Gotta Love Cable...

[Angel4576]

I love my DVR. Before getting it, I was one of those people that said, "there's nothing on TV." Between work, the gym, and some mock semblance of a social life, all that was on when I was home were infomercials and reality shows. Now, I watch pretty much every current drama I have an interest in, old movies, and old TV shows, some of which are not available on DVD. For me, the DVR made Cable worth having again.

We're almost entirely the other way.

Gave up the DVR a few years ago and never missed it.

95% of our viewing now comes off of DVDs/BDs/Downloads.

I suppose ultimately though, we achieve the same result. We watch exactly what we want, whenever we want to.

 

[doubleohfive]

I don't watch much current television, aside from My Little Pony. There just isn't much content that appeals to me. If it's not a reality show about people being suckered into selling something cheap, or how huge someone's tits are, it's a show where someone is getting murdered/raped/assaulted/defrauded in one form or another, and I'm just not into any of that.

Oh, that's ridiculous. There's plenty of great, original TV on today

I tend to agree. You just have to find it.

 

[PsychoPere]

Oh, that's ridiculous. There's plenty of great, original TV on today

I tend to agree. You just have to find it.

AMC, FX, and HBO make it pretty easy to find good TV.

 

[Amaris]

Oh, that's ridiculous. There's plenty of great, original TV on today

I tend to agree. You just have to find it.

AMC, FX, and HBO make it pretty easy to find good TV.

It's all subjective, though. What you think of as great, I may consider just more pablum. Granted, to each their own, but there's not much on cable that appeals to me anymore, hence why I've all but stopped watching.

 

[startrekwatcher]

Oh, that's ridiculous. There's plenty of great, original TV on today

I tend to agree. You just have to find it.

AMC, FX, and HBO make it pretty easy to find good TV.

I tried a few AMC shows and I was bored. If LOST took episode pacing to ADD levels AMC shows like The Killing, Rubicon and Mad Men took their pacing to the opposite extreme--talk about glacial pacing. It also doesn't help that they are all such pretentious bores. The Walking Dead is just another in what has become a string of post-apocalyptic themed shows examing just how depraved humanity can become so we get the writers doing their best to shock the viewers at what humans can do to one another.(I had my fill after BSG)--the zombies are just plot devices.

HBO--I tried Game of Thrones--it has outstanding film-calibre production and design but I simply don't care for the material--fantasy kingdoms full of incest, beasts, back stabbing, power grabs, gratuitous sex, a cast that is far too large. True Blood still astonishes me at the ratings it pulls in--I have no idea what people see in it--the only thing I can see are 'shippers and people wanting to see naked shots of hot actors/actresses--because the writing is abysmal)poorly plotted, corny, lame big bads each season, the angsty BS with Sookie/Bell etc).

 

[sojourner]

^So what the hell are you looking for in a TV show? You've ruled out pretty much everything including the old stuff.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Yes, I knew I'd forgotten something - Strike Back.

Whilst it's true that they've upped their game I suppose, Mad Dogs, Strike Back, Spy and Bedlam account for about one full season's worth of television per year?

It's a start, but more please.

I think they're looking at putting more in on a yearly basis. I think they said about upping it to a production budget of £150m a year, which puts it above any digital channel, but then Sky would be spreading it across One, Atlantic, Arts, Living, Challenge etc.

As for PVRs. I've had one since around 2002 when I bought a TiVo and I'd find it hard to be without one now. Though I have a Freesat+ Box rather than one that needs subscription. But my viewing comes from online VoD, Catch up TV, DVD, as well as the recorder.

 

[startrekwatcher]

^So what the hell are you looking for in a TV show? You've ruled out pretty much everything including the old stuff.

Good actors, characters I am invested in, serialized storylines, twists, excellent cliffhangers, linear storytelling, a moderately paced series, no more recycled stories, fresh inventive and original ideas, consistency from one episode to the next and not the wild swings in quality so pervasive nowdays, a tv show that is entertaining and doesn't feel like a pretentious academic exercise that sucks all the enjoyment out of what I'm watching.

I'm under no illusions that I'm not necessarily the demographic they are aiming at and the odds of finding something to my liking as the years go by is going to become harder and harder. I'm just so tired of angsty BS, shows that are so full of themselves, misanthropes as lead characters, the ridiculous pacing shows/films are done at, the inane remakes, the stale procedural(cop/lawyer/hospital dramas), reality dreck, bloated mythologies that never get resolved, science fiction/fantasy has been plentiful but abysmal(Invasion, Surface, Threshold, Eureka, Painkiller Jane, Warehouse 13, The Dresden Files, Flash Gordon remake, Bionic Woman remake, Knight Rider remake, Smallville, the first two seasons of ENT, SGU, SGA, Dr Who, Torchwood, Haven, Persons Unknown, The Event, the V remake, Brannon Braga's Flash Forward, Alcatraz, Grimm, Caprica), sitcoms have been absolutely terrible to name a few issues I have with modern tv programs.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

We're almost entirely the other way.

