Have you seen any GOOD TV lately? (2012)

[oz]

Have you seen any GOOD TV lately?

The wife and I were watching TV the other night and commenting about all the commercials that we were experiencing as we watched, and the high count of commercial gaps being dropped into each of those shows. We decided to count them during the next commercial segment and we counted 15 commercials in a row. This wasn't the gap between two different TV shows, but just one of the many commercial gaps during the show that we were watching at the time.

That kind of constant and prolonged interruption makes any good TV that you might find very frustrating, so I'm thinking that may be why so many viewers are switching to the cable and satellite TV produced shows, or watching their favorite TV shows streamed on Netflix and Vudu rather than watching them on the standard broadcasting networks.

That rant out of the way... I've been enjoying Dexter (shown on Showtime) for the last 6 years and another new season is on the way this fall.

Can't get the wife to watch that one with me, though!

[jayd512]

Commercial count may vary...
But there are usually 15 minutes of commercials for every hour of programming.
That's a lot of advertising!

[Cabhan]

The award winning "Raising Hope". From the creators of "My name is Earl", which I also like a lot but has been canceled.

I've been watching Raising Hope as well. I really like how (for once) they portray a poor family as actually a happy loving family. And the characters are lots of fun too. I'm hoping that the main character romance works out.

[oz]

Flashpoint, now being shown on the Ion network is a good TV series worthy of watching:

Flashpoint (TV Series 2008-????) - IMDb

Note that most of it would probably be too stressful and intense for small children.

[Rubberman]

One of the reasons why I subscribe to a premium usenet service is that I can get the TV series I want, without all of the blinking ads! There aren't many - most are pure dren. If the producers that made these shows available otherwise at some reasonable price, I would be HAPPY to pay them! I need to download them off-hours, and sometimes don't watch them for weeks, or even months when I am busy. User convenience is important - a lesson that few (besides perhaps Netflix) have learned. However, I don't use devices that Netflix works with, so that is not an option. If they don't support Linux directly, I am not a customer...

[atreyu]

The wife and I were watching TV the other night and commenting about all the commercials that we were experiencing as we watched, and the high count of commercial gaps being dropped into each of those shows. We decided to count them during the next commercial segment and we counted 15 commercials in a row. This wasn't the gap between two different TV shows, but just one of the many commercial gaps during the show that we were watching at the time.

That kind of constant and prolonged interruption makes any good TV that you might find very frustrating, so I'm thinking that may be why so many viewers are switching to the cable and satellite TV produced shows, or watching their favorite TV shows streamed on Netflix and Vudu rather than watching them on the standard broadcasting networks.

Dear Lord, fifteen? That is ghastly. Did you measure the increase in the decibel level of the commercials compared to the regular program, too? Evidently, we get temporarily hard of hearing when it is time to pay the bills.

Commercials are the number one reason why I don't watch live TV (the two exceptions that come to mind are watching the ball drop on NYE and watching sports). My friend got me a TiVo as a wedding gift, and even my wife (now) agrees that it was one of the gems of the haul.

[oz]

Did you measure the increase in the decibel level of the commercials compared to the regular program, too? Evidently, we get temporarily hard of hearing when it is time to pay the bills.

Oh yeah, I hate when that happens. I've gotten to where I mute the volume during commercials rather than turn it down.

[Rubberman]

Oh yeah, I hate when that happens. I've gotten to where I mute the volume during commercials rather than turn it down.

In grad school, some of our physics/engineering mates invented a little doohickey that would detect the rise in volume associated by the commercials, and mute or turn down the tv's sound, then when the commercial was over, it would turn it back up again. Too bad they didn't patent it!

[jayd512]

Oh yeah, I hate when that happens. I've gotten to where I mute the volume during commercials rather than turn it down.

I do the same thing most of the time.

[oz]

I do the same thing most of the time.

I wish our TVs had a gizmo that would totally auto-mute the volume each time they jacked the volume up during commercials. I'll bet the advertisers would then be quickly scrambling to make sure the volume never budges during commercial breaks. Of course, to work properly, the auto-mute would need to automatically disable itself once the regular show came back on.