The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #101

• Sunday November 3

My site needs more volunteers, so please help us out! There are perks, believe me. If you just have an hour a week, we can use your help! It doesn't matter if you don't think you have any skills or know how to write.

"The Simpsons" was pretty funny for once. I still can't believe they used the term "blue balls". LOL!

I have tons of email to catch up on (emails for the site, I mean). It never ends!

I made a list of all of the shows I watch, so I could then figure out which ones I've missed. I have many that I missed this summer, but also I have my DVR from DISH Network that I used to use in my old town (haven't hooked it up yet to my old TV). Here in my new home, I have 2 DVR's, but sometimes I still miss an episode here or there if my husband wants to watch TV unexpectedly... thank goodness we have On Demand!

So tonight after figuring all that out, I've been catching up on my favorite shows: Once Upon a Time, Haven, and now Person of Interest!

Here's my list of shows (the episodes I'm missing are listed; if there's no episodes listed, then I'm caught up).

Roughly in order of preference-

Supernatural
The Mentalist
Haven
Once Upon a Time
Beauty & the Beast
Person of Interest 
Almost Human
Vampire Diaries ("For Whom the Bell Tolls" 10/24 on DVD) ("Monster's Ball" 10/31 on DVR)
The Originals "House of the Rising Son" 10/8, ("Tangled Up in Blue" 10/15 on DVD), ("Girl in New Orleans" 10/22 on DVR), "Sinners and Saints" 10/29
Revolution ("Patriot Games" 10/16 on DVD), ("One Riot, One Ranger" 10/23 on DVR), "Dead Man Walking" 10/30
Sleepy Hollow "For the Triumph of Evil" 9/30, ("John Doe" 10/14 on DVD)
Tomorrow People
Elementary "We Are Everyone" 10/10, "Poison Pen" 10/17, "An Unnatural Arrangement" 10/31 (saw part)
Revenge ("Confession" 10/13 on DVD), "Mercy" 10/20, "Control" 10/27, "Dissolution" 11/3
Bones ("The Lady on the List" 10/14 on DVD), "The Woman In White" 10/21
Law & Order
NCIS "Once a Crook" 10/22, ("Oil and Water" 10/29 on DVR)
Criminal Minds 9/25-present
Castle
CSI "Passed Pawns" 10/30
Big Bang Theory
Two and a Half Men
Agents of SHIELD ("Eye Spy" 10/15 on DVD), ("Girl in the Flower Dress" 10/22 on DVD)
The Neighbors ("Challoweenukah" 10/18 on DVD), "Any Friggin’ Sunday" 11/1
Curb Your Enthusiasm (have on DVD)
Suits  7/30, 8/6, 8/13, 8/20-on Amazon,  8/27, 9/3, 9/10, 9/17 on DVR
Anger Management 2-16 and on
Being Human UK -Season 5
Drop Dead Diva (most of season 5 - saw first 3 episodes)
The Client List (the last few episodes?)
Covert Affairs (need to get DVD's)
Dallas (on old DVR)
The Fosters (on old DVR)
Franklin & Bash "Freck" 7/17, "Control" 7/24, "Out of the Blue" 7/31, "Shoot to Thrill" 8/7, "Gone In A Flash" 8/14
Jeselnik Offensive (Amazon Prime)
Law & Order UK (season 7?)
Saving Hope (on PC)
Broadchurch (Amazon prime)
American Horror Story: Coven "The Replacements" 10/23,  "Fearful Pranks Ensue" 10/30,
Arrow (last season on DVD, this season on Demand)
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland ("Down the Rabbit Hole" 10/10 on DVD), ("Trust Me" 10/17 on DVD), ("Forget Me Not" 10/24 on DVD)
Blacklist (only saw first episode)
Back in the Game "Night Games" 10/30
South Park ("Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers" 10/23 on DVR), "Taming Strange" 10/30
Reign (only saw first episode)
Red Dwarf "Lemons" 10/18/12, "Entangled" 10/25, "Dear Dave" 11/1, "The Beginning" 11/8
White Collar (missing several seasons including this one)
Damages (last season on DVD--waiting for Barb)
Go On (missed a few episodes -- on Amazon Prime)
Men at Work (DVD)
The Crazy Ones
Brooklyn Nine Nine (only saw first 2 episodes)
Hostages (only saw first episode)
Betrayal (only saw first episode)
Cougar Town (missed most)
Cult (Missing a few episodes)
666 Park Avenue (missed last few episodes)
Mr. Selfridge (on old DVR)
Mistresses (on old DVR)
Primeval (on old DVR)
Sinbad (on old DVR)
Sullivan & Son (Missing a few episodes)
True Blood (missing many seasons)
Twisted (on old DVR)
Vikings (on old DVR)
Watch at least one episode of these to check them out: Dracula, Mom, We Are Men, The Millers, Sean Saves the World, Cedar Cove, Under the Dome
Watch all of:
In the Flesh (on old DVR)
Lost Girl (missing most)
Nashville (on old DVR)
Sons of Anarchy (missing most)
Banshee (only saw first episode)
Bates Motel (only saw first episode)
Game of Thrones (haven't watched)
The Glades (haven't watched)
Grey's Anatomy (only saw first season or so)
Grimm (only saw first episode)
Homeland (haven't watched)
Glee (only watched first season or two)
Low Winter Sun (haven't watched)
Merlin (on DVD)
Misfits (only saw first season or 2)
The Newsroom (only saw first episode)
Nikita (missing most)
The Wire (haven't watched)

• Monday November 5

Since we live in Hawaii now, there are quite a few channels here in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, etc. My husband was watching this one Japanese show, Fat Detective, but now he's really hooked on this drama called Mysterious Housemaid (Korean). It's so funny because usually I'm the one hooked on TV shows. He barely watches anything that's not news or sports. I've never seen him watch anything with subtitles before, either, yet he loves this show. It's so funny. I don't watch it with him, either.

