Tuesday, April 14, 2009

758th Post - Who Has the Time?

Are you like me, and you want to appearable knowledgeable of things, when in fact you are not? This insecurity on my part extends to things like sports and cars, and sporty cars, as well as cars driven by sports people.

As well, it extends to tv shows.

I have the best of intentions. I have analog cable hooked up to four televisions in my home. I have a digital cable terminal hooked up to a fifth tv. I have, what, 10 movie channels, beaming in commercial-free content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition, I have video on demand for these channels. With the press of a couple of buttons, I can watch a subset of the content of these channels.

I also have many non-digital channels that I can watch whenever I want.

But who has the friggin' time?

My gosh, I work five days a week. Come the weekend, I am running the roads, trying to loosen my load, sometimes with in excess of 7 women on my mind. Patricia, my mother, my sisters, and three or four others who come out of the ether and who act as utility players on an as-needed basis. You understand. I'm a busy fella.

There are tv shows that I enjoy very much, and I make every reasonable effort to watch them. I adore the Jack Bauer Show, a.k.a. "24", a.k.a. "The Jack Bauer Razzle Dazzle Comedy Revue". I used to watch "Lost", but the show got away from me last Spring, and I haven't been able to get caught up on it. We both watch "Supernatural", and find it has gotten better and better over the years. There are others. "Dancing with the Stars" is a guilty pleasure. The women are practically nekkid on that show. Nekkid, I tell you.

There are shows that are on week after week that I don't follow, but many of my friends and colleagues do. How do I discuss a program I don't watch? What to do? What to do?

Why, it's obvious!

Look online to various websites that provide show recaps. These blogs/message boards/whatever are designed more to discuss shows with people who have already seen them, to point out things that viewers may have missed. That sort of thing. But they can also be used to provide a summary to people like me who don't have time to watch the show, but want to keep up-to-date on it.

"But, Bev", you wail, "I don't know what any of those websites are. Can you help me out and tell me what a few of them are?"

Of course I will. I am glad to.

The granddaddy of all show recap websites has gotta be "Television Without Pity". It is all about recaps for nearly every show you watch, guaranteed. One writer who produced recaps for "Alias" a few years ago was actually asked to provide an audio commentary for an episode of that show when it was released to dvd, season three I think. That commentary is hysterically funny.

There are other such websites. Every Tuesday during my lunch hour I have to read the recaps of "The Jack Bauer Show" that appear on the Entertainment Weekly website, the TV Guide website, and the Zap2it website. The latter website has its recaps in the "It Happened Last Night" link.

They all provide interesting insights into my favourite shows, and point out things I might have missed otherwise. Other times, they point out things I had already noticed, like Tony Almeida's reaction to the news that Kim Bauer had been found and was about to see her dad. His reaction was interesting to say the least, and may shed some light on the closing moments of the show last night. If you have seen this week's episode of "The Jack Bauer Show", you'll know what I mean.

Now, you, too, can appear knowledgeable about tv shows you haven't seen.

You're welcome. You know I love you, don't you?

Bevboy

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