential for coolness, it grades about a D+ in my book, but then again, it always has (much like most things in life). I guess television is simply no more refined than the bulk of America.
>I also experienced something I have not experienced >in a while, an enjoyable holiday season. I had an >epiphany about this last night while I was watching >the season 2 of Millenium Xmas episode.
There were about four episodes of Millenium in season 2 that were just brilliant.
>My epiphany was that this was because this was the >first holiday season in a long time where I was not >bombarded by excessive amounts of holiday cheer (aka >commercials telling me that if I truly loved someone, >I would buy them X).
The supersaturation of advertisement in media has started to 'come out of solution' and spill all over the rest of my life. You can only escape the commercials by avoiding the media, or at least disconnecting from the business model of advertisement-driven broadcast television.
>We take the extra money we are saving from not having >a cable bill and are buy DVD sets of our favorite >shows, movies or books and video games.
I've done virtually the same. Not that hard when cable is like $60-70/month!?!
>It is much better experiencing TV without commercials >(even public TV is fraught with commercials)...
>My list of DVDs that we have purchased or plan to >purchase are:
>Family Guy (all seasons)
Hysterical. And season 4 starts up soon. A series back from the dead. Subversive animation is one of the two genres of television I care for (space opera/sci-fi is the other). Brian and Stewie are great.
>Millenium (seaons 1 and 2)
At its best this was up there with the best of the X-Files, but I'm not sure it holds up as a whole work nearly as well (then again, X-Files was probably more than the sum of its parts and in retrospect not nearly as bright or innovative as I recall).
>Andromeda
I never quite got into this. Even though it was an idea by Roddenberry (actually, meant as a spinoff of the original Star Trek - post Federation), it just didn't make a lot of sense to me, and has since degenerated into what looks like an experimental film school's whipping post. Also, Sorbo turned it into Hercules in Space.
>X-Files (all the good seasons only)
I'd be interested to hear what those are (my vote is seasons 3-6, with a runner-up ribbon for maybe season 2)
>The Avengers (Emma Peel episodes only)
Oh heck yeah. Steed and Peel were two of the best characters of that era.
>The Prisioner (all)
I just never understood (or cared much) for The Prisoner.
I will pitch that there is still stuff on TV worth watching, but not much. I'll tune in Arrested Development (Fox), which is very funny, and likely to be axed due a total lack of viewership, and yeah, even I'll tape the new Battlestar Galactica (SciFi) and watch it because even mildly well-written space opera (unlike all Star Trek since season 6 of TNG, which has been just rot) is better than virtually any sitcom, cop drama, or reality show (even if it does come off as quite derivative in a Space: Above and Beyond sort of way. At least it seems they ditched the LDS subtext of the original series). I'll watch the new season of Family Guy (again on Fox), even though I'll not forgive Fox for axing Firefly.
Aside from that, my TV is this big thing up against the wall that takes up a lot of space and doesn't get much use. Its old and if it burns out, I'd pretty much not be in any hurry to replace it anytime soon. My existing DVD drive on my computer seems sufficient. Disconnect the antenna/cable.
I love the prisoner! that is one of the most original writing to come around in a long time, even if it had the Star Trek cheesiness.
The good X-Files seasons in my book are anything before David Duchavony left.
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