Category: TV

We Are Officially Switching Our Cable

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I Like, Roku, TVLeave a comment

Now didn’t I tell you the other day that we were thinking about switching to the Roku player for watching TV instead of paying our cable company $110 every month? Well, it’s official. We bought our Roku boxes this morning at 10am. And since I bought it before 11am it’s going to be shipped out today and we should get it next week. They said it should take 3-7 days but the confirmation email included an address which I google mapped and they are only 4 1/2 hours from our house. I’m expecting it to be here by Monday.

Our cable cycle begins on January 6th and ends on February 5th according to the cable bill I got in the mail today. That means if we cancel our cable before Thursday of next week then when we cancel it we won’t have to worry about any new charges. I’ll be free and clear.

Ok so I’ve already been adding shows to my favorites on the Hulu website so whenever a show has a new episode then it will automatically go into my queue. I don’t know how queues work with Hulu on the Roku but I hopefully won’t have to do much searching when my shows come back on, just play my queue.

We got a code for a free month of Hulu Plus which I won’t do anything about until the Roku box actually comes. I wouldn’t want to waste a few days of Hulu, besides, I want my monthly payments to start AFTER I get my monthly checks, not before.

Even though I’m kind of PO’d that I’m going to be missing some of my shows, I’m still really excited about saving money every month. I mean, I have wanted BBC America, Logo and G4 for years and never had them until last year when we finally got HD and got the new channels. Well, it turns out that even though I have those channels now, I hardly ever watch them.

The shows that I’m going to miss on G4 are Attack of the show and Web Soup which aren’t really on Hulu. I mean they are but only clips. I can live with that I guess.

The shows that I’m going to miss on BBC America are Being Human, Doctor Who and The Graham Norton Show. As far as I know those aren’t on Hulu at all. I know Doctor Who is on Netflix but I might have to wait just a little bit longer for the new episodes to come.

I didn’t mention HBO but there is a show that I will definitely be missing and that is True Blood. That’s one of my favorites and I will definitely be missing it but it is on Netflix. Of course I will miss seeing it when it’s on, I can certainly wait until it’s on Netflix. Or just find a friend who still has HBO and watch it over there lol.

I’ve been telling everyone about this because I think it is so cool to get Hulu and Netflix and watch all of my shows without paying high cable prices. I just have to wait for them to show up in my Queue.

I have mentioned that not all of my shows are going to be on there but I’m not too worried because those shows are on their networks websites. Like CW, I’m going to be missing Smallville, Supernatural and Vampire Diaries. Well, luckily they are on the CW website. And I just started watching Glory Daze on TBS, well that is also on the TBS website. So, I won’t really be missing anything, I just can’t watch them on my TV that’s all.

So, until I get my box then..

Internet TV

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I Like, Roku, TV1 Comment

We went to San Diego to visit Chips family this Christmas weekend and we were introduced to a concept that we never even thought of when it comes to watching tv. Cancel our cable and get an internet tv box and watch Netflix and Hulu only.

Ok, I’ve known about Hulu for a few years, I love Hulu for watching shows that I missed when they first aired on tv. When I was a regular user of the site they only had Fox and NBC that I knew of. Whenever I’d miss my CBS, ABC and CW shows I’d go there and they would redirect me to the network website.

We used to get Netflix DVD’s in the mail and I was a member when they first introduced streaming movies on their site. They would only allow you to watch 8 hours of movies per month with the rental membership and that clock was ticking away even when your movie was paused. I would pause it so that it could download because it played faster than it could download. This was when I had a lower DSL speed. So if I let it play in real-time, it would keep pausing which made it very difficult to watch and they only had older movies available for download so it really wasn’t worth my time since they had a very small selection.

What we were told by relatives was that if we had an X-box then we could watch Hulu and Netflix and replace our cable but what they don’t realize is that we don’t have an X-box, Wii or PS3 so we can’t just go out and pay a few hundred dollars for a video gaming system just so we can save money every month on our cable. But I may have found an alternative.

The Roku player is way cheaper than an x-box and it allows you to watch your internet tv shows and movies with Hulu and Netflix as well as many other services. There is no monthly fee with Roku, all you pay for is the monthly fee that the services like Hulu and Netflix charge. Hulu Plus charges $7.99 per month and Netflix charges $9.99 per month. Well, I pay $110 per month for my cable and I hardly ever watch it.

