On a side note, I’ll have to give you points for mentioning FATE. I had, from your various essays on fantasy and such, an idea that you mainly played more simulationist systems. So; awesome.

I just want to add in further agreement to what Luke has said, for the record. Almost two years ago, I “cut the cord.” For me, at the time, it was purely a financial decision; my wife and I simply couldn’t afford cable. We looked at the budget, told ourselves we could “pretend” to pay for one more month, but used the money to buy a Roku* instead.

Things have gotten a good deal better for us financially since then, but we haven’t signed up for cable, and likely won’t. The only thing I miss at all about having cable is the ease of having “background noise” on. Want to eat in front of the tv (our small apartment doesn’t lend itself well to dining at a table, anyway) but there isn’t anything we’re really in the mood to see? Yeah, that’s about all we really miss. But there are tons of things that are “good enough” that this hasn’t been a huge problem. Hell, we’ve re-watched a ton of old classics like “Cheers” and “Wings,” not particularly caring if both of us see every episode, as it makes great filler / background television.

I should note, we aren’t anti-television “snobs” who sneer at the idea of watching the “boob tube” either. I have physical problems (tendinitis and back problems) related to work, she has her own issues (not my place to discuss them on the internet, sorry), so we both spend a good deal of time in front of the television on our off hours. But between video games, netflix, and youtube videos, we aren’t lacking for entertainment.

I haven’t even had to sacrifice watching my favorite shows, by much anyway. When money was still tight, I’d have to wait until the few shows I cared about were on Netflix to catch up. But who cares? I found that fewer and fewer people discuss tv “around the water cooler” these days. Now that the budget’s easier, we can buy everything we want on Amazon or wherever; cable here is over $100/mo (for any package that includes the few channels, like AMC & USA, that we actually watch shows from); at $2/show, typically, we’d have to buy two every single day to spend more. We usually buy two to three shows per week.

As to what I watch, right now Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, Burn Notice, Psych and How I Met Your Mother are the only things I “keep up” on. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve heard good things about other shows — more than a few on Luke’s list — but as I said, the current-show-conversations don’t really happen around me these days. So I’d rather wait until a good portion of them are on Netflix or whatever.

* RE: Roku. I’m no salesman for them, but here’s my breakdown; Ease of Use: You could literally set this up for the stereotypical techno-illiterate grandparent with little trouble. If you had to create Netflix and Amazon accounts from scratch, you might need all of an hour to get everything running, tops. Every rare once in a while, you need to power cycle it (no button, so you have to pull the cord, but still… not the toughest tech support). Any time I’ve had a problem this wouldn’t solve, it was with the internet connection, or a couple of times Netflix etc. were down, but the Roku itself has rarely had issues, and none that couldn’t be power-cycled away. Availability of Content: Some of this varies by service and what you’re able to pay for. If you’re happy with just what’s on Netflix, it’s cheap and easy. If you want some newer shows and are willing to pay a small amount, Amazon mostly has you covered. But there will still be things you just can’t watch, like Game of Thrones. Whatever. The only one that really irks me is YouTube. Years after disagreements between Roku and Google, there still isn’t an easy way. I’ve resorted to using an app for the Roku that lets you send stuff from a phone or computer; the app itself is very glitchy, and it only works if your Roku is connected via wifi rather than ethernet (which means manually changing things, as I usually have the latter set for best overall playback). My wife and I spend a good chunk of our viewing time w/ YouTube; between various Rooster Teeth offerings and Geek & Sundry shows, mostly. I’ve got a Chromecast on order to see if I can make this a little less of a hassle, but it sure would be nice if I could get YouTube on Roku. :(

@ Shrutarshi Basu:

Ok, I’ll provide a somewhat unrelated answer then. :P

I guess the best way to describe my attitude towards TV is like this: these days I don’t really “watch TV” as I watch select TV shows. When I find a series that interests me I will typically binge on it via Netflicks or some “other” sources until I finish, catch up or get bored with it. So frequently I consume an entire series that originally aired over a few year period in a short span of few weeks and then I’m done.

When it comes to the on-going series that have not wrapped up yet, right now I’m following:

– Game of Thrones (currently in between seasons)
– Dexter (about to end)
– Breaking Bad (about to end)
– True Blood (currently in between seasons)
– The Walking Dead (currently in between seasons)
– Parks and Recreation (currently in between seasons)

Those are the things I’m actually looking forward to and make time to watch them when they air. Other than that I typically don’t really bother with TV. I can’t really have it on in the background when I write or code because it breaks me out of the zone. If I do want some background noise I’ll typically put on one of the documentary channels (I used to love History Channel but nowadays all they air is Pawn Stars). Reality TV just doesn’t do anything for me.

When MTV did Real World for the first time it was kinda interesting because it was something new – it was a strange, voyeuristic type of experience. But I was kinda done with the entire thing before it became popular and mainstream thing to do. The problem with reality shows is that they have no plot. Without plot, there is no drama, no tension and no catharsis. It just becomes tedious and repetitive after a while. Plus I absolutely loathe the format itself. There is a sort of a way to film and edit reality and it’s very noticeable.

Take Kevin Smith’s Comic Boom Men for example. Technically it is a show about geeky dudes who sit around and talk about comic books and movies all day which should be fun. I’ll sometimes listen to podcasts or vidcasts that have that exact premise and enjoy them. But Comic Book Men makes my skin crawl because of the way they frame and edit it. Like the way they do reaction shots, or milk tiniest things for drama. One guy will be like “hey I bet you $5 that I’m right” and they pan around the shop, playing dramatic music, fade to black and go to commercial like it’s a mini-cliff hanger. Ugh..

The thing about almost infinite amount of on-demand content is that a lot of it is just noise that’s not worth the bandwidth it takes to stream. So there is really no need to seek balance. For me it’s almost a self-balancing equation. :)

Somewhat unrelated question: given the amount of reading you seem to do, do you watch TV at all? If you do, how do you strike the balance between interesting TV and good books, especially in this age of practically infinite on-demand content?