It’s flippin’ sweet

I’ve been cautiously optimistic ever since FOX announced they were developing a Napoleon Dynamite animated series. I’m a huge fan of Napoleon Dynamite and was bowled over by this news. At the same time I was a bit scared of how it would end up being. The series premiered tonight with two episodes, and I have to say that I was very happy with them.

The “entire cast” from the movie returned for the show, which was a very big draw for me. Most of the characters sounded great, particularly Napoleon, Kip and Rex. I was a bit put off with Uncle Rico, and Summer didn’t sound like Summer at all. However, what was touted as “the entire cast” was a bit off, as the actor who portrayed Don in the movie was the only one who did not return for the show. Also, Lafawnduh’s character does not make a return at all, and Kip is soon seen chasing other women on the internet. Overall, the voice acting was top-notch, even if Uncle Rico sounded like he was dazed and and spaced out (more so than his character was in the movie.)

They’re about to receive a roundhouse kick from someone wearing those bad boys

As for the show itself, the characters are represented pretty well. Napoleon is still the day-dreaming, exaggerating nerd, Kip is still the shy child, Deb is still awkward, Rex is still a self-absorbed badass and Don is still a deuche. It was interesting to see Grandma character develop more since she was absent for most of the movie. There are also some new characters introduced, particularly a couple of teachers at Napoleon’s school. All in all, the characters are all portrayed in a familiar light. The show does take advantage of being animated by having the characters do some ridiculous stuff and having vivid daydreams, but it’s all done well.

The two episodes were written well and proved to be entertaining. In the first episode Napoleon comes into contact with a medication that dulls his nerves and makes him super aggressive, which Rex takes to mean that he is destined to be a champion in the local fight club. In the second episode the high school science teacher develops a dating machine that matches Napoleon with a foreign exchange student, Pedro with Summer and Don with Deb. Throughout the two episodes there are events going on that just make you laugh and fit right in to the context of the characters. From Napoleon and Kip fighting over the last piece of fried chicken to Uncle Rico becoming Kip’s manager when he takes up a magic act, it’s all stuff that is believable within the “Napoleon Dynamite universe.”

Every cage fighter has their abs applied via spray paint before each match

I think it’s safe to say that the show is successful in paying a ton of fan service to, well, fans of the movie. The vast majority of the original actors reprise their roles in animated episodes that really reflect the silly/stupid/retarded humor that the movie captured oh so well. Is the animated series stupider than the movie? Definitely. Is that a bad thing? Not at all. If you liked the movie then you will enjoy the show. If you didn’t like the movie and didn’t appreciate the humor then you should go eat a decroded piece of crap.

With the start of the new year, I will once again take a brief look at my ten most popular blogs of the past year (thanks to the cool tools available through Google Analytics. I’m really curious to see which old blogs are still getting activity, and which new ones were strong enough to make their way into the top ten. Before I get into that, I just want to spout out some statistical info:

• My site had 69,771 unique visitors over the past year
• 9,536 of these visitors liked my blog so much that they became repeat visitors
• 42,852 of these viewers found my blog off of a typical Google search, while 16,831 came across my site via StumbleUpon
• 42,969 visitors were from the United States, 6,282 were from Canada and 5,536 were rocking from the UK
• The average visitor spent 31 seconds looking at a particular post before leaving the site
•  31,240 visitors used Firefox, 20,858 used Chrome, 11,540 used Internet Explorer and 8,665 used Safari (I wonder if next year will be the year that Safari beats IE)

Just wanted to share some of my Christmas swag:

Games:

• Gears of War 3
• PlayStation Move Shooting Attachment
• Rock Band Guitar
• Uncharted 3

DVDs:

• Futurama Volume 6 Bluray
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
• Simpsons Season 14 DVD

CDs:

• Flogging Molly: Speed of Darkness
• The Simpsons: Songs in the Key of Springfield

Books:

• Home Sausage Making: How-To Techniques For Making and Enjoying 100 Sausages at Home
• Inheritance
• Lord of Souls: An Elder Scrolls Novel

Every December Shell and I get ready for the holidays by pulling out all of our Christmas movies and begin watching them. Of course I consider my two “Christmas with the Simpsons” DVDs part of this tradition and it’s nice to get to watch a bunch of Christmas-themed episodes back to back without having to switch through all the DVDs. Unfortunately not all of the episodes on the DVDs are Christmas-related but are included as a filler mainly because there is snow in the episode, or if Christmas is briefly mentioned but not the center of the episode. So I decided to put together a list of my five favorite Christmas-themed Simpsons episodes. Most of these can be found on the DVDs, but one is not present for some unknown reason.

