Fall TV and so on

[selenay]

It's September, that must mean that it's time for regular TV shows to start again. Woo!

This year, I'm handling it better than last year. ER and CSI never got watched because I missed their premiers and didn't know until we were four episodes in that either one had started. CSI:NY only got watched for the final five episodes for similar reasons. NCIS got watched here and there because I kept forgetting to record it. So I've gone through the list of returning shows on Zap2It and marked the premier dates for each one that I'm seriously interested in: House, NCIS, Bones, Medium, CSI and CSI:NY. That doesn't mean that I'll definitely keep all of them (I dip in and out of Bones so much that I never really get the continuing story-lines), but it's at least going to remind me that they're on and I should set up the recordings.

The other change is my recording system: I'm giving in and getting a DVR. I need the dual tuner ability, if nothing else, for when two shows that I'm watching decide to be on at the same time. Or, y'know, Tour de France collides with Wimbledon finals. My cable company's only DVR is also an HD one, so I may add on the basic HDTV package (a lot cheaper than the last time I looked at it) and take full advantage of my rather good telly. The DVR would definitely make it easier to keep up with things because last year even the briefest of power-flickers buggered up the recording on one or other of my multiple boxes with the result that I either failed to record of recorded an hour of blank.

Not to mention that I had no facility to record a series and had to set it up each time, which regularly got forgotten and usually on nights that weren't repeats.

The only scary bit will be sorting out how I plan to connect everything. I'd really prefer not to need to turn on the DVD player each time I just want to watch a bit of TV...

So, yes. I'm being better organised. This year, I'll actually watch a couple of series regularly and see all the episodes.

Having sorted out recording method and returning shows, is there anything new this fall that I should know about?

Comments

[catseatsocks.livejournal.com]

I only have three channels and can never remember when shows are on. So I miss out a lot. Oh well. I usually just get the dvd from the library and watch it all at once. I am cheap ;)

[selenay]

The DVD from the library thing is pretty cool, although watching an entire season of something in three weeks gets pretty tough and I know that other people will have it on hold so that I can't renew it. Thus I try to watch when it's on and use the library for less popular (or shorter) stuff :-)

[catseatsocks.livejournal.com]

Oh, see I can get through a dvd like that in a weekend. But, I don't have a house and I'm pretty lazy. :P

[selenay]

How much weekend TV watching gets done will depend on how busy my aunt is with her new gentleman friend. Last year, we had supper together every Saturday night and I tended to be doing chores and errands during the day, so didn't even turn on the TV. My Sundays are largely taken up with talking to family and friends, so I only get TV time for an hour or two in the evening.

If my aunt continues to be busy with her friend then I'll probably have lots of TV time on Saturday evenings :-)

[sugoll.livejournal.com]

I forget: did you already get Dollhouse?

Chuck?

Other than that, I'm drawing a blank. Myself, I missed the start of Without A Trace (but E4oD helped there), and I think I've got the start of Medium sorted.

DVRs: wonderful things. At least, they are if they know about the TV schedules, anyway. The independent one I had was rubbish in that regard, but the new one's much better. We've been mainlining Veronica Mars on daily repeat.

[selenay]

We got Dollhouse and Chuck, but I missed them due to total incompetance. How easily would you assess that I could pick them up having missed the early season(s)? It's going to be months before I can rent either from the library.

Ooh, Medium is definitely one to watch if you can get it. I want to go back and rent the first few seasons, but I did manage to get most of it last year.

I hemmed and hawed about how to do the DVR thing, but decided eventually to go for my cable company's one in hopes that it will at least be able to track the schedule. The guys are coming tomorrow to install it (having called them yesterday - v. impressed with the service) and I've got the basic HD package added seeing as the only DVR that my cable company offers is HD-compliant. Heh.

Shame there aren't any really good, spectacular sci-fi shows starting this year :-(

[sugoll.livejournal.com]

The second season of Dollhouse is still in production, I believe. And I guess season three of Chuck will have just kicked off. So not a lot to catch up on there. I'd recommend getting all of Dollhouse if you can - quite a lot of season one leaves a distinctly dodgy taste in the mouth, but I feel it's better to form one's own opinions about these things.

In contrast, Chuck's bubblegum. I'm guessing you could pretty much dive in anywhere.

Our Medium recording did indeed work, so now we're a few eps into, oh, season five (we've seen all the others).

[gmul.livejournal.com]

Dexter seems to be recommended. I have more podcasts than I can keep up with, let alone having stuff to watch...

[selenay]

Dexter is the one that I really have no interest in :-( I like having stuff to watch plus my podcasts, but then I use my watching/listening time to knit and it's nice to get a reasonable amount of knitting time in.

Of course, I'm probably going to drop a couple of my initial choices once I know how much time I really have to keep up with these things :-) It happens every year, particularly if I've got some decent UK telly to fit in as well. SJA and Merlin are definitely must watches this autumn.