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Let’s Talk About TV

You all know that I love TV. In fact, I love it so much I created a new site dedicated to all things TV. I present to you Let’s Talk About TV. There are still things I am tweaking, but I decided to make it public yesterday. Many of the posts were imported from here but expect a lot more frequent posting. I have a few good ideas on what I want to do with the site, I just hope I can pull it off. I’m hoping if I’m able to do a few of them out of the gates I will have a bit of momentum and the rest will come a bit easier (being vague on purpose).

So, why am I starting this site? Well, as I said, I love TV. I’m tired of posting about TV here and there always seems to be a lot more about TV that I want to post. Also, I need to take my mind of politics. You might know I run Grand Old Parody and I need to have something else to occupy my time. Politics is too stressful. I need something fun!

Anyway, go visit the site, look around, and if you’d like, subscribe. I hope you enjoy it!

TV in the Summertime

It’s no secret I am a fan of TV. I love it. I love (almost) everything about it. I love the acting, directing, stories, and scenery. There has always been one time of year where I (and my DVR) get a break from this addiction: the summer. Unfortunately, thanks to networks such as HBO, USA, SyFy, Showtime, and HBO, this is no longer the case. While the major networks are filling their schedules with reruns, reality shows, and game shows, the cable networks are creating and airing some of the best programming on TV.

For the past several years I’ve had summer time programming to enjoy. From Entourage and Dexter to the Weeds, Monk and True Blood, the summer TV schedule always had something to look forward to a day or two a week. The landscape has changed greatly over the past few years though. USA has been the biggest time consuming culprit of all the networks. Shows like Psych, Burn Notice, and the more recent In Plain Sight, White Collar, and Royal Pains have become mainstays in my viewing habits. Then they decide to create another show, Covert Affairs, as if they didn’t have enough of my attention. HBO isn’t going to let up either, with the Prohibition Era drama Boardwalk Empire starting in September. TNT has also managed to get some of my attention with the better-than-I-thought-it-would-be Memphis Beat. And then there is FX with two of TV’s best shows on television right now. The first being the under-appreciated dramedy Rescue Me and the second being the freshman comedy from funny-man Louis CK entitled Louie. Add AMC’s Mad Men, TBS’s My Boys, and SyFy’s Eureka and Haven to the mix and my summer schedule becomes just as full as my fall viewing schedule.

Summer used to be a welcome break from TV but networks are no longer content with letting the viewing public go outside, not even for a minute. Let’s face it, I live in St. Louis. I never went outside in the summer to begin with. It’s too hot and humid, but at least I was doing other things than watching TV, like catching up on my Netflix movie queue (somewhat kidding) or reading or, when the weather would comply, go outside.

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Hulu Plus

Hulu has added a subscription service. Not sure how successful it will be at $10 a month when content is limited and it will by no means replace traditional television subscriptions. Netflix’s Watch Instantly service offers much more content than Hulu does at around the same price.

The PS3 as a Media Center

Since I purchased my PS3 several months ago, I have come to the conclusion that it has been one of the best electronics purchases I have ever made, behind switching to Macs. Even though I’m not much of a gamer, I get tons of use out of my PS3. That’s not to say I don’t use my PS3 for games. In fact, I think I have more games for the PS3 already than I do for the Wii, which I’ve had for a few years. Titles like Assasin’s Creed 2, Modern Warfare 2, Red Dead Redemption, Modnation Racers and the most innovative game, Heavy Rain, are games that I could not pass up. But again, I’m just a casual gamer. What I really use my PS3 for is playing back video files/discs.

Sony might not always do everything right (betamax, minidisc, memory stick, UMD), but they got a lot right with the PS3, and that includes a Blu-Ray Player. The PS3 is an excellent Blu-Ray player, and while I only have a few Blu-Ray titles, the inclusion of the player alone made the heftier price tag for the console worth it. In case you were wondering, it also plays standard DVDs as well. Since I am a movie buff, my PS3 gets a lot of use playing video discs. Great games and graphics and built in Blu-Ray/DVD player still isn’t the tipping point for me though. Yes, those things are great, but what really made this one of my best purchases ever was Rivet. I’ve written about Rivet before, but in short, it allows me to stream music and video files from my Mac to my PS3, and the quality is fantastic. This is a must-have feature of any device serving as a media center.

Add the Netflix Watch Instantly disc to the rest and you have the (almost) perfect solution for a media center. Netflix streaming via the PS3 is also in HD, much better quality than you get when watching via a computer. I recently watched all 5 seasons of FX’s Rescue Me using the Netflix disc on the PS3. The only thing I wish I could do is stream shows/movies from places like Hulu. Unfortunately, the PS3 browser does not support the version of Flash needed for viewing sites like Hulu. I’m hoping someone like Rivet could step in with a work around. I really wish the television networks would realize that TVs just aren’t TVs anymore. They can do much more, and should allow their sites to be displayed on any device. If they would, the PS3 would be the ultimate device for my media center needs.

The Lost Finale

I am a huge fan of the TV show Lost so it’s probably no surprise that you’re reading a post regarding the finale that aired this past Sunday. What did I think of it? I loved it and I hated it.

I loved the finale because it was exciting, emotional, and satisfying. Hold up a minute… Satisfying? It was and it wasn’t. If you look at the finale with regards to this season alone, it was very satisfying. This season was all about the characters and faith. That’s what the finale was about. You got to see Jack redeem himself and be the hero he never wanted to be. You see the way faith was intertwined with the story in the final scenes where the castaways are in the church and are blanketed in the light. It was the perfect ending to the story that this entire season set up. But what about the previous seasons? What about those stories? Well, that’s why I hated the finale.

What initially drew me to the show were the mysteries of the island. Why did they crash? Who were The Others? Why is there a polar bear on the island? What was Walt’s power that caused him to bring a bird back to life? What was really going on with the Dharma Initiative? These mysteries that were never answered drew me, and millions of others, to the show. Instead of finding out the answers we were greeted with Allison Janney murdering a woman and raising two boys on an island. No explanation of anything that made Lost so great in the previous seasons. A series that could very-well be considered Sci-Fi quickly became a story of faith and spirituality. Yeah, we kind of find out what the numbers mean. Yeah, we find out that the voices were the people who died on the island and were trapped there. There are so many things that should have been answered but weren’t. I’m thinking the producers and writers backed themselves into a corner when they set the finale date and did not have the time to explain the mysteries. Either that, or they got lazy and knew that they couldn’t explain them so they threw in a magic creek and a temple or two. So, in this respect, I hated the finale.

I’d say overall, it was a good way to end the show. It was a satisfying ending to this season, and thus the series, but I know if they tried to pull that ending a season or two earlier, I would have been upset. Before the finale I planned on buying the DVD set and watching the entire series over again. Now, I don’t think I will. I don’t want to find myself even more disappointed at all the good mysteries that were never solved. We shall see.