Mourning the Fallen: Life (NBC)

6 Episodes Pending, 0 to Record (Canceled)

It's very sad when a show you enjoy gets canceled.  Unfortunately, that is the nature of television and the burden of every TV fan.  I knew Life was in limbo when the new season started on NBC last fall.  Like many shows scarred by the writer's strike last year (wow, that was last year?), the show lost its momentum when it returned in the fall.  Unlike many other cop shows (which I typically do not follow), the show was more character-driven and the main character, played by the always-game Damien Lewis, had his own personal mystery to resolved.

If you're not familiar with the show, Lewis plays Charlie Crews, a fruit-loving cop that was wrongfully accused of murder and was sentenced to life in prison.  While in prison, new evidence absolved him and he got a hefty settlement from the LAPD along with his old job.  The show was great, and the first season had a first-rate supporting cast.  Sarah Shahi plays Dani Reese, his parter (who battles demons of her own).  Adam Arkin plays his friend Ted Early (an ex-con he met in prison).  Finally, the first season featured the talented Robin Weigert (who was excellent as Calamity Jane on Deadwood - another show that ended too soon).  Anyways, it was an exciting show with clever mysteries solved each week, all while Charlie figured out who framed him for murder and tried to piece his life together.

I don't know about other people, but I get very discouraged from watching episodes of canceled shows.  I had an entire season of Dirty Sexy Money sitting on my DVR for months before I realized I did not want to invest any more time to a show that was not getting resolved.  For me, a show has to be excellent for me to want to submit myself to additional episodes knowing the show is canceled.  Life, however, is another matter.  I still have 6 episodes left to watch of the great show.  I just hope it has a satisfying ending (although I'm not keeping my hopes up).  I just want Charlie to have a happily-ever-after ending and for him to solve the mystery.  For now, the DVR has somehow kept the show alive for longer than NBC ever wanted.  Either way, I'll be sad when the show is over and completely deleted from my DVR. 

DVR Priority Status: 6 episodes left from the show's final season (sniff, sniff!).  

Available Space: 40hr 37min

Show Status: Nature's Most Amazing Events (Discovery Channel)

6 Episodes Recorded, 4 Pending, 0 to Record

It's interesting that this is the second Discovery Channel show in a row that I review, but that is the nature of the summer season.  When all serial shows take a break, I indulge in nature, history, and travel shows to pass the time.  Two years ago, I absolutely fell in love with Planet Earth and I was eagerly looking forward to some sort of a sequel.  Nature's Most Amazing Events fits the bill and it is a beautiful show with amazing footage.  The show takes some of the most spectacular events that were highlighted on Planet Earth and covers them in more detail.  Last night, I watched the show's second episode about Grizzly Wilderness.  It followed the great salmon run in the Pacific North West.  I loved the footage of the bears trying to grab a fish from the bottom of a river using their feet.  It almost looked like the bears were dancing in the water.  It was very funny.  Well, that was my late-night viewing last night and it is one less hour off my DVR.  The show is now on repeat viewings on the Discovery Channel and is highly recommended for nature show lovers out there. 

On a tangent: I love nature shows and the BBC Natural History shows (that usually show up here on the Discovery Channel) are some of the best.  Earlier this year, I really wanted to see Earth (the movie), but never got around to it.  I'm a bit tired of seeing films about Polar Bears dying in the Arctic at this point, but I'm game for anything else.  Global Warming is very sad, and I can only hope that we can revert it before it gets catastrophic for our planet.  

DVR Priority Status: Already recorded the 6 episodes, so it is no longer on my recording list.  I now have 4 episodes to watch.  