I can watch my shows when they come on at their regular time but sometimes that time isn’t convenient. Also, I ignore the phone when it rings because I don’t want to be interrupted during my shows because if I miss one second of it then I feel lost. Well, this way I can pause it when the phone rings instead.

The downside is that I can’t watch my shows when they air, like when Chuck is on at 8pm on Monday nights, I won’t be able to see it until the next day. I mean, I can deal with that but at the same time, I like to watch it when it comes on, not the next day. The last few seasons I had multiple shows on multiple channels at the same time so some shows I was forced to watch on Hulu the next day which I didn’t mind but it was irritating to have to wait. Also some of my shows weren’t on Hulu, I had to go to the ABC website for Pushing Daisies and the CW website for Smallville.

I have a DVD recorder but ever since they switched over to digital cable they have a block on recorders unless they are DVR recorders. I used to record one show on one channel on a DVD Ram disc while watching another show on another channel while it was on. After my shows were over then I’d watch what I recorded then delete it from the disc. Well, now I can’t even do that so my DVD recorder is a giant $250 paperweight.

Well, we won’t be starting this up right away because we have to order the Roku box for the living room and order the Hulu and Netflix services the day it arrives then we will try it and see if we like it before canceling our cable.

The problem is, I’m still going to have to use my computer to watch my CW shows because I looked on Hulu and they aren’t there. They might be on Netflix, I don’t know because they only have the dvd’s for season 10 of Smallville on their site. It doesn’t look like I can watch ALL of my shows on there which is a real bummer.

Also, sometimes you just like to turn the tv on and watch whatever is on. I don’t know if I want to feel pressured to choose something to turn on then when it’s over I gotta make another decision. At least with Cable you can turn it on a channel and watch whatever is on for a few hours.

I also didn’t see any of my HBO and Showtime shows. True Blood comes on in the summertime and if Hulu doesn’t have it and Netflix doesn’t have the current episodes for streaming then I’m gonna be screwed. I’m gonna have to go to a p2p website and download them. I don’t want to have to do that. I pay for HBO and Showtime each month and I’m gonna lose them over this so that would suck big time.

On one hand I want to save myself some big bucks every month but on the other hand, I’m still gonna have to use the computer to watch certain shows which I don’t like.

But, maybe this will convince me. Like I said, I pay $110 for cable and if we get this then I will only have to pay $18 per month for Hulu and Netflix. That’s a savings of $92 per month, that’s $1,104 per year in savings. Of course that will only go towards buying more groceries every month so that is great for us but not great when I can’t see True Blood.

I have a lot to think about here. Maybe someone can give me their opinions about #1 the Roku box and #2 this whole concept of canceling cable and going with internet tv instead. Please, give me all of your thoughts.

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

On By Michel McDonaldIn Celebrities, Comics, Humor, TVLeave a comment

I woke up late (which is normal since I’m up till 3am most nights) and went into the living room and saw that Darrin was watching this rally in Washington D.C. on CSPAN. I thought, oh great, another Glenn Beck rally? No thanks. Then I saw it was Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Darrin was complaining about how stupid he thought it was but that didn’t prevent him from watching it all the way through.

I sat and watched it for about an hour with him then went in my room and turned the TV on and it was also on Comedy Central. I looked at the guide and it said Scrubs was supposed to be on. I wanted to see how much longer it was supposed to be on but since it said Scrubs I had no clue. Didn’t TV Guide know this was supposed to be on? I sat and watched the rest of it until it was over and it was pretty good. It was completely commercial free which is unusual for Comedy Central to do without some kind of brand recognition.

Darrin didn’t think it was funny, he complained about how Jon and Stephen kept interrupting the 2 singers who were singing about a train, he said it was completely uncoordinated. I had to remind him that it was part of a skit they were doing. It was obvious and I’m sure they rehearsed it.

There were quite a few singers and it looked like a fun rally that I wouldn’t have minded going to had I been in D.C., awake and knew about it beforehand lol. Then again, it’s a lot of standing, no thanks. I can barely stand long enough to do the dishes let alone stand in a crowd not being able to move an inch for 2 hours.

I actually don’t know for sure that it was 2 hours long and I’m sure those people had to wait several hours before it started. All I knew was that at 12 it was time to change the channel and put on Elvira’s Movie Macabre. I have my priorities you know.

In case you missed it, you can check in with Jon in the Rally to Restore Sanity or with Stephen to Keep Fear Alive. It was pretty entertaining and I appreciated what Jon said at the very end about tolerance and hate. Bravo Jon Stewart.

