Friday Poll!

[trinityvixen]

Hurrah, I've actually got time to write up the poll this week! About bloody time. This week's poll is generally about TV-watching habits, so please ring in. Comment wherever options have not left you room to properly express yourself.

[Poll #1066558]

I just...I'm boggled at how much television I've consumed in just the past year. I was looking over my spreadsheet where I record the series I've watched this year, and I'm floored to see that the number of seasons is a real contender to challenge the number of movies I've seen this year. I spent the entire month of September, practically, on television alone (from the end of August to mid-September, I'd seen one new movie--that is unheard of for me). This is especially redonkulous when you consider how long it takes to watch an entire season of something (which is how I'm "counting" the number of shows watched; each season counts as one). Sure, there's some padding of the number by me counting the individual installments of Old Skool Doctor Who, but I can't possibly break that down into seasons (it would be silly, for one thing).

But still! All those hours spent on TV!I never was a TV junkie. I've always been a movie-magpie. I watched roughly two things on television before going off to college: The X-Files and Farscape. I dabbled in other shows, and like everyone else I watched The Simpsons, but those were the only two shows I watched with any regularity. And Buffy, I guess. Okay, so that's three. That's three shows that I routinely (and still not very dedicatedly) watched for nearly twenty years. Otherwise, it was Saturday morning cartoons and not much else.

This was helped along by my mother's occasional fits over TV watch-age. Every so often, she'd ressurrect the one-hour rule and it would hold for a few months. So, it's quite possible that my new obsession with TV shows and mass consumption thereof has something to do with that. Or maybe TV really has gotten better. I think it might be a little of both. TV is attracting a lot of named talent these days, and it's hardly got the stigma it used to (as a dumping ground for actors and actresses on the outs with fame). I just can't figure out how I went from, "Ooh, Farscape! Oh, wait, I have plans. I'll catch it later" to watching television almost every weeknight and owning several shows on DVD. Weird.

Comments

[hslayer.livejournal.com]

I think the fact that you have a spreadsheet where you log what shows you watch all year is far more freakish than any quantity of programming that may be noted in said spreadsheet.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I used to write it down in a book. The spreadsheet is so much neater and more organized. That way if I forgot something, I can insert it into the sheet at the date-appropriate point.

Dude, don't underestimate my OCD about this stuff. I honestly started it because I couldn't remember what books I'd read (this was especially a problem with Terry Pratchett books, as I can never associate their plots to the their titles). I still have to refer to it to see what I've read (since I obviously have so little time to read with all the rest of the stuff I've been doing).

But yeah, this has always been something I've done. I've only just started throwing away tickets to the movie theater (I used to collect those in a book, too). That took a lot of effort, too. I rationalize it that the digital log of my watchings (I even write down where I saw movies--theater, TV, or rental) saves the space of a bunch of scraps of paper. But I still can't let go of the list.

[saikogrrl.livejournal.com]

I agree, although I find it hilarious. XD

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of confused by your "live" questions. I don't watch anything live anymore--most of it's on my DVR or downloaded a short while after it airs.

I'm so glad I spend less time watching and recording TV than I used to... :)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

"Live" counts as anything you're watching on television as it is currently running as a show, even if you miss out or watch certain episodes later.

The DVR is a wonderful device. I sorta want to spring for it.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Can I answer all of the above for the first question? I have the shows I rearrange my schedule for (just Supernatural), the shows I follow by download if I miss them when they air (SGA and Heroes), the shows I like watching if they're on (Law and Order, CSI), the shows I've downloaded or been given on my computer which I watch if there's nothing on TV and I have no new dvds, and I watch about three discs worth of something from Netflix every week, almost always television. I use episode commentaries as background noise when I putter.

I watched almost no television through high school and college, but that was always a logistical issue. (My parents refused to tape things for me, the heathens, so I couldn't actually follow anything.) It always lead to bingeing over vacations. I vastly prefer watching things on DVD or downloaded so I have complete control over schedule. I hate feeling chained to my TV at certain hours.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

You can say all of the above, clearly. :)

Yeah, taping things was always and issue. And without downloadable content at the time, it was so hard to get episodes you missed until three billion years later. I think my obsessive-compulsive fixation of watching EVERYTHING made it hard to stay involved when I missed things. Hence, DVD, downloads, and Netflix are the greatest inventions ever.

As for live TV, there's enough of an element of fun about good shows that I don't mind sitting down to watch them (it's like a date!), but as the season wears on, that rubs off. Mostly, what I don't like about watching TV live is that I have to watch it so piecemeal instead of in one frenzied twelve-hour sitting (like I do with my shows on DVD). And it literally ties me to my TV, as opposed to downloads and DVDs which go with me wherever I want (usually on my laptop so I can do other things and still get my shows).

But not watching live has it's disadvantages, too. You miss out on fandom-y things that run current with the episode. It sucks to come to a fandom three years after interest has sort of petered out and no one wants to really talk about what are (to you) new and wondrous developments.

And there are always spoilers to watch out for (as I think we both know ^.~)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I come into most fandoms late in the game (hello, Sentinel). There are only a few shoes I want to be actively involved in the current fandom for, and I really can only keep up with one or two fandoms at a time. Most of the time what I want is fic, and if the shoe is older, it's much easier to find it and find good recs. You don't get to squee with people over each episode, but I don't have the urge to do that if I watch twelve in a row, anyway.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I like fic but I like meta-ing and speculating too much. That's why my attention's been split across several fandoms. I've actually stopped seeking fic except after seasons end (and I've pretty much stopped writing it unless they have).

[shell524.livejournal.com]

Since we're not rich enough to have cable/satellite right now, our TV gets no reception. I haven't watched TV at all except at my parents' house when I go home to Dallas every few months. I don't know what shows are on, or which ones I would even WANT to watch. The last time I seriously watched TV I was keeping up with Scrubs and Boston Public.

I did spend one afternoon watching Airline on my computer, if that counts for anything. Yay instant Netflix.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I love Netflix and their streaming feature. I'm going to finally watching Coupling that way (it's one I want to see but not one I want to devote one of my few rentals to--and why should I if it streams?)

[shell524.livejournal.com]

I did have friends who said that show is awesome. I never got around to wanting to watch it.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

I watch a lot of TV as background noise, but I'm also following 3-4 shows.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Also a fair response. I realize I might have done better to make that particular question a check-box option since so many people have different routines for different programs.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

Good lord, I JUST realized how much shit I currently watch. I don't feel like I follow a lot of tv, and there are things I want to watch and just don't feel I have time for or brain space to keep up with, but holy shit I watch a lot, for me, considering that ever since I stopped just watching whatever was on for noise, I've only ever followed one or two shows that I cared about.

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

What's TV?

[saikogrrl.livejournal.com]

I don't really watch much live TV. The only things I do really watch live are The Chaser's War on Everything, Spicks & Specks and Thank God You're Here, and they're all on a Wednesday night.

Most of the serials I follow (eg: Heroes, Ugly Betty, Doctor Who) are ones that have only just come out in the US/UK hence I watch downloaded versions all in one go or in bits as friends copy them for me.

Apart from serials I also LOVE comedy, especially British. Scrubs is one of my favourite shows though.

Two new shows I've picked up this year: Dexter and Californication, although I'm watching both of them as downloaded files, in chunks. :3

Hooray for brain melting TV! :D

[saikogrrl.livejournal.com]

The fact that I watch a crapload more TV now than I did in high school (although I did have several shows I followed on different days each week) is due to three reasons:

1. I now have a TV in my room
2. I now have money to buy myself DVDs
and most importantly:
3. I have friends with broadband who burn me copies of TV shows and snime. XD

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