Episode 25: Appointment Television

Rachel and Leeman talk about the strange phenomenon of actually sitting down at a specific time to watch TV as it is actually airing and its ramifications.

Topics Discusses and/or Spoiled:

Next Generation, PERDU, Marvel Agents of SHIELD, Buffy, Angel, Tribes, Breaking Bad, Fringe, BSG, Arrested Development, Babylon 5, Justified, Hannibal, Time Trax (that was its name!), Quick Witz, Mad About You, Big Bang Theory, Andromeda, House of Cards, and Lots of Shameful 90s Television.

Our outro is Debs and Errol’s “BSG”

This entry was posted in Episodes. Bookmark the permalink.

7 Responses to Episode 25: Appointment Television

  1. Jason says:

    I feel the same way about Big Bang Theory, the characters are flat, the acting is flat. It reminds me of the That 70’s Show in this respect.

    • Leeman says:

      Hmm… I remember at least having a few fond memories of That 70s Show but perhaps that is just rose-tinted memory playing its nefarious tricks on me.

  2. Tom Kolar says:

    Cool episode and I finally have a chance to comment- I think one of the reasons appointment television exists is that it is a form of scheduled socialization. One thing I’ve learned is that grownups can almost never just “hang out.” they need some set event to congregate and schedule around. It’s why gaming is such a big part of the Kolars’ social life, and it applies to appointment tv as well.

    In terms of the new internet/streaming tv reality we live in, it’s always weird for me to think about how different my children’s experience of TV is than my own growing up. If Billy oversleeps or is busy that day, he’s still going to get to watch Magic School Bus whenever he gets to it, whatever episode he’s in the mood to watch. If he wants to pause mid-season of a show, and come back weeks later, he won’t miss a thing. Also, one great thing has been that he never watches commercials. He gets the occasional movie trailer, but we never have to deal with him demanding some random product or food he saw on TV.

    • Leeman says:

      Will our children suffer from a lack of pre-commercial animations telling them in infectious songs that, “After these messages, we’ll be Riiiiiight back!”? I can only assume so.

  3. Rachel Kolar says:

    Listening to this has made me realize that watching TV is suddenly much more like reading–you do it alone, at your own pace, whenever you discover the series, and anyone you talk to may be at a different point in the series than you are. Talking to someone about a show on Netflix is like talking to someone who hasn’t finished Feast for Crows yet.

    There are definite drawbacks to the new way of TV. I like it–I watch TV while rocking Liza to sleep because I need to keep the room too bright if I read, and if it weren’t for. Netflix, I’d probably end up watching a lot of Law & Order–but there are issues. I actually got kind of mad at Tom a few months ago because I was caught up on Breaking Bad and Community and he wanted to watch both but was watching some board game show on YouTube instead, so I couldn’t talk to him about them. Have you ever had the “watch this so I can talk to you about it, or decide you don’t want to watch it so I can spoil all the good parts, but don’t leave me hanging here” tension?

    • Leeman says:

      The books comparison is really good. I find that Rachel and I have to find a couple of shows of our own to watch and then just a few shows we sync up for. Was the board game show Shut Up and Sit Down? Because if Tom isn’t watching that, he should.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *