Tag: Television

The other day I ran across a story about the upcoming final season of Battlestar Galactica. It’s still not starting until early next year. However, there will be a special two-hour episode airing on November 24.

Linkblogging alert: Bourdain on Food Network’s new low.

(Oh, how I wanted to use <blink> on that red text.)

This evening, I bought the current season of Battlestar Galactica from iTunes. It’s a show that I’ve been wanting to watch for the last two years. I’d seen an episode here and there, but I just can’t bring myself to regularly sit down in front of the TV on a Friday night.

I’ve been reading great things about the current season. Fortunately, I don’t have access to cable television, so watching it on Friday nights is no longer even an option. So I bought the season pass, downloaded the three episodes that have already been released (I’m going to need another external drive pretty soon), and watched all of them. Marvelous. Great writing, top-notch graphics, believable acting, and it even makes you think a little.

Then I saw that Steve Gillmor wrote a post along the lines of, but much better than, my post from last Wednesday.

TV is dead because of the Internet. TV is dead because we don’t have time for it. TV is dead because the computer lives. TV is dead because of the stupid blogosphere, the so-called “new” medium of podcasting, TiVo, RSS, and HDTV. TV is dead because TV now sucks more than all of the previous.

That guy is on fire lately.

By the way, check out the Scobleshow vid that Steve mentions, but doesn’t link to. It’s quite an eye-opener.

Steve, I agree with you about a lot of things being dead. But links aren’t one of them.

If you suspected that the chefs in Iron Chef America knew what the secret ingredient was going to be prior to taping the show, you were correct. Kind of. MSNBC gives us a look behind the scenes. (via Slashfood)

The other night, while channel-surfing (something I don’t do very often), I stumbled onto an episode of the American Experience about John and Abigail Adams. I don’t recall learning much about John Adams in school. Most of the emphasis was on Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin. I think I learned more about Adams from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Franklin than I had in school. Actually, I learned about Franklin’s very negative opinion of Adams. This program portrayed Adams as a loving, radical, brilliant man who found himself in many very difficult situations. Highly recommended.

About the iTunes/ABC deal, Mark Cuban wrote:

It is a business marvel. Bob Iger has gone contrary to what every current and previous TV network head has and would have done had Bob not turned the industry on its head with his announcement with Apple yesterday. Bob Iger has saved Network TV.

I think Mark is right. There are four major reasons that I don’t watch much TV (other than sports or sometimes PBS):

1. The few shows that I might be interested in aren’t on when I’m home.
2. I hate commercials. Just ask Jenn.
3. I spend a lot more time on my computer than in front of the television. I might watch more television programming if it were available on my computer.
4. I think most television programming is bad.

Yes, reasons 1 and 2 can be solved by a digital video recorder. But reason 4 means that I don’t watch enough TV to make buying a DVR worth the money. And it doesn’t solve the portability problem.

I like distribution of programming via iTunes better, because it’s also portable. Now they just need to make shows I’m interested in available. Battlestar Galactica would be a good start.