According to many of my local friends (I am no longer calling them my “real life” friends. The internet is “real life”, too, isn’t it?), television is a vast wasteland of continuing stereotypes and gratuitous violence dumbed down to the level of a ten-year old. A ten-year old boy of course, because somehow in this sexist way of thinking, that’s worse than a ten-year old girl.
The only reason you’d want to watch television, according to this way of thinking, is if you want to ogle half-naked breasts. And *we*, sniff, do NOT want to do that (this is coming mostly from lesbians, and I really, really believe them when they say that. It’s a contextual thing. Ogling breasts is really only enjoyable/appropriate in a non-exploitative context. Otherwise it’s… also uncomfortable).
Of course, you CANNOT convince people like this that a show called “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” has any redeeming social value, no matter how many times you talk about Buffy’s butt-kicking or the number of academic papers on her feminist symbolism.
But, screw them. I find plenty to enjoy on television even if I agree that ogling breasts is really only appropriate in a non-exploitative context.
The whole point of this post is to say I got the rest of my goodies in the mail today–the Queer as Folk season 3 tapes and the Highlander Season 1 DVD set. Oh, this is such a dangerous thing. Not the free QAF tapes from a bud, but the pricey DVD sets from amazon. Scrollgirl can attest to this–the temptations of amazon.com and a credit card. Oh, my wishlist overfloweth–I’ve got ST:TNG, ST:DSN, Highlander, and X-Files beckoning from my wish list.
At home, I have home-made VHS copies of all of the above, not to mention ST: TOS, Voyager, and Enterprise and Forever Knight and H: The Raven and Lois and Clark and Roswell and Space: Above and Beyond (sniff! It died too young!), and “Soap”.
I’ve got drug dealers… er, I mean friends, sending me Six Feet Under and Queer as Folk tapes. I am pre-ordered at amazon for All Things BtVS and Angel, because they’re BtVS and Angel. Plus, they’re cheaper than the aforementioned DVD stuff.
Through the magic that is netflix, I am catching up on Babylon 5, which I’ve only seen once through, Space 1999, which I haven’t seen in 25 years, Dark Shadows, which is impossible to keep up with on cable, La Femme Nikita, and Stargate SG-1.
And ooh! Did you know that Season 1 of “ER” is coming out on DVD soon? I had to stop watching that show after the first season because I just had too many viewing commitments at the time. I’d love to catch up in a more systematic way than the occasional cable rerun. Plus “Alias” is coming out on DVD in September. I haven’t seen it because of the previous conflict with Angel. Ditto on Smallville, whenever it comes out. It conflicted with some show or other I watched/taped back when it debuted.
And ooh! The new season of “The Dead Zone” started last night.
Do you see a trend here? Do you see how this is? I am a TV whore!
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 
That was me last year! Too many shows, too little time and I was really trying to have some semblance of a life. It was hard. It was also when I had a subscription to Showtime. Now I don’t and I’m completely envying you your QaF S3 tapes! I have resigned myself to waiting for the DVD to come out this holiday.
I got them from DeadSoul
You think the DVD is coming out in December? I figured I’d have to wait until March 2004. Didn’t S. 2 come out in March 2003?
Incidentally
Since we live in the same city (micro-climate differences notwithstanding), you could borrow them from me sometime….
Re: Incidentally
Oh, you are too good! I would be every so grateful to you! Let me know when you’re done with them and I’ll figure how to get them from you.
I was only going on the assumption that they (Showtime) might want it out for holiday purchasing, not any official word that I saw.
Masq, you are the best! I think you’ve actually made my day. I’m gushing! Look what you’ve done!
Alias comes out on DVD in September?
Coool! I’ve been waiting for this!
Re: Alias comes out on DVD in September?
Yep, according to netflix. I’m on the waiting list for the DVD. Of course, that’s an area 1 DVD.
Re: Alias comes out on DVD in September?
amazon.com confirms this. They will have it for sale on September 2, 2003. Me, I’m going the rental route.
Re: Alias comes out on DVD in September?
This is why I have a multi region player!
