New Show Alert: Glee (Fox)

Last night, I watched the premiere episode of the excellent new show, Glee (of course, watch means on my DVR, fast-forwarding through the commercials).  I had missed out on the “special preview” last winter when the show aired after American Idol, but I always heard great things about it.  I figured I would just watch it when it eventually premiered this week on Fox.  It was a fantastic episode with lots of fun moments and great music.  My wife really felt that all the actors were talented enough to be considered professional singers (which I’m sure they are).  I’m looking forward to the season, especially with the many guest stars they have lined up.  My only worry for the show is that it might get cancelled.  It always seems that critical darlings get cancelled before they hit the ground running and Fox is notoriously axe-happy with new shows.  Hopefully when the ratings figures come out, it will be safe…for now.  I’m already making room for it on my lineup.

DVR Priority Status: Currently 54/55, but it'll probably go up if there's a conflict.

Available Space: 46hr 3min

Cutting the Chord: Models of the Runway (Lifetime)

Yesterday I came to the conclusion that there is no reason for me to watch Models of the Runway, the spinoff/companion show to Lifetime’s popular Project Runway show.  When the show premiered, I always wondered why Bravo (the home network at the time) did not create a show about the models.  It seems I was not the only one, but it took a good 5 seasons before the idea materialized into a show.  Now that it’s here, I don’t really care anymore.  There is already another show that does it dramatically well (with catfights and crazy divas) – America’s Next Top Model.  At least on that show, the models actually have a say and control over their fates.  In Models of the Runway, we only follow the lives of the models as long as their corresponding designer is still on the show.  This year on Project Runway, so far the designers have been assigned their models and nowhere have we seen the dreaded and boring “pick your models” segment.  I’m sure if I watched Models, I would understand what is going on or if this is a new segment, but for now, I don’t really care.  That’s not what Project Runway is about.  For now, what I care about is that I have freed up two extra hours I can now use to save Project Runway on my DVR.

DVD Release of the Day: Heroes: Season Three

Season Three of Heroes has finally been released.  The show hasn't been great since the first season, so why do I still follow it?  Season two was up, down, and all over the place while the first part of season three seemed to completely ignore everything that had happened (and made the series great) up to that point.  It was really annoying and with my DVR filled with new shows, I was this close to cut the chord.  Still, something happened and I kept thinking...maybe it will get better.  It's not just sitting there on the DVR list - 8 episodes left for me to watch.  Supposedly the show got better during its second half.  I will give it a shot, but maybe I should consider deleting it and renting the DVD instead.  Is it too late for the DVRed episodes?

Visual Distractions

Last weekend was my 1st year wedding anniversary weekend.  My wife, knowing full well how much I love media and entertainment, treated me with an excellent gift: a shiny, new Blu-Ray player.  So, not only does the new player allow me to watch Blu-Rays, but it also plays DVDs, streams Netflix movies, and Pandora radio stations (my wife loves this one).  Since we have a Netflix account, we upgraded it to receive high definition Blu-ray discs and now we can use their nifty streaming service.  This is great, but there's a downside.  This means that my television attention time will be divided by even more options.  I already had to deal with live television, recorded shows, and DVDs.  Now, I have to contend with two more options that will dominate my television screen.  (sigh) It seems that I get further away from my goal with every new technology.