5. Miracle on Evergreen Terrace

How You Can Watch It: Season 9 DVD, Christmas with the Simpsons DVD

Rundown: This episode is based around Bart ruining Christmas. He decides to open his presents early and ends up burning the tree down on accident. Rather than tell the family that he ruined Christmas he buries the remains outside and then tells the family that he saw a burglar steal the tree and toys. The townspeople gladly donate money to the family a la “It’s a Wonderful Life” but once Bart confesses and the truth is known, the townspeople feel like they’ve been scammed. The Simpsons are shunned until the townspeople believe that the only way to make things right is to steal stuff from the Simpsons to get their money back, and the episode ends with the family fighting/bonding over their last remaining possession: a washcloth.

Why I Like It: It’s a great Christmas story. You have the family all excited and geared up for Christmas until Bart ruins it. The Simpsons soon find themselves stripped of all their stuff but still find happiness having just the washcloth. It’s not the best Christmas episode but it’s more Christmasy than Mr. Plow.

4. ‘Tis the Fifteenth Season

How You Can Watch It: Season 15 DVD, Christmas with the Simpsons 2 DVD

Rundown: The episode is based around Homer’s greed and selfishness, particularly at Christmas time. To start, Homer forgets to get Lenny a present for the Secret Santa exchange. Then when Homer receives a valuable Joe DiMaggio baseball card from Mr. Burns (don’t worry…Mr. Burns has no idea it’s value) and sells it, he spends the proceeds on a $500 astrolobe rather than saving money to purchase a Christmas tree. After being tossed on the couch for his selfless purchase Homer watches “A Christmas Carol” and vows to become the nicest guy in town.

He proceeds to compete with Flanders to do the most good in Springfield for the holidays by collecting money for the church and volunteering at the homeless shelter. Flanders attempts to best Homer by giving every resident of Springfield a Christmas gift, but after Lisa talks to Homer about Buddhism he comes to the conclusion that if he steals everyone’s presents then they would be happier. What follows is a “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” with Homer stealing all the presents in town and waiting to hear the town’s reaction. Both Homer and Flanders realize how they have been acting and work together to return the presents to the angry mob.

Why I Like It: The episode is a parady of A Christmas Carol and How the Grinch Stole Christmas…both iconic Christmas stories. Homer’s rise from self-centeredness to Mr. Christmas Spirit is quite comical and done well. What makes the episode really great is how Flanders get usurped as the nicest guy in town and finds himself growing jealous of Homer’s sudden change of heart. To see Homer out-doing Flanders at every turn is great and the whole episode makes for an excellent Christmas story.

3. Grift of the Magi

How You Can Watch It: Season 11 DVD/ Christmas with the Simpsons DVD

Rundown: Springfield Elementary goes bankrupt and has to close it’s doors until a private company called Kids First Industries takes over the education of the children. Lisa soon discovers that rather than teaching the students the core curriculum they are merely test subjects for a toy company’s market research on how to develop the next have to have Christmas toy. The end result of this research is Funzo that seems to be the perfect toy until Lisa and Bart realize it is programmed to destroy lesser toys. Bart, Lisa and Homer join forces to travel around town on Christmas Eve and steal all the Funzos out of the childrens’ homes. There is a final showdown when Kid First Industries security guard Gary Coleman shows up to stop them, but it turns into a debate on the spirit of Christmas vs. the commercialization of the holiday. By the time they are finished arguing it’s Christmas morning and the Simpsons invite Coleman over for Christmas dinner.

Why I Like It: This is the funniest of the Christmas episodes. The opening with Fat Tony ripping the school off is hilarious, and it progressively gets funnier. The Funzo doll itself is just ridiculous, and I loved how it was programmed to laugh like Nelson (haw haw) based on what the toy company heard from spying on the classroom. Then you throw in the random insanity of Gary Coleman and it all adds up to a funny episode that is a mockery of the Tickle Me Elmo craze of 1996.

