Saving up my Grimm...

So I'm a pretty big fan of NBC's Grimm, a fantasy and fairy-tale themed crime procedural which focuses on a man who can see various fairy tale creatures and his attempts to keep his town safe.

But I think I may watch it a little different than most - I've been taping episodes of the current season (4) since last October on my PVR and won't actually start watching them until next month.

For the last few years I've saved up each episode and eventually watched them at a rate of once a day leading up to the season finale, which I then watch live.

In some ways I think it's my family's style of binge watching, only instead of checking out a season over the course of a weekend, it takes me a couple weeks to a month, but at this slightly accelerated rate I feel like the season-long story arcs tend to work a little better for me.

In the last few weeks my wife and I have watched X-Company (CBC), The Americans (FX), Better Call Saul (AMC) and Vikings (History) this way, and honestly, it's working out pretty well for us.

It may not be for everyone, but I have to say, I feel like I get to enjoy the stories without the whole season becoming an amorphous blob in my memory.

Catching Up to my PVR

As the 2013/14 TV season comes to a close and my free time has been on the rise since finishing school, I'm happy to say I'm finally almost down to 50% of the space on my PVR finally being clear.

Which is pretty great as I now have the luxury to choose from the many different series I've had waiting on DVD for a while now.

Having just finished with season two of The Americans (which should definitely be on everyones "to watch" list), my wife and I are now catching up with both Mad Men (only three more episodes until we're up to date) and Grimm (we still have 14 episodes to go, dating back to January 3!)

In the end, I'm currently enjoying a surplus of free time and am finally starting to catch up on my entertainment wish list.

Things I've Noticed: My PVR is becoming more selective

I've had a PVR for the last few years and overall I'd definitely say it is worth it.  Not since VCR technology became popular has a piece of technology so dramatically changed how I watch television.

Before the VCR I watched what was on or I made my own fun - movies were seen at theatres or during special times of the year (my personal favourite childhood film - Star Wars, but in the original (to me) cut, with the station logo on the bottom right-hand corner and the commercials - why can't the new special edition of Star Wars smell like my Grandparent's living room carpet? - now that would be special!)

Once VCRs showed up, I could do two things:
1) As you could record stuff, you were no longer limited to watching things when they aired - also you could take late-night movies and watch them whenever!
2) You could watch things more than once a year.  Once I recorded Star Wars, I could watch it every weekend (which, in my own 9-year-old way, was probably my introduction to true fandom)

But now PVRs allow you to record one thing while watching another - also you can pause live TV and  can ask the machine to tape shows for you in series recordings - meaning you no longer have to know when your show is coming back, as the machine will tape it for you.

Unfortunately, leaving all this power up to the machine (or at least to my machine), means that sometimes it simply decides not to tape things for you - maybe it thinks these shows are not really worth your time or perhaps it believes you need to see the same repeat of Murdoch Mysteries again rather than watch that new show you've been waiting for - I'm sure a lot of you are thinking perhaps it's just a glitch, or maybe the schedule was off, but I'm pretty sure that the more I use this tool, the more it's starting to make suggestions, suggestions which will lead me to watching only PVR-approved materials in the not-to-distant future…

Things I've Noticed: Clearing out the PVR can be pretty exciting

So over the last couple weeks my wife and I have been deciding between our current cable/phone/internet provider and the competition. Both sides have put up a pretty good reason to either switch or stay, and in the end our choice works best for our needs (I hope), but an interesting side-project in all this is that we have been working for the last two weeks to empty our PVR.

The Personal Video Recorder (PVR) is in some ways like a VCR, but unlike the older machine, which could be programed to tape television at a certian tie, the PVR can be programmed to tape shows or complete series at any time they air. Like a show featuring Australian crime-fighting teenaged mermaids? Annoyed that it only airs at 2:15am? No problem, the PVR will tape that series until you have dozens and dozens of episodes backlogged on your system, stopping you from watching your current prime-time favourites!

Okay, so there are some bugs, but what the heck, all new technology needs to be better understood by the users so that they can access it more effectively.

Our PVR lists a percentage of total space used (rather than number of programs) and over the last two weeks we went from 89% to 5% (last nights episode of Eastenders and The Finder). Over the course of this week I've learned a lot things.

1) Some shows work better if you watch them in a smaller period of time, AMC's Hell on Wheels (10 episodes) was a pretty fun show to watch at two episodes a night, but I think it may have lost something for me if I simly watched it weekly.

2) High Definition (HD) shows take up a lot of space, and unless the show is visually striking (mostly Special Effects heavy shows) the need to see it in HD isn't really that great.

3) You (well, I) feel a great sense of accomplishment when I get the PVR down to zero, like I've defeated a boss in a video game.

Bookmonkey vs. PVR

BOOKMONKEY WINS!!!

Things I've noticed: How my PVR saves my time

For the last few years I've had a PVR, or Personal Video Recorder, hooked up to my television - like TiVo for you folks in the States, and the thing is, for a device I purchased due to all its time saving abilities, I am sure devoting a lot of time to watchig stuff on it.

Here is what my PVR offered me when my wife and I decided to get it:

1) No more commericals (unless I wanted to watch them)

2) We could record two things at the same time, while watching a third thing (as long as it was a thing already waiting in our PVR)

3) The machine could hold hours and hours of television for us

4) We could tell the machine which shows we like, and it would tape them at whichever weird hours they aired.

A few years later and my machine is just short of 90% full for the fifth or sixth time and I'm looking at my weekend and thinking, how many of these shows can I watch before new stuff starts airing on Monday?

You know, back in the '70s, before PVRs or even VCRs, the choices for a nights entertainment were pretty simple: Was there anyting you wanted to watch airing on television? If not, go make your own fun.

Then came the '80s and the ability to both tape a show to watch whenever you liked as well as however many times you liked. In theory this meant more freedom, but suddenly people started getting a back log of tapes, which soon included movies and even television shows. DVD and Blu-Ray have given us more options, but suddently the day doesn't seem to have enough hours.

And now, as I look at the freedom offered to me by my PVR, I start to wonder, would I be better off without TV for a while?