The TV thread

Watched the AFI tribute to Mel Brooks on TNT last night. Probably the first thing my parents and I found equally funny were his movies. I remember thinking as a kid - wait, you like Mel Brooks too?

 

I can't stress how much I've looked forward to Sunday nights because of Nurse Jackie. I'd given up the show a while ago when it got to be too much but got back into this season. Jackie is a lot more interesting as a recovering addict who got caught than she was when she was getting away with everything.

Even Zoe is a lot more interesting and a lot more with it than her previous "woman who grew up in a bubble" persona.

 

I'm hooked on Ultimate Survival Alaska (and Life Below Zero, for that matter) but National Geographic Channel pisses me off.

The premise of Ulitmate Survival is eight guys are dropped in at one spot and they've got X hours to make to the pick-up spot. Don't make it, you're out of the trip. Each week, they play up "will so-and-so make it in time!?!" The problem is, they run promos for next week's episode in the current one. So they spoil the drama, because you see the guys are there in the next leg.

 

I know it's a weird thing to notice but I really wish TNT would change their "clock" for their shows. A typical TNT show will reach it's peak moment at the 51 minute mark, break for commercials and come back with four minutes or show to show what happened (did the gun go off, the killer reveal) and the explanation about how it all went down followed by a button on the end (usually the culmination of a dippy subplot). It must drive the writers nuts.

 

Was he surrounded by assholes?

 

No, no, noooo, no.

Anyone else notice that ad breaks on TV shows on the web seem to be nearing the same length of regular TV?

 

Which service? Hulu blows for that, and it's awkward because my adblock won't let Hulu show the ad, so it's just three-plus minutes of silence. CBS's ads get skipped properly. I think Amazon may be the same.

 

Hulu, the networks. I can deal with a minute, but two minutes? Three? Really noticed it catching up with The Daily Show. Used to be able to get through it in 22 minutes or so, now I may as well DVR it.

 

I record anything I plan to watch (except HBO because of HBO On Demand) that's on live TV. It's tough to find places that smoothly stream HD movies or have clean downloads (in which case you're breaking the law anyway). And the fast forwarding on a DVR tacks on maybe one full extra minute to an hour-long show.

Plus Tivo has an insane, unfillable amount of room.

 

Do you use adblocker, Dan? I don't get any ads when I watch TDS on my computer. Like Versatile, they're most annoying for me on Hulu.

 

Yeah, I' haven't watched full TV shows on Comedy Central in a while, but I don't recall ads popping up before clips on that site. Get yourself an adblocker like it's 2010.

 

I'm noticing that there are more TV ads in front of a movie when I go to the theater. Fuck that noise. I didn't pay to see more ads. Trailers? Of course. Ads? Fuck no.

Going to the movie a bit early is a fun time to kid around, speculate on what you're about to see, and stew in anticipation. I still do that, and so do others, but now we have to shout over the TV ads.