Please save me time...what's worth watching on TV these days?

[soundmotor]

and what I see must be coming from some bazaar dimension.

QVC & HSN both have a bazaar atmosphere at times.

 

[+48V]

Then I'm also stifled by a 50gb cap

Geezus.... that is a pretty stingy allotment these days. I can smell your pain.

I had a 250 GB cap a couple years ago but my ISP has since bumped it up to 500 gigs. I trimmed my cable down to bare bone basic about 8 years ago and use streaming a good bit--regularly 300-400 GB/mo.

Is your present provider the only internet shop in town? Assuming you may be able to get that paltry cap raised....

à la carte HBO and Showtime is a dang good deal at $15 and $11 per month. Save $3 and add Hulu to Showtime for just $8/mo. Hulu's good for filling gaps in a basic cable pack.

So on and so forth, dump or trim yer bloated cable package and $34/mo. will get you TV programing well worth watching.

 

[Quadman2]

Geezus.... that is a pretty stingy allotment these days. I can smell your pain.

I had a 250 GB cap a couple years ago but my ISP has since bumped it up to 500 gigs. I trimmed my cable down to bare bone basic about 8 years ago and use streaming a good bit--regularly 300-400 GB/mo.

Is your present provider the only internet shop in town? Assuming you may be able to get that paltry cap raised....

à la carte HBO and Showtime is a dang good deal at $15 and $11 per month. Save $3 and add Hulu to Showtime for just $8/mo. Hulu's good for filling gaps in a basic cable pack.

So on and so forth, dump or trim yer bloated cable package and $34/mo. will get you TV programing well worth watching.

Geezus.... that is a pretty stingy allotment these days. I can smell your pain.

I had a 250 GB cap a couple years ago but my ISP has since bumped it up to 500 gigs. I trimmed my cable down to bare bone basic about 8 years ago and use streaming a good bit--regularly 300-400 GB/mo.

Is your present provider the only internet shop in town? Assuming you may be able to get that paltry cap raised....

à la carte HBO and Showtime is a dang good deal at $15 and $11 per month. Save $3 and add Hulu to Showtime for just $8/mo. Hulu's good for filling gaps in a basic cable pack.

So on and so forth, dump or trim yer bloated cable package and $34/mo. will get you TV programing well worth watching.

I hear ya loud and clear. Being in a rural setting, we are restricted to the scant few that offer a provider. But you are right, gotta get outta Dodge.
Ma Bell is NOT liked in this neck of the woods.

Thanks for the support.

Q

 

[+48V]

I hear ya loud and clear. Being in a rural setting, we are restricted to the scant few that offer a provider. But you are right, gotta get outta Dodge.
Ma Bell is NOT liked in this neck of the woods.

Thanks for the support.

Q

Care to share your location? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to broadcast. I'll gladly dig around for you. Not that you haven't already...but ya never know who knows who.

 

[Hobie1dog]

Absolutely nothing, go back to the stereo.

 

[invaderzim]

Hollywood is having the same issue as network. My wife & I went to exactly (3) films this year. That is way down from previous years. In hindsight, sometimes moments after the film ended, none were worth the expense or time. They were all truly empty vehicles. We've come to realize that we've been completely disrupted by the high quality storytelling, i.e. plot, character development, and general high-end production values many of the new multi-part streaming series offer.....

We are also down from seeing a couple movies a month to a couple a year. One thing that really strikes me is with recent movies I remember very little from them after a year or two. I'll watch Cinema Sins or Honest Movie Trailers for them online and will barely remember seeing the movie. Yet I remember way more from movies I haven't seen for a decade or more. I think most of them just don't draw me into the story or characters. Part of the problem, I think, is special effects have gotten too cheap and easy. They don't think they need characters or story to carry the movie forward when they can fill the screen with dazzling images for 2 hours.

 

[soundmotor]

One thing that really strikes me is with recent movies I remember very little from them after a year or two.

Sometimes my wife & I cannot even recall the plot a week later. The storyline is so thin and meaningless it is nearly parody.

The last film we saw this year was the hopefully final installment of the Bourne films. All I can tell you about it is that Julia Stiles won't be in another sequel.

Agreed on SFX too. It should be there to enhance the storyline not be the storyline.

 

[invaderzim]

.....Agreed on SFX too. It should be there to enhance the storyline not be the storyline.

and don't even get me started on 3D...

 

[Quadman2]

Geezus.... that is a pretty stingy allotment these days. I can smell your pain.

