Weathering The Writers Strike, Take Six

cod4.png

Moman is fresh out of DVR-ed HD content and wondered if I (or any ZNF readers) have any suggestions on how his family might weather the remainder of the writers strike.

Unfortunately, things will get worse before they get better. Even if a deal is struck soon, it’ll be months before we see fresh content that hasn’t already been written and filmed. And speaking of that content – though I haven’t yet decided if I like it, the Terminator spin-off recently began. Plus Jericho and Lost will premiere shortly. Brent Evans is maintaining a list of other winter series.

I’ve really enjoyed both seasons of Dexter and know Moman will too, but he’s going to have to stay up late and watch it when the kids are sleeping. CBS will be running an edited version during prime time, but I suggest Mo pull the trigger on a Netflix subscription and check out the original. And speaking of previously aired shows, Burn Notice finally showed up on Amazon Unbox and iTunes a few weeks ago – I raced through the entire season on TiVo, iPhone, and MacBook Pro. Highly recommended.

Otherwise, with scripted television and college football mostly over, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time playing Call of Duty 4 and intend to Netflix Firefly. Though, that may have been the case anyway as the studios haven’t been allowing good content to incubate/blossom before pulling the plug. Fortunately for Melissa, she’s content with Bret Michaels, Snoop, and American Idol.

For continued strike coverage, a show status Wiki is being maintained and the LA Times is blogging the situation. Any suggestions for new series, past series, or smart reality content to check out?

23 thoughts on “Weathering The Writers Strike, Take Six”

  1. Captain Obvious says you, your friend, and your friend’s family should be reading more anyway. Establish a one book’s chapter read for every half hour of television watched base line. Fiction, non-fiction, biographies, technical manuals, whatever. Read more than you passively watch.

    On a less cerebral note, Metal Gear Solid 4 is due soon, that will certainly make me forget about TV!
    :)

  2. I’ve been downloading and watching some series and movies I missed the first time around. I download them and then convert them over and transfer to the TiVo HD; it’s as if I recorded them there originally. So far I’m enjoying Dexter (never had a Showtime subscription) and Mad Men, along with a few movies like Superbad and the Pirates of the Carribean series.

  3. First off, Brent Evans’ Geek Tonic & Futon Critic have great “shows left” lists…

    I still have Dexter S2, American Dad (11), Simpsons (8), Torchwood (13), Las Vegas (13), SG: Atlantis (11), Chuck (12), Iron Chef America (10) & Star Trek (53) – so I’m good – plus Netflix hates me (3 discs every 4 days or so)

  4. not sure if your into car shows and/or british television, but i am totally addicted to watching Top Gear. these guys drive amazing cars and some of the ‘challenges’ segments of the show are hilarious. finalgear.com has torrents for almost every episode. i highly recommend season 10, episode 7 if you want an idea of how funny the show is…

    Link:
    http://www.finalgear.com/shows/topgear/

  5. Since Big John mentioned it, I am maintaining a “remaining episodes” list and update it every day. It’s sorted into one section of shows still alive (with new episodes still to air) and another section of deadpool shows. If you want to take a peek check it out here.

    I just started watching Terminator: the Sarah Conner Chronicles and I think it’s worth watching. As Dave mentioned Jericho is a must see and it’s coming up soon. Lost is the other obvious one I’ll be watching.

    Brent

  6. I’ve had so much recording this January that I may need to get the DVR expander.

    L&O is back,
    Medium,
    a couple surprise episodes of Chuck this week,
    Breaking Bad (a decent new show, particularly if you like Bryan Cranston from Malcom in the Middle),
    Monk,
    Pysch,
    SG:Atlantis
    And if that list didn’t already make you think I have questionable taste, I’ve been watching some suggestions on my TiVo: Nash Bridges, CSI, NCIS, and Shark.

  7. The terminator series is really starting to grow on me. Especially after the last episode, it’s becoming a good action drama replacement for 24.

