Can your DVR take it?

I have a friend who keeps two DVRs running day and night.  She loves TV that much.  I used to think this was one DVR too many.  Now I see her point.

House, Modern Family, Mad Men, The Good Wife, Glee, Friday Night Lights, 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, Dexter, Fringe, The Closer, Weeds, The Office, The Simpsons, Psych. Just for starters.

Then there’s the anthropological riches of Reality TV The Real Housewives, Project Runway, Wipeout, Ice Road Truckers, Jersey Shore, Deadliest Catch, Survivor, Big Brother, Amazing Race and American Idol  

And now the new Fall season and lots of interesting newcomers: Terriers, Rubicon, The Big C, Boardwalk Empire.

So much for Newton Minow’s "wasteland."  So much for academic orthodoxy.  So much for the intellectuals who bet heavily on the idea that television was bankrupt and moribund.  (No metaphor was left unmixed.)  For a wasteland, TV is surprisingly fecund.

Would love to hear from readers how this Fall season compares to last.  I can’t honestly remember.

References

Minow, Newton.  1961.  Television and the Public Interest. An address delivered 9 May 1961, National Association of Broadcasters, Washington, DC. click here.

4 thoughts on “Can your DVR take it?”

  1. Tom Purves

    Someone *really* needs to tell your friend about bittorrent.

    Also, I feel the need to point out that two DVRs running day and night, recording 48hrs of programming every 24hrs would be recording content at roughly twice the rate that any one human could watch tv.

  3. Sailaja

    You’re forgetting my current ‘favorite,’ Outsourced on NBC. I can’t wait to see how this show plays up Indian Stereotypes!

    I take that back, its not even Indian Stereotypes because if they were playing that up, the show would be called “Doctors Office” and all the doctors would be Indian.

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