Jamie Watches TV on the Internet - A Mini-Rant

I came across this article: "Fox Starts its Web Pullback and ABC Gets Ready to Follow" via Felicia Day's twitter (@feliciaday).  Not surprising to see the creator of an awesome web series (The Guild) taking an interest in this story, and I'm so glad that she posted it to her world of twitter followers because it gives me a chance to give you all my two cents on the topic.  So here is my open letter to cable networks.  I recognize that I could probably solve some of my own problems, but what the hell is the point of a blog if not to complain to strangers.  And I'm pretty nice about it.


Dear ABC, CBS Fox, & NBC:


Despite putting some awful crap on television, you each have some shows that I find thoroughly entertaining.  There are a good half a dozen (sometimes more) that I take the effort to watch each and every week.  However, I also have a life.  Contrary to what some may think, I don't sit on my couch every night so that I do not miss my favorite shows.  Alternatively, I can't always stay up long enough to watch the shows you put on at 10.  So I greatly appreciate that within the next day or so, I can pull up your website, see all your lovely ads and pop-ups, and stream the show when I have the time to watch it.  Thanks to my friend Krystal, I can even hook the computer up to the TV and watch it as you intended.  Then I'm not behind and should I find myself on the couch the next week at the time when the show is on, I can watch it.


This 8 day wait concept is ridiculous.  If I miss one week, then have to wait 8 days, I am never going to catch up.  I'm also not going to watch the show "live" again until there is some kind of hiatus, because I'll be behind.  I'll probably start watching something on another channel.  I'll see the commercials they are showing.  All because you couldn't get it together to put my show up online right away.


I don't have a DVR/Tivo, which would be a viable solution to this problem.  But you, of all people, should love me for that.  I have to watch the commercials you put online.  And I totally don't care that they are there.  I have watched TV for most of my life with commercials, I know how to tune out the inane and I even appreciate those that are well-crafted.  So please, keep putting those ads up for me to watch, because then I know that you are getting some money for my favorite shows. 


Speaking of credit and money for my favorite shows: linked in the article above is another article talking about how the creator of Modern Family doesn't even want his show online, because his show is not getting anything out of it.  I kind of knew this was the case, but how long do you have to be so behind the times?  When are you going to get it through your heads that ratings have got to include online views and DVR?  Who are these Nielsen people?  Did they kidnap your children?  (If so, I know some great TV detectives that could help you out) I kind of doubt they did, so let's just bring it back to me for a minute, I watch a lot of TV.  A lot.  But I watch so much of it online that sports and the ABC Family Harry Potter weekends when they air the extended scenes are pretty much the only reason I have cable.  I also know that I'm not alone.  And that the population of people who watch stuff online is only going to grow.  So figure it out already.  It's not rocket science.  It's not like you aren't easily able to track views online. 


You can embrace the changes that have already occurred, much like you have been before this ridiculous pullback crap, or you can lose.  Because if I miss a show too much, especially a newer show that I'm not as attached to yet, and I can't catch up online.  I'm not going to buy DVR, I'm going to lose interest, and just cancel you altogether.  And I'm going to stop watching.  Or worse.  I'm going to watch it illegally.  I don't want to do that, but the internet is clearly smarter than you.  And if you don't put it out there, with your revenue-generating ads, then I'm going to find it without.  I don't want to do that.  And you, the network, can't complain about it that much (not the way your shows should), I mean you're not even properly counting my view in the first place.


Good luck figuring this out,


Jamie
Who remains a fan of TV, despite what you have done to it with your Bachelor and Jersey Shore bs.

