I finished watching season 3 of Deadwood yesterday. Season 3 was the final season. It was such a great show. I like westerns and I like historically based movies and TV shows. I wish Deadwood was still on. They’re supposed to be making 2 TV movies to resolve all the storylines, but it looks like that may never happen. Oh well. I’m happy for what we got.
Thanksgiving Break was pretty good this year. It was great seeing my family again. I got to finish reading the new Terry Goodkind book and begin another Stephen King book. I always got to watch the end of season 3 of Deadwood. I also undertook a major cleaning project here in Starkville. It took a lot a work, but I’m glad that I did it. I’m hoping that it can remain this clean…for a while at least. I wish I didn’t have to go back to work tomorrow.
What did we do before DVRs? I’m so glad that we have DVRs now. I had heard people say that it changes the way you watch TV, but it really does. Say I’m watching a show like Heroes or LOST and they give you a brief glimpse of something mysterious and important. I can rewind it and watch that part over and over again even if I’m watching it live. I can actually pause and go to bathroom or to get something to eat and not worry about missing anything.
I hardly ever watch anything live. I’m usually watch shows a day or two after they are recorded. It’s good being able to skip through commercials. Who wants to sit through commercials? Sometimes I’ll wait until a show has already been on for a while before I start watching just to I can skip the commercials.
I don’t have to try to in front of the TV at certain times anymore. If I want to record something. I no longer have to worry about making sure that the VCR, TV, and DirecTV receiver are on the proper channel. I don’t have to worry about setting the proper time and channel. It was a big pain and I have up on trying to do all that. It’s all so easy now. I can record new episodes of shows that I like to watch or record reruns of old shows (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Press Your Luck, Tales from the Crypt, 227) just for nostalgia. I think one of these days I’m going to tell it to record 6 hours straight off one of these cable channels I’m interested in trying out.
The biggest problem I have is that both DVRs are about full. I guess we need to start watching stuff or burning them to DVDs. I’m not ready to start deleting unwatched stuff just yet.
I watched the premiere of The Office when it first came on a couple of years ago, but I didn’t watch it after that. Over the summer I started watching it again. Thanks to Netflix’s Watch Now feature, I was able to watch season 1 and 2 online without having to wait for the DVDs to get here. When season 3 came out, I rented them and was able to get caught up before the season 4 premiere Thursday night.
I’m glad that I started watching it. I need to watch more funny shows. I can see why it’s become such a popular show. I find myself laughing out loud during almost every episode. I can relate to working in an office setting. I think that is also one of the reasons that I like Office Space so much. The Michael character is a little too over-the-top for me at times, but he does create a lot of those laugh out loud moments. My favorite character on the show would probably have to be Pam. She’s probably the most like me, personality-wise at least. Some of the extra-long episodes dragged on a little bit, but they were still great. Now I have added another show to watch every week.
Today is the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which is one of my favorite shows of all time. If my memory is correct, I watched the first season, skipped the second season, and came back during the third season. I think I caught reruns of all the second season episodes while the show was still on the air. Thanks to my friend, John, I have the collection of all 7 seasons on DVD. The nerd in me wants to celebrate by watching something TNG-related, but if I do it won’t be anything from the first season. The first season was really bad.
I think my mom was the one who got me interested in Star Trek. She would’ve been in high school when the original series debuted. When I was still in college and went home to visit, after she would go to bed sometimes I would hear The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and probably Voyager reruns playing on her TV. Even I didn’t watch Deep Space Nine reruns back then (I do now). She doesn’t wear it anymore, but every once in a while she would wear her Star Trek: The Next Generation t-shirt. Go mom!
I have started watching another show that I missed out on: Friday Night Lights. It’s another one of those critically acclaimed shows that not enough people are watching. I had heard a lot of positive things about it, but I never got into it. I wasn’t a big fan of the movie and I’m not into football as much as I used to be. And besides, I had a ton of other new shows I was watching last fall. It wasn’t until a week or two before the DVDs came out that I finally decided to watch the show.
I started watching it last week and now I am hooked. This may be a cliché, but FNL show isn’t just about the football. I’m finding myself getting really emotionally involved in every episode (I’m a softie). I blew through 3 discs on Friday and Saturday and now I’m waiting for Netflix to send me the last disc. I heard somewhere that if you buy season 1, NBC is offering a money back guarantee if you don’t like it, but I don’t know that for sure. I don’t think a lot of people that see it will want their money back. I hope that now that the DVDs are out FNL’s audience increases and it can get enough support to stay around for a while.
John and I recently finished out second play through of Gladius. I wrote a lot about it after we finished it the first time. I liked the game a lot more this time around than I did the first. Although we spent more hours on it, it seemed like we went through those hours much faster. We played through a different character’s story, but I don’t think that’s made much of a difference. It’s definitely worth playing if you like strategy RPGs. I wish they would make a sequel.
I’ve really been enjoying listening to a CD set by Pearl Jam called Live at the Gorge 05/06. I love Pearl Jam and they are a great live band, so I knew I had to have it. It’s 7 CDs long and is a recording of 3 concerts they did at the Gorge Amphitheatre in September 2005 and July 2006. I think that these shows were bookends on all the touring they did from 2005 to 2006. Since I bought the set from the Ten Club’s website, I got a limited edition postcard set.
I’m always worried about giving too much away, so I’m not going to say much about Stardust. We went to see it over the weekend and I had lots of fun. Michelle Pfeifer looks pretty good for her age. Witches, magic, action, adventure, special effects, humor, and a gay pirate are all so much fun. I think I want to see it again.
Lately, I’ve been watching:
I really have one this time. Actually, we have 2 DVRs that we can use and we got one of them for free. It’s the best solution for now. So far everything is working well. I’m glad that I can conveniently record TV shows. If I miss a show, I won’t have to get them on iTunes or wait for them to come out on DVD or …
I’m currently recording 6 shows each week and when the new season starts that number will probably double. I hope I can find the time to watch it all. I should go ahead and buy a spindle of blank DVDs and block out my Christmas holiday.
I finished watching season 2 of Dead Like Me. Dead Like Me was a Showtime series about George Lass, an 18-year-old girl who dies and is selected to become a grim reaper. The reapers take the souls of people and guide them to the afterlife. It deals with life and death issues, so it can be a little morbid at times. Everybody seems to be depressed about something at some point. However, I think it has enough lighter moments to balance it out and I really enjoyed watching it.
I think I liked the first season slightly more than the second, but they are both really good. Recently it was announced that they are making a movie based on the show. Awesome!
The 10th Wonder Podcast is one of my favorite podcasts. It’s devoted to the show Heroes. The podcast is produced by Mississippi State University students. I first found out about it in MSU’s student newspaper, The Reflector.
Recently, they put out an open call for contributors for the website who would write about all the latest Heroes news. I offered to be one and some of the stuff that I’ve written has started to show up on the site. Check out the site and the podcast.
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