Extant - the new Steven Spielberg series is excellent, I love it, but it’s not the topic of this post, it’s merely a prime example or a casualty in a battle I am waging on the cable companies. As someone who watches a lot of TV, It’s important to have a number of places where I can watch. People often ask me: “do you really watch all the shows you review?” and “where do you find the time?” Well I’ll tell you! And then we will get to the meat of what I want to address today.
I have a full time job and I have full time kids and a full
time husband (is there a word for more than full time?) and yet I still find
the time to 1 – I love TV. Period. I would take TV over movies any day!
And …
2 – I try to watch and review so that those of you who can't make time for all the shows make time for the ones you think you will like. I am trying to maximize your enjoyment of TV too!
This is where I get back to Extant…In order to keep up with my busy life and keep up my TV viewing and blogging I need to have a system and the system needs to be reliable! I have some shows recording on the PVR in the bedroom and some on the PVR in the living room. Some shows are recording on time shift to catch them earlier or and some are recording on time shift to catch them later and some are recording simultaneously at times that I know I won't need to watch live TV…It’s a delicate grid people…very delicate. It’s in Excel and posted on my fridge with highlighter and colour codes…it’s a science…nay! An art!
So when I get into bed the other night and turn on Extant and I see “scenes from last week” that should be a recap but in fact I have not seen them before? I lose it! Come on cable companies, we have put a man on the moon but when I select “record all new events” you can't figure out how to record a show if it is an unprecedented 2 hour episode? Come on! This makes me want to jump on the bandwagon with the conspiracy theorists that the moon landing never happened! How could it have if my PVR can't even figure out how to not skip the first hour of a 2 hour show that said “record ALL NEW EPISODES”? Impossible!
In adding insult to injury, today I see a post on TvLine.com with the Headline “Good Wife, Bad Time Slot: CBS Tweaks Alert System for Sunday Delays” http://tvline.com/2014/09/09/the-good-wife-football-delays-cbs-eye-lert-system/ and I am immediately in a bit of a rage. To set the stage, I am one of the honest people that pays for music when I download it. I believe whole-heartedly that some artists create great music and I am more than happy to spend my money to purchase a good song that makes me do a little dance or puts a smile on my face. I feel the same way about TV. I want studios to make great shows! I want producers, directors, writers and actors to make money for providing me with such fabulous entertainment. Especially after dabbling in acting myself, I know I appreciate the paycheck after what can sometimes be long hours. BUT…and you knew one was coming…I get so frustrated with the networks and the way they move things around without giving it a second thought. I want to watch, I want your sponsors to get their money and have everyone get paid…but you have to deliver the goods on your end too!
So when
I read that CBS wants me to
download an app so that I get an
alert that my show is running late because of Football so that I can
update my PVR - I have to say why? Why in
this age of modern technology can we not just bump the show and have the PVR
know that? If the Football game ran 32 minutes longer than it should have– BAM –
a signal is sent to the digital box and all shows on that channel and their
recordings are also bumped back by 32 minutes. Easy. Done. When Bachelor Pad runs an episode on
Monday night and ALSO one on Tuesday – BAM – a signal goes to my PVR to record
it if I am already recording the one on Monday. It’s not rocket science people…but
it is the reason people download. 
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