Jamie loves NPR... and Twitter

It's pledge week on my local NPR station. I've made my pledge and am getting my first ever NPR tumbler in a few weeks. I find pledge week a little trying, but I try not to complain too much, because if that is what is needed for NPR to keep on keeping on, it's a small price to pay. And I don't just mean because of all the great programming and news coverage, like the great story this morning on a hotly contested city council race that I am still undecided about. I need NPR so that I don't the majority of my news from Twitter.
For entertainment news, Twitter is the best. I can keep up on just the things I want to know, like when Wil Wheaton is going to be on The Big Bang Theory, that NPH is hosting the Tony's, or how Alison Hannigan is filming a new installment of the American Pie films. I used to read a lot of Pop Sugar, but I got so sick of Britney and Lindsay's meltdowns and anything to do with anyone famous because of a reality TV show. Thankfully the only time I hear about the Kardashians (I hope I spelled that wrong) on Twitter is when they help out the No H8 campaign, and I am in favor of hearing about anyone helping there. So for pop culture info, I love my Twitter feed. And some news is okay, especially political tidbits from Nate Silver or WA Dems. But getting all my information there would, to me, be sad. So I am grateful for NPR. Watching the news on TV is out. The local news is depressing or ridiculous, and cable news is a frustrating joke. With the exception of The News Hour, national nightly news lacks the breadth I get from NPR in the morning, especially when I take a really long time to get out of bed. I skim headlines in the Seattle Times, but one more stupid editorial or endorsement (no on the $$ for metro??? Really Seattle Times? Do you hate me?) is going to push me over the edge (or maybe that last one already did). And I only use my 20 free NY Times articles for 538 and the occasional Op Ed or major news story. I guess I could pay for that, but I'd rather give the money to NPR. Partially because I think it's better, but mostly because I am a little lazy, and I am in favor of getting information while still lying in bed. Plus,if I'm half asleep it can lead to some highly unusual dreams, the story about narwhals was good for that, or mass confusion, like when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, or the time that Ke$ha was on NPR (seriously, look it up).
The only place I am coming up short with this combination of Twitter (for entertainment) and NPR (for everything important) is sports, but that's okay, there's an app for that.

Summer Hiatus - Jamie's Excuses

You may have noticed a complete and utter lack of posts this summer.  And now, Kacey is done with school for the quarter and you'd think that would mean more time and more posts.  But instead she is in an internetless teepee on a secluded island.  So what is my excuse, you ask?  I don't have anything good like an island with limited connectivity, but here is a list of what I have been doing instead of writing blog entries this summer. Think of this as a mid-summer "how I spent my summer blog-cation" type of post:

• Watching all 24 episodes of the IT Crowd.  This takes a lot of focus, especially when watching at the gym.  It is very easy to laugh so hard you lose your balance and nearly fall off the elliptical or treadmill.  Watch it, but please use caution. 
• Watching summer replacement shows.  Rizzoli & Isles being the best, but I also love The Closer and Franklin & Bash.  Wishing I was caught up on Eureka so I could be watching that as well, but it'll have to wait.
• Attempting to watch Twin Peaks with Meryl, but I don't know how far we are going to make it.  I want to know who killed Laura Palmer (without googling it), but I'm not sure how many more dancing midgets in red suits I can handle.
• Staying up way past my admittedly early bedtime for the first Pottermore clue so that I could track down the magical quill to see if I am indeed magical.  As I suspected, I am, and in a few weeks I will be perusing Pottermore during the beta period.  I can't properly express how unbelievably happy this has made me. You have a few days left to catch the remaining clues and see if you're magical. 
• Reading!  (I feel the need to emphasize that while I spend a great deal of time watching TV, it is not the only thing I do).  I re-read Harry Potter and that kicked off a reading frenzy where I read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the Midnighters series, Fire, Gift from the Sea, The Good Year, and A Great and Terrible Beauty.  Oh, and the 2nd volume of the Walking Dead and the 8th and final volume of the Buffy season 8 comic (can't wait for season 9).  So, yeah, see, I do more than just watch TV.
• Cleaning a deck with gross disgusting chemicals (I will never undo the damage I did to the environment, but it was not my decision to use them, and I am really sorry about it), staining that deck, and panting the rail on another deck.  These are quality family bonding activities and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
• Telling everyone else to be patient and quit whining because summer would eventually show up, with less and less certainty with every passing day.  This week I finally feel like I might be right.  Better late than never.  And if it sticks around Meryl says we may actually get tomatoes.
• Having my hopes raised and then crushed by the Mariners.

So that, along with an insanely busy work schedule and an uber-nerdy adventure in Florida (Leaky Con) are my excuses as to why there has been a complete lack of posts.