Gave up the DVR a few years ago and never missed it.

95% of our viewing now comes off of DVDs/BDs/Downloads.

Not a bad way to go at all and by viewing DVD/BD/Downloads you probably get superior picture and sound quality to TV. I used to view almost everything that way and it was fun to find whole runs of TV shows and watch from beginning to end.

I suppose ultimately though, we achieve the same result. We watch exactly what we want, whenever we want to.

If it works, it works.

 

[doubleohfive]

I tend to agree. You just have to find it.

AMC, FX, and HBO make it pretty easy to find good TV.

It's all subjective, though. What you think of as great, I may consider just more pablum.

That's swell. And if that had been all you said, I likely wouldn't have felt the need to comment on my own. But you basically generalized the entire landscape of current broadcast TV one, negative way:

If it's not a reality show about people being suckered into selling something cheap, or how huge someone's tits are, it's a show where someone is getting murdered/raped/assaulted/defrauded in one form or another,

I'm not saying there aren't shows out there that cater to all these narrow descriptions, but there are infinitely more that do not, and to dismiss them so easily is foolish. Most of the shows I love today were shows I had little interest in till a friend or girlfriend put me on to them. Doctor Who, Mad Men, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Community, 30 Rock, and more... all high quality, entertaining series. And none of which fit your closed-minded approach to what's on TV today.

...there's not much on cable that appeals to me anymore, hence why I've all but stopped watching.

Well, once you've found pony heaven, why bother looking for more?

 

[Owain Taggart]

^So what the hell are you looking for in a TV show? You've ruled out pretty much everything including the old stuff.

Good actors, characters I am invested in, serialized storylines, twists, excellent cliffhangers, linear storytelling, a moderately paced series, no more recycled stories, fresh inventive and original ideas, consistency from one episode to the next and not the wild swings in quality so pervasive nowdays, a tv show that is entertaining and doesn't feel like a pretentious academic exercise that sucks all the enjoyment out of what I'm watching.

Take a look at Being Erica if you can. One of the most inventive and fresh premises to have been on TV for quite some time, with a compelling main character played by the actress in my avatar (Erin Karpluk) with some other very interesting characters. Sounds exactly what you're looking for. It's sci-fi lite, but there's a lot to like about it, such as interesting storylines and thoughtful writing. It actually has quite a bit in common with Quantum Leap, in that she's always jumping around time, reliving her mistakes and seeing how things look with different decisions. It has elements not found anywhere else.

 

[Sakrysta]

I cancelled cable almost 10 years ago. Never looked back. And nowadays there's so much available online - for a fraction of what you'd pay for basic cable, you can get Hulu and Netflix streamed right to your internet-ready TV or, like me, a Roku or laptop hooked up to the TV. Not to mention DVDs getting cheaper by the month. Sports programming will come around eventually I assume. I have so much in my Hulu queue that I can't keep up during the regular TV season.

When I cancelled cable, I wanted to save money and spend less time watching TV. Well, I accomplished one of those goals.

 

[Amaris]

I cancelled cable almost 10 years ago. Never looked back. And nowadays there's so much available online - for a fraction of what you'd pay for basic cable, you can get Hulu and Netflix streamed right to your internet-ready TV or, like me, a Roku or laptop hooked up to the TV. Not to mention DVDs getting cheaper by the month. Sports programming will come around eventually I assume. I have so much in my Hulu queue that I can't keep up during the regular TV season.

When I cancelled cable, I wanted to save money and spend less time watching TV. Well, I accomplished one of those goals.

The Roku box is a godsend, I swear it is. I can watch so many movies and television programs, all seasons, all at once. $7 a month.

 

[23skidoo]

Cable TV works differently in different parts of the world. Here in Canada, basic cable allows you to access the US mainstream networks, and then there are various tiers that let you access specialty channels. I'd have cancelled the tiered cable a long time ago except they have us over a barrel. I'm in the media so I need to have access to CNN and the like - they're on one tier and you have to take a bunch of crap like Home and Garden channel to go with it. I'm addicted to various Discovery channel shows - it requires another tier, with more crap attached to it. And the highest tier is the one I have to pay for if I want Space channel which would allow me to see things like first-run Doctor Who.

There's actually an even higher tier where "a la carte" pricing comes into effect and you and choose to pay for even more specialized channels. But I drew the line years ago and have never gone over to that dark side.

If they ever introduced a la carte pricing (i.e. pick the channels you want) for all channels with my provider I'd be all over that. But of course they won't because they know there are certain channels no one would select and those are usually the ones the cable company is required by government and Canadian content regulations to broadcast - things like the Canadian Parliamentary channel, as well as certain channels aimed at very specific ethnic groups here in Canada that, if left to their own, wouldn't be able to generate enough "a la carte" purchases to remain viable and if that resulted in, say, a First Nations network shutting down it would become politically nasty for the cable company.

Alex