2. Marge Be Not Proud

How You Can Watch It: Season 7 DVD (for whatever ridiculous reason this episode is not included on any of the Christmas with the Simpsons collections)

Rundown: Bart gets caught stealing a video game since Marge and Homer won’t buy it for him. He is banned from the store by the security guard but has to go back with the family to get their Christmas portrait taken. The guard catches him and informs Homer and Marge about what Bart did. While Homer sees fit to punish Bart by banning him from having any nog at all, Marge finds herself heartbroken and can’t help but see him as a grownup young man who is no longer her little boy. The family shuns Bart and not only does he regret stealing the game, but he also sees how much he misses Marge’s doting, despite the fact that he used to resent it. In the end Bart gets a professional portrait of himself and gives it to Marge (along with the receipt) as a Christmas gift, and she is so moved that all is forgiven.

Why I Like It: Now this is a Christmas story. You have Bart get brainwashed by a gun-wielding Santa into the belief that he needs to have this bloody, violent game and he sees stealing as the only means to get it. After Marge is informed that he shoplifted she inadvertently ignores him which is far worse than being angry. So the Simpsons family is doing all these Christmas things together like shopping and building snowmen and Bart is getting left out. By the end of the episode Marge realizes that despite what he did, he is still her son and she still loves him. It’s a real shame that this episode is left out of both Christmas with the Simpsons DVDs because I think this one is one heck of an excellent Christmas episode, only second to:

1. Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire

How You Can Watch It: Season 1 DVD, Christmas with the Simpsons DVD

Rundown: With Marge spending the family’s Christmas savings to have Bart’s tattoo laser removed and Mr. Burns canning Christmas bonuses for the year, Homer finds himself in one heck of a pickle. In an attempt to earn enough money to save Christmas Homer picks up a second job as a mall Santa. When that ends with him only making $13 Homer and Bart head to the dog racing track to see if a Christmas miracle will occur and let them win enough to purchase gifts for the family. While the dog Homer bets on (Santa’s Little Helper) loses he ends up taking it home to the family after the owner gets rid of it. While Homer sees himself as a failure for not bringing home presents, the family love the dog so much that he ends up making it the best Christmas they ever had.

Why I Like It: What’s not to like about this episode? Not only is it the best Christmas-themed episode of the Simpsons, it ranks among my top Christmas-themed movies and shows of all time. Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire isn’t just the first Christmas-themed episode…it’s the first full-length episode of the entire series (originally titled “The Simpsons Christmas Special”.) So this is an introductory episode to the entire family. You have Bart goofing off by singing “Batman Smells” during the school concert, Lisa shows off her nerdiness by portraying a representation of Santa revered in the South Pacific, and you also see the friction between Homer and Marge’s sisters, Patty and Selma. We even get our first glimpse of  Mr. Burns as he reveals his shrewd greed by cancelling Christmas bonuses for the power plant employees.

So while the episode is fantastic from a Simpsons fan standpoint, it goes much deeper than that into a Christmas story. You have the family father who sacrifices his time and sleep to work two jobs in order to provide a little Christmas cheer for his family. Watching Homer take the mall Santa training class is pretty funny, as is how he acts once he dons the suit. Then Homer has a crazy scheme for getting more money and it involves betting on dog racing. When Homer begins to have second thoughts, Bart famously says,

“Aw, come on, Dad, this can be the miracle that saves Christmas. If TV has taught me anything, it’s that miracles always happen to poor kids at Christmas. It happened to Tiny Tim, it happened to Charlie Brown, it happened to the Smurfs, and it’s gonna happen to us.” (quote taken from Simpsons World: The Ultimate Episode Guide: Seasons 1-20…aka “The Simpsons Bible.)

When Homer and Bart enter their house on Evergreen Terrace carrying the rejected Santa’s Little Helper Homer finds himself the hero, and he realizes that he did indeed save Christmas for the Simpsons family.

So those are my top five Christmas-themed Simpsons episodes. There aren’t really that many, as there are only “technically” eleven out of twenty-two seasons so far. I say technically because I don’t consider some of the episodes Christmas-related. Yet there is hope, as there will be a new Christmas episode airing this year on December 18. It will be titled “Holidays of Future Passed” and as the title suggests, it will be one of those flash-forward episodes that the Simpsons like to do occasionally. This one will take place thirty years in the future as Bart, Lisa and Maggie take their children to visit Homer and Marge for Christmas. My fingers are crossed that it will at least be passible, but I doubt it will be good enough to crack my top five list.