Available Space: 33hr 51min

Show Status: Out of Egypt (Discovery Channel)

2 Episodes Recorded, 2 Pending, 0 to Record

It usually takes me a while to learn about new shows unless they're highly publicized network/cable events. Recently, while reading one of the newer issues of Entertainment Weekly, I skimmed through Clark Collis's guide to the week in television. Collis provides excellent, witty commentary on some of television's more overlooked shows. That particular issue was a two-part issue (probably the Fall Movie Preview). One show caught my eye with the following listing:

9-11PM
Discovery, TV-PG
Series Debut
Out of Egypt
This new history show is fronted by Lost Egyptology expert Kara Cooney. What do you mean, you didn't know Lost had an Egyptology expert? All the cool shows do these days.

Like most history geeks out there, I thought this show sounded pretty cool. It wasn't only the appeal of watching a show about Egyptology, but knowing that the expert worked on Lost. Not remembering the actual name of the show, I browsed through days and days of Discovery Channel listings until I found it and added it to the bottom of my DVR queue. It premiered last Monday with two episodes (for whatever reason numbers 3 and 4). On Tuesday, I opened my DVR list and there it was starring back at me. Having spent Tuesday & Wednesday on a soap opera marathon with my wife (with the added bonus of finally watching the Project Runway All-Star Challenge and elmininating an extra two hours from my DVR), I finally decided to tackle it this morning.

Overall, I thought it was an egaging show. I've only watched about half an hour of the total running time (approximately 40 minutes without commercials) of the first episode. In the show, Cooney travelled to ancient Egypt, Italy, Peru, Israel, and Sri Lanka to discuss relics and mummies. It has good production values and she amazingly is provided access into some cool places and archeological sites due to her academic profile(she works for UCLA). In Egypt, she was present during the opening of a crypt filled with animal mummies. I knew that Egyptians preserved animal mummies, but I had no idea it was to send their messages to the gods. It was very interesting and I'm excited to finally finish the episode tonight and delete the one hour out of my queue.

DVR Priority Status: Currently 49/52, but I will keep it on my queue

Update: I finished the episode. Mission accomplished! One hour deleted from the DVR.

Available Space: 37hr 24min

My 10 Rules of Thumb for Taming the DVR

When I first got my new DVR, I was unemployed and pretty much everything interesting under the sun was being recorded. I said goodbye to live TV and hello to skipping (most) commercials. I was recording classic movies on TCM, old episodes of Passport to Europe on the Travel Channel, and even the news on CNN. Yes, even the news that pretty much repeats itself every 30 minutes on a 24 hour news network was getting recorded. I think my DVD started with over 200 hours of available recording time. During the first two weeks the DVR was recording 24/7 and after 100 hours recorded I realized it was not sustainable. The fall 2008 TV season was quickly approaching and I had to make room for my favorite TV shows. Thus, I developed 10 rules of thumb that I try to adhere to when deciding whether to record a show.
1. There's no point in recording movies playing on television. Sure, watching the occasional movie on TV is fun, but with Netflix, you can rent most of them whenever you want. There’s no need to waste valuable real estate on your DVR.

2. Certain things should never be recorded. News is one of those things. There's no point in recording news on television, unless there it is a special event. However, if it’s that special you’re probably watching it live anyways. News repeats itself on over 5 different networks and by the time you get around to it, the story has probably already developed. This does not apply to satirical news shows (ie. The Daily Show, Colbert Report - those are always funny).

3. Shows that are on daily (talk shows, for example) should be capped at a maximum number. If you really love late night television, for example, and don't have the energy to stay up to watch it, odds are you won't be able to watch every episode (unless you're obsessed) anyways. I like to keep my episodes capped at 3-4 episodes at a time. I'm never going to watch more than 3 episodes in one sitting, and if I do, there will be another one recorded later that day anyways. I'm not going to die if I miss one episode.

4. When prioritizing TV shows you love, stick to the ones that will contain spoilers. Those will probably the shows you decided to watch first anyways. There are always a few favorite shows that will dominate your viewing schedule, but you’ll probably always make room for shows whose plots spill over into the entertainment news cycle. This includes most serial dramas (Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, etc…) and reality competition shows (Survivor, Dancing With the Stars, Project Runway, etc…).