  8. Nice to see you back in COD4 :). I find myself watching COPS & Cash Cab. They need to hurry this strike up my brain can’t take much more. LOL

  9. Love D4 – its so much better than the others. Hope to see you online –
    I play at
    Server Name: Sadistic Old Bastards HardCore
    Server Type: Call of Duty 4
    IP Address: 216.246.108.227 Port: 28960

  10. Hatter, I’m still doing the loan wolf thing but have been told the mission/story-mode is very entertaining. So, hopefully I’ll get around to that at some point. I also should try some of the other Live scenarios, especially since friendly-fire is off by default – safer with my itchy trigger finger.

    John S, is that PC-only or can I get to it from my Xbox?

  11. I liked the NBC series Life, though it may not be for everybody. Chuck is also funny. I assume you can get these off openhulu for now, until they patch things up with Apple.

    Dexter of course. Californication w David Duchovny. Weeds. All Showtime series (CBS) so assume all are available on iTunes. Or via Unbox on your Tivo.

    Of the cancelled series I’ve been recommending “Smith” (CBS/iTunes/Unbox) with Ray Liotta. Fabulous. Also like “The Nine”, which you can find Episodes 10-13 “online”…

    I’ll repeat the Top Gear endorsement. Fabulous show, beautifully shot, very funny. Mostly a male thing though… Just type “Top Gear” into YouTube and you’ll find a million segments people have posted. If you like them though you should watch the full episodes… you’ll find these “online” too.

    A left field recommendation is “Profit”, a TV series from 1996-97. Truly dark and skewed… Adrian Pasdar will never have a better role…

    If you haven’t seen them of course, all of the Deadwood episodes are on DVD and you’ll never see a better show…

  12. I would highly recommend the Canadian show “ReGenesis”. I would consider it a cross between “Medical Investigation” and “CSI”. I don’t believe the show is available on DVD. It is currently in syndication in the US (but usually airs around midnight here). Of course there are other means of ‘acquiring’ the full seasons but that depends on the orientation of one’s moral compass.

  13. What about British stuff. Has anybody watched Hotel Babylon? Or any of their newer SciFi shows like the new Doctor Who? Anything worth catching?

  14. It seems I got a lot of similar tastes to some of the comments here.

    British stuff is good because they aren’t affected by the strike. I highly recommend Torchwood and Doctor Who.

    I also like Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles and I loved Jericho in season one and am dying for its return..

  15. Universal HD is currently running Jericho and Battlestar Galactica from the beginning. They’re only a few episodes deep, too, so if you can’t find reruns of all the episodes so far, you should be able to Blockbuster/Netflix yourself up to speed. Of course, this is only two hours a week of content, and that’s assuming you didn’t watch these when they were new…hrrrmmmmmm.

  16. Ugly Betty!!! I’ve just finished watching the first season from Netflix. The only positive from this writers strike is that I’ve been given time to watch and enjoy and LOVE this incredible show! Great characters, very well written, funny and touching!

  17. Dave – its a PC server. WE generally limit it to about 30 players.
    We are also running a sniper only server.
    As to other activities – I purchased the whole Man from U.N.C.L.E. series recently so that is taking up my time where NCIS was.
    But there are new Psych and Monk episodes on USA.
    And then there’s Rappelz – a FREE hack-n-slash online game – a la Diablo. (its more like Diablo 3)

  18. I have to say that Breaking Bad has surprised me… Torchwood is back! SG as a terminator is awesome, guess she is type-cast as a bad ass SciFi heroine now.. Works for me!

  19. I actually haven’t got around to watching it yet, but In Treatment on HBO sounds like it’s good, and from what I’ve seen of it, looks interesting – and it’s airing EVERY WEEKDAY. FOR NINE WEEKS. IN HD. Thank you HBO for giving my TiVo something more to do!

  20. I just moved Torchwood to the top of my Netflix queue, so I’ll check it out this upcoming week. Also caught Lost last night. I’ve seen a few Top Gears and enjoyed it – just added a Season Pass. I still need to watch Firefly and I want to watch The Wire, but don’t have the endurance for every season so I’m thinking of starting with season 3. (I watched half of season 1 a couple years ago.)

Comments are closed.