In April I reported on how Undertaker had won his nineteenth WrestleMania match against Triple H. In that post, I had said that Triple H was one of the few left who I thought worthy of facing Undertaker at WrestleMania 20. Well, on Monday Mick Foley returned to the WWE. With “Mankind” back, I’m going to go ahead and say that Undertaker’s opponent at WrestleMania 20 will should be Mick Foley. When I was watching wrestling during the late 90s I loved watching Taker and Mankind go at it, and I would love to see them do it next year. As I’ve said before, I have a gut feeling that Undertaker will be retiring following WrestleMania 20, and I think Foley would be the ultimate final opponent to either break the streak or let it stand at twenty wins. The two of them had such epic rivalries that it would only seem right to have the Undertaker’s final match be against the “Hardcore Legend.”

So my prediction, stated on November 17, 2011, is that WrestleMania XXVIII will feature Undertaker vs. Mick Foley. Do you think Foley would make a good opponent for Undertaker, or would you rather see someone else take him on? Let me know, as long as you don’t mention John Cena.

After sitting through the terrible Treehouse of Horror XXII episode of the Simpsons, I stuck around on FOX in order to catch the series premiere of Allen Gregory. I like Jonah Hill, and I think he’s a funny guy. I figured I’d give the show a whirl to see what I thought of it. I still don’t know what to think of it too much, but I do know I’ll give it a chance and see how the next few episodes develop the series.

The show follows the life of seven year-old Allen Gregory (voiced by Hill) who comes from a powerful family.  Allen’s father is gay, and they live together with the father’s life partner and an adopted Cambodian girl. Allen and his father treat the life partner like a piece of crud, and one of the running jokes seems to be that he is not taken seriously, and neither is the adopted daughter. Allen’s father was wealthy, but he is running out of money and is forced to send Allen to public school as he can no longer afford home schooling.

You can feel the “character” of Jonah Hill behind the voice of Allen Gregory, and this is what makes the show weird. It’s a seven year-old kid who talks like a guy in his late twenty’s, and it’s not just the tone of voice but also the context of what he says. This seven year-old kid is instantly attracted to his nasty elderly principal, which is just plain gross and weird. He spews a lot of big words, acts like a big shot, and tries to talk his way out of anything. It’s something you would expect from Hill in a live action movie, but instead it’s taking place in a cartoon where his character is in elementary school.

The show has a strange sense of humor. Just the fact that there’s a kid saying adult things is strange, and I suppose it has a shock value to it. Strangely enough though, I wasn’t turned off from the show. The characters were actually funny and seemed well developed from just the series premiere. A snobby rich kid with two dads trying to fit in at school, a dominant man who is worried about losing everything he has and is struggling to maintain power, his life mate who is abused verbally yet still cares enough to stick around, and a Cambodian girl who is unappreciated and seems to have been adopted only as a publicity stunt by two gay men. Throw in Allen Gregory’s bantering with his principal who he is crushing on, his teacher who he has no respect for, and his new friend who’s name he can’t seem to remember, and you have a pretty funny cast. I’ll definitely give the show a chance to develop more and see how it goes after a few more episodes, but it definitely shows promise.

In order to get into a Halloween state of mind, Shell and I spent the weekend watching a good chunk of the Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror episodes. I ended up caving in and actually watched each one from their individual season sets, so there was a lot of getting off the couch every twenty minutes to change out the disc. The Treehouse of Horror marathon ended tonight at 8:30pm EST after we watched the episode from the current season, Treehouse of Horror XXII. Unfortunately, it was chock full of three lame stories that were just horribly constructed and presented. Please note that the following contains spoilers, so read if you don’t want to be heartbroken on your own.

The episode starts off with a brief three minute intro about Homer basically stealing his childrens’ candy. As sad as it is, this short segment was the best part of the episode…not only was it the funniest and most “Halloweenish”, but seeing Homer in a Dr. Manhattan costume was hilarious. After that was over the first commercial hit, and then the three traditional segments followed.

The first segment has Homer become paralyzed by a poisonous spider bite. Unfortunately for this segment, Homer is not entirely paralyzed as he retains the ability to control his farts. Lisa and Homer work out a means of communication in which one fart means “no” and two farts means “yes”. That’s not the worst part though…Homer is later bit by a second spider that allows him to fire webs from his butt and he begins attacking criminals and trapping them in an “ass web” (direct quote from the officer on duty, Chief Wiggum). Not for nothing but the Simpsons should be above this kind of retarded humor after twenty-three seasons. I expect this kind of juvenile humor from Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time, but not from the Simpsons. I hope this trend doesn’t continue into the remainder of their current season.

