TV Show Addiction

After my last blog Sunny asked if we watched shows online.  Well, yes.  In the UK they have some of the same shows, but they are a year or so behind and it costs more than I am willing to pay for a dish.  So we have become addicted to watching t.v. shows online.  Slightly non-legally (video hosting sites).  Because of this we usually watch shows somewhere between 6-24 hours after a US resident does, but it's no different than if I DVR'd a show and watched it later.  Also, my addiction to a particular show that involves housewives has to be bought off of iTunes, and still I don't blink an eye.

If you only knew of the un-chic amount of t.v. we watch it would be embarassing.  Ah, what the hell do I care.  In the name of being honest, here is all the shows we watch in a week that I can come up with:

America's Next Top Model (my husband and I are both very addicted, the cattyness and over the top behavior is fantastic), Big Love, Bones, Castle (a new crime type show that stars an actor my husband has liked in other things....for the women out there he's the guy Keri Russell falls for in Waitress), Criminal Minds, Dexter, Ghost Whisperer, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy (although I am over a season behind, I just stopped caring), Supernatural, The Hills, The City, The Mentalist (omg, if you don't watch this show, look it up.  Fan-freaking-tastic), True Blood, and Cold Case.  We've also been known to have marathons of Good Eats through YouTube.  

Yes, we watch a lot of television, but we do it in small sessions (like 2-3 t.v. shows a day and that's it).  Other than that we go out and live out lovely lives.  I think if you added up the amount of time we spend on those shows each week we would still be considered odd when compared to how much the average American watches.  No Oprah (although when we got good reception for the Armed Forces network I occasionally put it on in the background, same with Dr.Phil, but no amount of tweaking gets the signal right, and I don't care enough to call housing and complain).  I get my news from online sources.  

And after a lot of thought G and I decided that when we move back to the US we are going to basically have basic cable (and not the American version of basic cable, we're talking just enough to be able to check the news).  Channels like Bravo and MTV play their shows online afterwards, and with sites like Hulu I should be able to find all the others (along with some other sites).  By doing it this way we can watch what we want, but cut costs, and also cut the ability to be able to just sit and become couch potatoes.  G and I both like a more active up and about lifestyle, and t.v.'s are easy to get addicted to. 

That's not to say that we won't have a nice set-up.  We are planning on buying a HD LCD television when we get home, along with a blu-ray player and eventually a nice home theater system (we're looking at Bose, so it might be a while before I can convince myself we need it).  We like to watch movies, and we should also be able to hook the iMac up to the t.v. when watching our shows.  But the cost of cable and DVR is just more than I think it's worth.  My parents had it all when I was living with them while G and I were engaged, and damn is it easy to get addicted to DVR-ing absolutely everything under the sun.  

(all images from bestbuy.com)

If you are thinking of making the switch to online viewing, but don't know what sites to look for comment with an e-mail or easy way to reach you and I can e-mail you a list of sites I have found helpful.