Official Book Club Selection

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, Celebrities, eBook, Nook, People, TVLeave a comment

I started reading this book on October 17th and just finished reading it today.  It took me awhile to read it because it was so big but I enjoyed every minute.

I wanted to read this book not just to read all about Kathy’s life but I also wanted to read it as research for my own autobiography and it helped out a lot.  It also gave me encouragement to include a few things that I was afraid to, but not too many things.

I was touched in chapter 4 when she talked about her brothers friend sexually assaulting her, yes it was only a kiss but he was 28 and she was 13, that is sexual assault, rape and child molestation.  Then she talked about her brother almost molesting her too.  I was actually in tears throughout most of that chapter.

Then when I got to chapter 9 where she was talking about doing Suddenly Susan and talked about her co-star David Strickland I started crying because I liked him.  I heard about the drugs but I didn’t know the whole story.

When I first heard on the news that he killed himself I just remember crying because I loved him on Suddenly Susan.  When I hear that an actor who I loved killed themselves, it makes me sad and upset.  He had some pretty funny lines and he was so cute and I just couldn’t see him killing himself especially when he’s working on a TV show.  It was just really sad.

But then she got to Woz, co-founder of Apple and then she had all these emails in that chapter.  I think I fell asleep about 3 times.  I just couldn’t stay awake.  It took me longer to read that chapter than any of the other chapters.  I don’t know why she put them in there.  I mean, she could’ve just made up a story of how things progressed based on her recollection of the emails but she thought it would be better to just show them.

I was glad when the next chapter was going back to the story though.  By the time I got to the end of the book, there was an interview with Kathy from Random House.  Again, I was bored to tears.

I love Kathy Griffin to death and I was happy that I finally got to read her book.  I laughed, I cried and then I fell asleep.  Despite the boring parts, I still give her props for writing it.  She could’ve left the world in the dark but she chose to let us in on that private part and for that I thank her.

I think that if a person doesn’t like Kathy Griffin for her humor, read this book and it just might change your mind.  Maybe you might all of a sudden be able to remove the very long and very thick stick out of your ass and realize how funny she really is.

Let me tell you how D-list she really is.  I went to put in the tags for this post and let yahoo suggest tags and it didn’t even show her name as a tag.  Hello, how many times is her name listed in this post?  You would think that her name would’ve shown up in the tags.  I thought that she if anyone would appreciate the humor in that.

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

On By Michel McDonaldIn Celebrities, TVLeave a comment

I wasn’t going to watch the new Housewives show because I think there is a bit of a housewife overload. But… when I found out that one of the housewives is Kim Richards who was a face that was all over the place in the mid 80′s, I figured I would give it a go.

I didn’t know that she is related to the Hilton’s either. Seeing her was a huge surprise, a good surprise.

Housewives rundown:

  • Orange County – Eh, I like one or two of them but the others I don’t care for.
  • Atlanta – I never really watched
  • New York – I liked New York
  • New Jersey – I LOVED New Jersey
  • Washington D.C. – I never really watched
  • Beverly Hills – I think I will like

I hate getting sucked into yet another housewives show but luckily they repeat so if I miss an episode because of my Thursday night shows then I can watch it when it repeats.

Darrin says that the houses in this new series puts all the houses in the previous shows to shame. He said that all the other housewives look poor compared to Beverly Hills.

Beast Legends at 1am?

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

Every Thursday night I turn to the SyFy channel to watch Destination Truth then Beast Legends.  For some odd reason Ghost Hunters is on instead.  Last week Ghost Hunters took Beast Legends time slot as well and I thought something was very strange about that but I didn’t investigate it until tonight.

I went to the Beast Legends page on the SyFy website and the first thing that I noticed was the time change on the image (above) that says 1am.

1am?  Really?  Did it get that bad of a rating that they had to change it to 1am?  I mean sure, the fictional characters they are looking for are far fetched from reality but you could say the same thing about Destination Truth as well.

I wasn’t too impressed with Beast Legends but I did watch it because I thought that the 3D graphics they were creating to build the beasts was kind of cool.  Then they had the little 1 or 2 minute movie at the end which only reminded me of an original SyFy movie lol.

If they are moving it to 1am permanently then I’m not even going to bother watching it anymore.  Yes I’m usually up at that time anyway but I’m not going to watch it if it’s so bad that they had to move it to 1am.  I’m loyal to some shows but not that one.

It’s too bad because the concept of the show was interesting.