The second segment was probably the best, and would have been pretty darn good if it didn’t end in such a lame way. This one spoofs Dexter as Flanders begins to murder the scum of Springfield at the command of God. Of course it wasn’t God as it was Homer who was tricking Flanders into killing off his enemies. It all ends with God coming down to strangle Homer while the devil taunts Flanders by revealing that he is getting it on with Maude in hell. The end just kind of gets out of hand and ends up killing it for the rest of the segment up to that point. A stronger ending would have easily made this a decent Treehouse of Horror entry.

The third segment was the worst, and that says a lot from what I said above about all the fart jokes. The entire third segment is a spoof of James Cameron’s Avatar movie. Krusty is a CEO who needs the ultra-rare element “hilarium” to make his audience laugh. The planet where hilarium is found is Rigel VII, which is the home planet of the space mutant aliens (you know, Kang and Kodos). Bart and Milhouse avatar it up and get friendly with the Rigels, who then defend their land from the human army, led my Super Nintendo Chalmers. The episode ends with a stupid battle of giant mechs battling elephants with cannons as trunks and some kind of tractor beast. It was a lame spoof that had nothing Halloweenish to it and is one of the poorest additions to the Treehouse of Horror collection.

To put it bluntly, this season’s Treehouse of Horror sucked. As a Simpsons fan I was incredibly disappointed. I know the current seasons don’t hold a light to past ones, but this season’s episodes have been solid and decent so far. I didn’t expect Treehouse of Horror II quality, but I would have preferred something with better stories, better jokes and an actual nod to Halloween in the episodes. All three segments were a spoof of something from pop culture to some degree, and that just doesn’t make for good Halloween entertainment. Simply put, Treehouse of Horror XXII is a poor contribution to the series and I hope that next year’s offering is better.

I was shocked to hear that not only one, but two new TV series based on fairy tales were premiering this season. ABC showed off its new series, Once Upon a Time, on Sunday while NBC aired its first episode of “Grimm” on Friday. Just from the title of both shows you can tell they both revolve around fairy tales of some sort or another, but the two shows are completely different. While Once Upon a Time is a family-friendly show that features many of the classic fairy tale characters, Grimm is a darker and more original show that uses fairy tales as the backdrop for totally original characters. Let’s look more into how these two shows compare.

Once Upon a Time centers around actual characters that we all know and love from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales and from Disney movies and include Snow White, Jiminy Cricket and Little Red Riding Hood. The evil queen from Snow White gets all bent out of shape because seeing everyone happy makes her unhappy, so she casts a curse on all fairy tale characters to get her revenge. All these characters are sent to the present-day town of Storybrook, Maine where they go about their everyday lives not knowing that they were once fairy tale characters. The only people who know are the the evil queen, who has made herself the mayor of the town, and the grandson of Snow White. Snow White’s daughter, Emma, is a bail bondswoman in Boston and happens to be the only fairy tale character to escape the curse (watch the show to find out how.) Emma’s son tracks her down and brings her to Storybrook where she is now trapped, as part of the curse stops anyone from leaving the town. So it seems that the show will be centered around these characters trapped in modern times as Emma works to break the curse. 

It is a “cute” show and I look at it as a guilty pleasure. It’s campy and silly, and the characters are not exactly original since the show is based on actual literary characters. The thing that I enjoy the most is the flashbacks, and they gave me fond memories of Lost. It seems that as the show progresses, not only will it follow the characters in Storybrook but also delve into their past through flashbacks. Also, while the evil queen seems to be the main villain right now, there have been hints that Rumpelstiltskin is a powerful and mysterious wizard of sorts with evil intentions of his own. These aspects of the show were enough to pique my interest and I’ll definitely be tuning in Sundays to watch.

Now when I first saw the teaser for Grimm, I said to myself, “oh great, another fairy tale stuck in modern times show.” I assumed it would be incredibly similar to Once Upon a Time, but you know what they say about assuming. I was proved dead wrong, as Grimm is almost the complete opposite of Once Upon a Time. Grimm centers around a detective named Nick who is one of the last blood descendants of the Brothers Grimm. The Grimm family has dedicated itself to hunting down abnormal creatures and protecting humans from them. This is where the main difference between Once Upon a Time and Grimm come clear: Grimm has a cast of all-original characters. It is also a darker show that I would not want my young children watching. The season premiere played out like a CSI-type show, with the detective tracking down a killer who was attacking young women.