I had a 250 GB cap a couple years ago but my ISP has since bumped it up to 500 gigs. I trimmed my cable down to bare bone basic about 8 years ago and use streaming a good bit--regularly 300-400 GB/mo.

Is your present provider the only internet shop in town? Assuming you may be able to get that paltry cap raised....

à la carte HBO and Showtime is a dang good deal at $15 and $11 per month. Save $3 and add Hulu to Showtime for just $8/mo. Hulu's good for filling gaps in a basic cable pack.

So on and so forth, dump or trim yer bloated cable package and $34/mo. will get you TV programing well worth watching.

Shot a message down the tube with three questions.

Thanks,

Q

 

[Quadman2]

A question for the mass....who/what age group is going to the movies on a regular basis? That in itself may have a bearing on the quality vs quantity issue of the new ones coming out. Even on the small screen they must have a target audience in mind.

And the comment about the special effects is one to consider as well.

Q

 

[invaderzim]

A question for the mass....who/what age group is going to the movies on a regular basis? That in itself may have a bearing on the quality vs quantity issue of the new ones coming out. Even on the small screen they must have a target audience in mind.

And the comment about the special effect is one to consider as well.

Q

That is a very good point and I'm sure it carries over to TV too. The production companies are so obsessed with one group of viewers that they don't worry about turning off the rest of the customers.

I've commented before that if you took a modern action movie and showed it to someone 50 years ago their head would likely explode. There is just so much going on on every inch of the screen at all times to try to keep people's attention anymore.

The other problem is TV Comedies with any depth can't survive because they can't run a funny 15 second commercial for them since the jokes often build over the course of the show. Then we end up with, what I call, the 2 Broke Girls Effect; that is where all the jokes are one-liners that are said loudly and clearly towards the camera. They make great soundbites for ads and they break through to the people that are also looking at their phones while watching TV. If they make the story or joke complex at all too many of the distracted viewers will lose interest.

 

[Quadman2]

I DO remember a time when the popularity of the silver screen really dipped low, with most people watching the little screen. The movie houses were really hurtin'. Then they revamped/remodeled the old complexes bringing in lots of things to do before you saw the movie. The movies were top notch and the crowds started coming back....for a while...and today?

What happened? TV programs just deteriorated? Prices of tickets went too high? I know popcorn started to cost more than the show itself! Production costs went through the roof? Certain age groups just wanted to stay home? DVD's would eventually come out and some just waited for that event? Poorly produced/badly scripted productions? Some of these? All of these?

Q

 

[sKiZo]

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency on BBCA is at least as strange as the Douglas Adams books ...

Your call as to whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. <G>

 

[KiM3Ce]

A question for the mass....who/what age group is going to the movies on a regular basis? That in itself may have a bearing on the quality vs quantity issue of the new ones coming out. Even on the small screen they must have a target audience in mind.

And the comment about the special effects is one to consider as well.

Q

Hollywood is driven a lot more now by overseas sales. "Baywatch" was a flop in US ratings but a huge hit overseas. Things worth watching are mostly on Netflix: The Crown, The Killing, Happy Valley, Broadchurch, Arrested Development, and Rectify are all well-done shows for grownups.

 

[soundmotor]

A question for the mass....who/what age group is going to the movies on a regular basis? That in itself may have a bearing on the quality vs quantity issue of the new ones coming out. Even on the small screen they must have a target audience in mind.

And the comment about the special effects is one to consider as well.

Q

We won't go until the 3+ weeks after release but each film had a broad mix of ages. Captain America: Civil War, Star Trek Beyond, and Jason Bourne were the films.

 

[Quadman2]

We won't go until the 3+ weeks after release but each film had a broad mix of ages. Captain America: Civil War, Star Trek Beyond, and Jason Bourne were the films.

Curious as why you wait "the 3+ week" period? To avoid the newbie crowds or waiting to see how the reviews have been?

Ya made me think yet of a another question....what usually is the time lapse between when the theatres stop showing the flicks and the start of being able to either view it on TV or pick up from the stores.

Q

 

[soundmotor]

Curious as why you wait "the 3+ week" period? To avoid the newbie crowds or waiting to see how the reviews have been?

Ya made me think yet of a another question....what usually is the time lapse between when the theatres stop showing the flicks and the start of being able to either view it on TV or pick up from the stores.

Q

Crowds.

 

[+48V]

Wild ride.....good stuff.

 

[onwardjames]

Wild ride.....good stuff.

Me and the missus enjoyed that. Billy Zane's career took such a wrong turn somewhere, because the man has skills.

 

[Lavane]

Taboo is kind of cool. Vikings? And, Better Call Saul!