The Colorado Kid

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Nook, TVLeave a comment

I started watching the show Haven on Syfy when it began at the beginning of Summer mainly because according to the commercials it had some supernatural stuff happening. Anything supernatural is right up my alley.

The show is based on the Stephen King novel “The Colorado Kid” which made it even more exciting because anything that Stephen King writes is a success right?

I should have read the novel before the show came on the air just to get a feeling for what I can expect in the show but it never really occurred to me to do that. I finally did buy it this weekend and just finished reading it and I am even more confused about everything than I was before I read it.

In the book, Vince and Dave, who are the 2 brothers who work at the newspaper, are telling the story of the Colorado Kid to Stephanie, a 20-year-old intern, how he was found, how they found out who he was and everything else about his death from 1980.

According to the book, these “old” men are well into their 90′s and this was in 2005. Well, in Haven they are much younger, at least in their 70′s right? And the story of the Colorado Kid happened 25 years ago which would be 1985 not 1980.

I know the show Haven is only based on a book and that it’s “only a story” but when you are interested in a story, you have to know what’s going on to understand it. Even if it’s all make believe.

I was hoping this book would help me to understand Haven but it ended up confusing me more than I already was. I thought that the book was going to have all these strange occurrences that the show has but instead it’s just 2 men telling a story to a woman.

In Haven, there is a newspaper clipping of Lucy who is Audrey Parkers mother*. I don’t understand what that clipping has to do with the Colorado Kid considering they are looking up in the sky and the Colorado Kid was found dead by a trashcan. I tried looking for the newspaper clipping on the Haven page of the SyFy website but it’s not there. I tried doing a Google search but found nothing. I was hoping that I could get a closer look at the clipping to see what I needed to see to get the story but there’s nothing.

Apparently I was wrong about them looking up at the sky. They were indeed looking at “the Colorado Kid” but he’s not by a trash can in the picture in this article. In the book the 2 people who found him, the now Mayor of the town and his wife when they were teenagers, were not photographed looking at him. In the tv show Haven, it’s a woman and a little boy looking at him. Here is that clipping:

Image courtesy of Alastor from YouSayToo

I start to think of the Colorado kids wife and child but the wife was contacted a year after his death and flew to Maine from Colorado. The child however would have only been 2 years old considering he was 6 months old when his father went missing. This child is a bit older than 2 but the wife’s name wasn’t Lucy anyway (in the book).

I did a search in the book and it couldn’t find the word “Lucy” anywhere. I also did a search for the word “Haven” which came up with 3 but it was followed with a “‘t” which spells “haven’t.”

Oh, and what also confused me is that I thought this book was written in the 70′s or 80′s because the picture on the front cover of the book looks like an old picture. It’s supposed to be Stephanie, the 20-year-old intern right? Well, again, it looks like an older picture. Look at her hair and dress. Not something you’d expect to see an intern reporter to wear to work.

At any rate, I found the book to give me no answers but I still enjoyed reading it. I think that if a person wants to know more about Haven they are not going to find any answers in this book. The show is just an extension to the book, the book isn’t going to answer the questions about what’s going on in Haven.

* Update 2011-10-01: When I wrote this in 2010 I thought Lucy was Audrey Parkers mother but at the end of the 2nd season we all find out that Lucy and Audrey Parker are the same person.  Mind blowing.

No Ordinary Family

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

Tonight was the series premier of the new ABC show “No Ordinary Family.” I have been looking forward to it because as you know, it is supernatural in nature. It’s a live action “Incredibles” if you will.

Here is the synopsis that ABC Publicity wrote:

“The Powell family must learn to deal with the super powers each has mysteriously acquired after the crash of their plane in the Amazon River.

Jim discovers that he has the power of super strength and immediately feels a new sense of purpose and empowerment. With the aid of his best friend and confidant, George, he sets his sights on becoming a hero.

Stephanie struggles to balance her family life with working 80 hours a week as an award-winning scientist, and after developing the power of speed, she can now move effortlessly through her daily responsibilities. Always the scientist, Stephanie immediately questions the phenomenon and, with the aid of her lab tech,

Katie, the two begin to research the mystery behind the powers. For 16-year-old Daphne, she turns telepathic and hears other people’s hopes, dreams, fears and joys, whether she cares to or not.

And 14-year-old JJ struggles constantly to satisfy his parents and teachers as he grapples with a learning disability and bad grades. But he suddenly finds his mental abilities strengthened to a super genius level. Written by ABC Publicity“

I couldn’t have summed it up any better.