I really liked the characters presented in the show compared to those of Once Upon a Time. The main character has just discovered he’s a descendant of the Grimm bloodline and is suddenly seeing werewolves (called blutbad in the show) and demons who are masquerading as humans. There’s no Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White or Prince Charming, and instead it’s generic monsters who will be causing trouble. These monsters fear the Grimm bloodline so Nick will now be a target as they attempt to steal some kind of artifact that is passed down between family members. The darker undertones and characters of the show (including a reformed blutbad who appears to be friendly) have got me hooked, and I’m really looking forward to where the show takes me.

So that’s the scoop on this season’s fairy tale shows. Once Upon a Time is a good show for kids, and for those of us who still have a little bit of a kid inside (guilty as charged). If you want something a bit darker and more original, Grimm is the way to go. I recommend both shows, but the storyline and characters of Grimm has me hooked a little more than Once Upon a Time does.

With Halloween fast approaching, Shell and I got into the holiday spirit by popping on my Simpsons Treehouse of Horror DVD. I remember buying it for like $5 at Wal-Mart way back in the day and it’s an annual tradition to watch it at some point every October. Only problem is that it’s limited; it only contains four Treehouse of Horror episodes: V,VI, VII, and XII (which some from seasons 7, 8, 9 and 13.) It’s good and all, but the earlier Treehouse of Horror collections are missing, and some of those are great (“The Raven” and “The Monkey’s Paw” vignettes being two of my all-time favorites.)

So how to we fix this travesty? Simple…I would love to see FOX release something like “the complete Treehouse of Horror” collection. You know, all twenty-one episodes (that includes this seasons, which airs on Sunday) on four DVD discs. I would gladly pay $40 or whatever a new season costs, just to have all the Treehouse of Horror episodes in one collection. Otherwise I have to take out the first disc of every season (except the first season) and watch that individual episode separately. I’m a lazy guy and I have no desire to do that.

Would anyone else love to see this happen?

When we moved into our apartment in Albany two years ago, we were lucky enough to have the cable and internet provided as part of the rent. Since I never had to look at a cable bill I was pretty happy, and we were content with the 70+ channels we got, though I was a bit upset when they replaced the Travel Channel with the Golf Channel. So it was basic, but I wasn’t complaining.

We just moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, and our current apartment did not provide cable (as I’m sure most don’t.) This meant I had to give the ol’ cable guy a call and schedule an appointment. On the day he was scheduled, I spent that morning imagining that we would hit it off and end up going to Medieval Times for a night of feasting and fighting. While that never happened, I did end up getting a sweet hookup, via a free DVR upgrade.

I wasn’t planning on paying the extra $10 a month for a DVR, and I would have been just pleased as punch with the most basic cable plan. However, when he mentioned that I could get one year of DVR service for free, and cancel at any time without being charged anything extra, I figured I’d might as well see what this new-fangled DVR device everyone was talking about was. It’s been about a week now, and I’m totally loving it.

Of course the best part is that it records TV shows while I’m not watching them. Shell and I have been watching old episodes of Futurama, Tosh.0 and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia thanks to this wonderful triumph of modern technology. But it gets better. I ended up missing last Sunday’s episode of The Simpsons, and I did not set the DVR to record it. So I thought I would have to go on my laptop and catch the episode on Hulu. Boy was I wrong, as I realized that the past three weeks of episodes were automatically stored on there, as were other FOX shows. Score! It’s also great to be able to pause during a show to go to the bathroom or grab a snack without worrying about missing anything, and I love how many of the channels will allow me to restart a show from the beginning if I turn it on in the middle.

I haven’t totally embraced this new way to watch TV, however. I still prefer to watch shows live as they happen. For example, when I watch Terra Nova on Mondays, I could very easily record it and then watch it later on while fast forwarding the commercials. Instead, I’m still on the couch at 8pm ready to go. I can’t break out of the “if it’s on I have to watch it” mentality for the regular shows I watch, and that’s not such a bad thing. New technology is great and all, but I still stick to the old-school ways in some respects; either due to comfort or nonconformity. I use this as the same argument for refusing to get a Kindle/Nook: I like reading books too much. Sure, the electronic readers are great because they take up so little space as compared to the 100+ books I own at home, and it’s easy to take it with you on the go, but I still like the feeling of a book in my hand and the smell of those pages in my nose.

I love having a DVR, and now that I do have one, I doubt I’ll ever want to go back to not using one. Still, it doesn’t compete with plopping down on the couch at your usual time to see what’s going to happen this week in your favorite show.