5. Be wary of those cutoff times, especially with live shows. You’ll probably realize this through experience, but some shows don’t end exactly at the hour mark. Locally here in Boston, I find that my ABC feed is always one-two minutes off. This has led to some very frustrating situations where major plot twists or announcements occur at the end of an episode. Luckily, most of the shows I watch on ABC start one after the other (last year it was Dancing With the Stars, followed by Samantha Who?, followed by Boston Legal). However, sometimes they don’t and I have to make sure the DVR records an extra few minutes (I usually cap this at 5 minutes). I have also found that on certain international networks, time slots are mere suggestions. Make sure that you give yourself at least 30 minutes on either end of the listed hours for episodes on those channels.

6. Keep an eye out for repeated viewings of the same show. I love cable, and one of the main reasons for this is that while their shows premiere on prime time, they usually repeat throughout the week. When prioritizing your DVR recording list, make sure to put cable shows below network shows in the same time slot. Odds are that episode of Dexter that is conflicting with your viewing of Desperate Housewives and Family Guy will be repeated that night or later in the week.

7. There’s no reason for recording sports unless you’re completely obsessed. This is especially true with baseball. If you miss a game, calm down, there’ll be another one tomorrow. Plus, you’ll probably already know the score before you finish watching the game anyways. I realized that I live in a Red Sox town, but honestly, if you’re really serious about your DVR, you’re probably not using it to watch sports. The only justification for recording sports, in my mind, is during football season, and that’s only because you never know when it’s going to end up pushing your favorite show into overtime (CBS on Sundays is notorious for this).

8. Stick to recording shows you are most likely to watch in the near future. When a show sits on your DVR for weeks, ever-expanding with new recorded episodes, you will experience anxiety. Reduce your anxiety by cutting the chord early on. The longer they sit there…waiting…the greater the odds they will be deleted anyways. Trust me, there’s no room for “maybe I’ll watch it later.”

9. If you don’t record a show during the regular season, which can get tricky with conflicting time slots and lack of room on your DVR, don’t panic. Odds are that same show will be on DVD by the next season. Reduce your anxiety and just plan to watch it on DVD, whenever you get to it. Odds are you won’t watch it as soon as it comes out, but I’ve found the summer glut to be a great time to rent DVDs of the shows you had to pass on during the regular season.

10. Unless you live alone, repeat after me: I DO NOT OWN THE DVR. Sure, usually one person in the household controls the DVR and probably hogs the remote as well. Be kind to your loved ones. They want to watch TV too. Ask them about the shows they want recorded. If they don’t watch it within 6 months, you can probably delete it since they probably forgot about it, but you should asks first…especially if that person is your significant other. If you’re the one that hogs the TV most of the time, you should try and work around the other person’s TV schedule. Hopefully you enjoy the same programs. If you don’t, try and learn. TV can be an isolating experience, so it’s always more enriching to experience it with others.

I’m sure there are other rules out there. If you know of any, let me know in the comments.

Why do this?

Like many people out there, I have come to the conclusion that while the magical box that sits atop my DVD player has allowed me to watch more television than I ever could in the past, it has also led to increased anxiety whenever the number of recording hours available on the DVR gets closer to zero. I have now vowed to attempt what seems impossible - to actually watch what's on it or delete it.

I have a high-capacity DVR box, courtesy of DISH Network, and at $5 a month it's worth the investment. It has now been with the family for about a year and as the new Fall television season starts, I am trying to figure out what is going to happen with my recording list and which shows will have to be sacrificed to conserve space. The idea behind the blog is to share my thought process as I try to stick to a realistic and functioning television viewing schedule. Last year, shows came, were recorded, and deleted. Some, without me even watching them. This year, I am vowing to stick to the shows I ACTUALLY want to watch this season. I have decided then to share my thought process with others. I will also regularly keep you up-to-date with thoughts on my favorite shows. Hopefully I'll be able to impart wisdom on other people, and (hopefully) get some tips from others.

If you have any ideas, let me know. Until then, keep watching.