I watched the wonderful 1993 miniseries "Tales of the City" on DVD. It was fabulous!!! A great soap opera/comedy/drama about some people in San Francisco in the late 70's.

• Tuesday November 6

Tonight I was mostly watching the DVD of an Australian show called "Jack Irish" starring Guy Pearce. Pretty good noir-type crime drama.

I have been spending two days trying to catch up on tons of emails!

• Wednesday November 7

My DVR started getting crowded again so I had to take a break from the DVD's and watch some shows on the DVR. I caught up on NCIS, Beauty & the Beast and the soaps.  I'm mid-way through October on the soaps! LOL!

Tomorrow I'm going back to the DVD's because I have a huge stack of them to watch.

• Rest of the week-

We've been super busy this week!!

I've only watched a few of the DVD's....

The past 2 days, I've been watching up on "Suits". I had the last 5 episodes from this summer on my DVR, but first I had a few episodes to watch on Hulu from when I was moving... so I hooked up my Roku, which I hadn't done since we moved here. I love my Roku! If you didn't know, it's a little device that attaches to your TV and uses your wireless internet connection so you can watch shows from Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix etc. It's great. I have the LT version so it only cost me $50 on Amazon. Anyway, I love Suits, even though sometimes it's a little complex for me...I don't always completely know what's going on. It's still a great show with wonderful actors and characters. They have such great guest-stars, too, like Eric Close (one of my favorites).

I've spent the last week trying to catch up on my emails, too! I had about 700 to go through. These are almost all TV MegaSite-related, from the TV networks or PR people.

I hope you can check out our Primetime Forum because I post a lot of news on there.

I could really use some help, though, with that forum!

I took "The Crazy Ones" off my DVR. As much as I love the actors, I just can't stand the show.  It's not only not funny, but it's annoying. The characters are grating.

We live in Hawaii now, and one thing is hard to get used to: all of the stations that are Hawaiian, or Japanese, or Korean. Not that I mind, it's just weird - kind of makes you feel like you're in a foreign country.  Especially since most of the channels are the lower ones on the list (where cable companies normally put the major networks).

I don't think it's official yet, but it looks like Prospect Park is not going to be making any more episodes of "All My Children" and "One Life to Live". It doesn't surprise me, although it does make me sad. I just think they were doing it all on the cheap and the shows didn't make them enough money to keep going.  There aren't too many successful web TV shows except for a few that charge you to watch them, like "Venice".  Showing soaps for free on the web is not going to make them much money.  Maybe if the shows had been really well written, and they had gotten the original actors back (particularly Michael Easton and Susan Lucci), then they could have pulled it off. I guess we should be grateful that we got another few episodes of each show at all. In some ways, I think just leaving them the way they were was better (especially One Life to Live, which had a great finale already).

I think they were hoping that they would get all of the original audience (a few million viewers) plus a few new people. There were several things they didn't realize, I think. #1 A lot of people watch the soaps out of habit. Once the shows went off the air, the viewers' habitual watching died. It probably didn't help that many people had the shows on their DVR, making them even easier to watch. #2 a lot of the soaps' viewers are over 55, so that means they're much less likely to watch a TV show on the internet. Even setting your DVR, which is done at the push of one button, is easier than watching on the net. Not that I'm saying it's hard, but it is for a lot of people, especially if they only have a phone for the internet and not a whole computer. For those of us older folk, watching a show on your phone is awful. It's too small to see.  #3 People don't like change, particularly soap opera viewers. That's one reason why people watch soaps because they have the same characters that go on and on for years in the stories. Recasting half of the shows, moving AMC ahead five years, and all the other changes, is too hard on viewers. Add in to that the "bad language" and putting a lot of sexual innuendo and near-nudity certainly didn't help.  #4 Those things might not have mattered so much if they had really improved the shows writing 125%, in order to get newer viewers (as well as making them more "hip" and innovative). Today's young viewers have to have a reason for watching a show online. Watching their grandma's soap opera is not going to happen unless it is so good that word-of-mouth makes it popular, like, say "Breaking Bad".

Both AMC and OLTL put more focus on the younger characters, but AMC's dialogue was horrible and the stories were boring, IMHO. I'm sure younger people would have an even worse opinion about it. OLTL was way better], but it still would not be the type of thing someone would bother tuning into unless they already watched it.  I hate to say these things because I do love the shows and I watched every episode of the newer ones.  Also, I think they would need to have a ton of money to hire bigger names and really get the show going in production for at least 5 years before they'd start seeing any profit. Prospect Park doesn't have the money or connections to do that.  Now, I could be wrong about all of this and perhaps the main reason that the shows didn't make much money is that everyone thinks soaps are dead and the soap stigma is just too big to overcome. Or worse, the names of the shows make them "old" in the eyes of everyone except the most diehard fans.  They might have been better off if they'd just created a brand new soaps and brought in the characters or actors from those 2 shows, and not called it a soap opera. A lot of hit shows are really soaps, but they don't call them that, so people don't feel like "soap opera viewers".  Whatever the reason, I give them credit for trying. I hope there are more soap operas online in the future.

I would like to think that ABC has seen the errors of their ways and will buy back the two shows and put them on the air again. That would be a great thing to do (and think how many fans will be so grateful to them!).