Michael Chiklis was a super hero in Fantastic-4 so he already knows how it is being strong as his character was “The Thing.” The Thing had super-strength with a rock-like body which made him invulnerable. It’s very similar except in No Ordinary Family he retains his human form and has all 5 fingers on each hand. Unfortunately in this show he does show that he has an invulnerability. He got shot at near close range in the back of the neck. It didn’t go that deep into his skin but he could have been killed if it was at closer range I bet.

Julie Benz was the first face you saw in the very first episode and original unaired pilot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where she played a vampire who was the original love to Angelus. Ah, the glory days. I loved her as Darla. Because she played a vampire in Buffy and Angel, she already knows a thing or two about super speed considering vampires can move faster than any human can. Then again, in Buffy and Angel, they didn’t really showcase their speed as much. Her speed actually reminds me of Superman.

I don’t know any of the other actors in this new would be hit show but I do admire their abilities.

Katie can do what everyone wishes they could do, read minds. Although, it’s probably more a curse than a blessing because she will never be able to date a guy knowing that he might be thinking really nasty things about her but it could go to her advantage if she knew that she was about to drink a ruffietini. She may lose all of her friends because the thoughts they have in their heads about her may not be too friendly. The prospect of finding new friends might end up being difficult too. At least she won’t have to worry about being talked about behind her back because she can hear it from the horses brain.

JJ has an advantage that I wish I had when I was in school. He struggled with a learning disability which I also suffer from but he can finally conquer that because his new power is that of brain power. He’s a freakin’ genius now, and not in the sarcastic tone either. He can see the problems being worked out right in front of his eyes. Now that is an ability that can be a huge gift. Although, it looks like cheating to me lol.

Of course you can’t have super powers and have all the advantage, there has to be an yin to their yang. It’s just like in the show Charmed, you can’t have good witches without demons to fight. It’s also why there is a “God” and “Devil”. There can’t be a good without an evil.

This show also reminds me of X-Men and Heroes since everyone seems to have a different power.

No Ordinary Family airs on Tuesday nights at 8pm on ABC. If you miss it then catch it on the ABC website on demand.

Colbert Testimony Before Congress (House Subcommittee)

On By Michel McDonaldIn Amplify, Humor, Joke, Political, TVLeave a comment

Stephen Colbert testified before congress about immigration and people were not amused at all. Although I found his speech hilarious, I do find that it was a waste of time for congress. He could have just put the skit into his show and Congress could’ve watched it from the comfort of their homes or offices.

People are saying he is making a mockery of the congressional hearing, well, wasn’t that his point of being there? He was asked to be there by the congresswoman that he mentioned and later she said that she didn’t know he was going to be in character. Come on, he’s StephenColbert. If you know anything about him it’s that he’s like Lady Gaga or Kathy Griffin, always in character.

Again, I found it hilarious but that’s just me. What do you think?

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

Colbert Testimony Before Congress (House Subcommittee)

(there was a video here but it was removed by the user who uploaded it)

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/b3le

Movie Macabre with Elvira on My Network

On By Michel McDonaldIn Halloween, Humor, Movies, TVLeave a comment

Hey remember Movie Macabre from the early 80′s? Well it’s back!

Elvira is now hosting movies on “My Network” or My45 here in Bakersfield but check the info page on her Facebook fan page to find out if you will get it in your city and what channel/time it will be on.

It says that its going to be on at 12am on Saturdays but I checked and it’s wrong. It says 12pm on the guide but on the My45 website it’s says that it’s on at 7:30am which I also just checked and that is wrong too lol.

I can safely say that if you are in Bakersfield, California, you can watch it at 12pm on Saturday on KUVI 45 which is Brighthouse cable channel 4 or 1004 for My45 HD.

This weeks movie is Night of the Living Dead (1968).

I wonder if Breather will be coming back too lol. Remember him? He had like this vaseline on his face or something and he was always calling her and breathing heavy on the phone and occasionally they would have him on the show.

I watched her show every Saturday at noon when I was in elementary school and junior high school lol. I even paid $12 to her fan club where I had to send a self-addressed stamped manilla envelope (S.A.S.E.) to receive whatever came with the fan club membership. Let me think, I remember an 8×10 signed black and white photo, bumper sticker and I forgot what else. That stuff is long gone though. I bought it in 1982 lol. Oh it had a newsletter too but that was the only one I ever got. I guess it was a standard newsletter that they only sent out to 1 time members who paid $12.

Anyhoo, it’s gonna be so fun to watch her again. I’ve missed her so much.