[lbo-talk] TV without TiVo (in which lbo-talk defends 'the sopranos')

DSR debburz at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 6 12:00:42 PDT 2004


--- Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:


> The mystery is that a lot of people (some of whom have long work
> hours and children) appear to have time to watch TV shows
> regularly.

Huh? What's with the comment about "some of whom have long work hours and children"? What's the assumption here? That people who work long hours and have children

a) don't have regular schedules or routines; b) do not have any leisure time at all or should use their leisure time in some other way (because they obviously don't know what is best for themselves); c) never crash from exhaustion and give in to guilty pleasures.

Geez!

I don't see the "mystery." This is not complicated, folks. If you hear by word of mouth, advertising or whatever that such and such is a good show, and you know it comes on at such and such a time every week, then all you have to do is tune in for 30 or 60 minutes and watch. Period. You can tape it, TiVo it (and that's another cash expenditure), pick it up on one of the many repeats or, eventually, rent it. Or, if you're *really* lazy and just want content info so that you can talk about it at the water cooler or understand the references someone is making, you can avail yourself of any number of "spoiler" sites on the net that have complete episode plot lines.


> Regardless of artistic excellence (or lack thereof) of the content
> of
> a particular show, watching TV, with all the commercials that come
> with it, takes too much time for me. Is it that everyone has a
> TiVo now, fast-forwarding through commercials, and I'm the only one
here who doesn't???

You're not alone. Our household is TiVo-less and we rarely watch broadcast (according to the ads, I am a fat slob with a ratty car who doesn't know good food or how to dress myself - blech).

But again, I have to plug some of the documentaries that are showing up on cable, tucked in between the Sopranos and Six Feet Under, etc.

"Chernobyl Heart" and "Death in Gaza" are still running on HBO this month. Both are critically acclaimed, independant (?) docs regarding significant events that most leftists, I would think, would find compelling and informative. "Southern Comfort" (re the denial of medical services to a F to M transgender with ovarian cancer) may be returning for an encore in light of news that a feature film dramatizing the story of the documentary is in the works with Sissy Spacek and Alan Cummings.

- Deborah R.

===== "If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses." - Lenny Bruce



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