Ack! You got the Highlander set? I thought you were going to exert will power and refrain from the S1 DVDs? Ooh, I’m very, very jealous now… *turns green* Tell me what the featurettes and commentaries are like!
My must-have wishlist: Highlander, Star Trek: DS9, Smallville, and (really, this goes without saying) Buffy and Angel. My nice-to-have wishlist: HL: The Raven, ST: TNG, Gargoyles, and all the Batman, Superman, Justice League cartoon series I’ve recently got interested in. I’m quite disappointed that I can’t get the Cartoon Network here in Canada, I was hoping that Justice League could be my newest fandom…
There are still so many shows out there I’d like to try, and which I’d probably end up adoring. Like Babylon 5, Farscape, Stargate SG-1, and Six Feet Under. But there’s no time! There’s just not enough hours in the day to watch all these shows! You know what it is? It’s all my body’s fault for needing sleep and food, that’s what it is! 😛
I watch while I do other things
Because a lot of what I do involves sitting at a desk within eye-shot of my TV. Reruns of stuff I’ve already seen are fine, they don’t require a lot of attention or concentration (they keep me company while I work), but new stuff like these Six Feet Under tapes distract me from my novel, my website, and other brain-things I do.
It’s tough sometimes, because I like to do my brain-things, and I’m a television whore!
Wait a minute . . .
. . . I understand the DVD buying frenzy, but when did you get a DVD player?
Justice League
Even though we don’t get the Cartoon Network here, JL may well be shown on Teletoon or YTV. Maybe Family Channel, depending on if Disney or a Disney affiliate puts it out. Check teletoon.com or ytv.com, they’ll have schedules. Or try checking tvguide.ca (I think it’s .ca, may be .com) I think you can do a title search.
Why do I know all this? I have two small spawn….
(hope it helps)
Three cheers for TV whoredom!! I hopefully will be well on my way as soon as I get my coveted Netflix subscription. Muhahaha! All TV DVDs at my fingertips!
It’s very cool!
All TV DVDs at my fingertips!
For the ones currently ON DVD, anyway!
Re: It’s very cool!
So sadly true =(. I desperately also want to rent the first five seasons of X-Files, because although I was very into the fic, I never got to see all of them =(. Taiwan just aired lots of S3 reruns.
But first and foremost, I must complete my Buffy DVD collection! Then I’ll move right on to Angel ^_^.
Re: It’s very cool!
That’s defintely on DVD. Get netfllix!
Re: It’s very cool!
Yes ma’am!
I also suspect Buffy and Angel (and Firefly, when it comes out) will be keepers though… must find job!
I know I’m keeping them
BtVS and Angel are the only ones I buy straight off. The others are all piling up in my amazon “wish list”
Re: Wait a minute . . .
Er. I don’t actually have a DVD player. Still. But I plan to get one very, very soon! I have a deal with my mom not to buy one just yet. So yeah, my Buffy S4 and Angel S1 DVDs are just kinda sitting there, collecting dust as I haphazardly shop for DVD players. I guess I want to, y’know, own — even though I can’t watch yet. Anyway, I covet the DVDs on my wish-list but I haven’t actually bought any of them yet (aside from the aforementioned S4 and S1). Soon, though, soon 🙂
Nice that you can multi-task! No seriously, I don’t really have the concentration to watch TV and write at the same time. Either the TV distracts me, or I’m busy writing and figure — why waste the TV electricity? I can sometimes read a novel and watch TV, but that’s about it. New stuff, like the DS9 S1-2 eps I hadn’t seen before, requires total focus and the VCR rewind button 😉
The answer is… renting!
Netflix might not fit your budget after you buy that DVD player, but you can rent DVDs for a lot of TV shows at the local Video store. You’ll have plenty to watch!
Well…
Watching “Buffy” or “Angel” or “Star Trek” while I work is no big deal. I watch it with the sound off. Like I said, it keeps me company, and I can turn the sound up when they get to a favorite scene.
This netflix thing and the tapes Rob and DeadSoul sent me is another thing entirely. It’s new stuff I haven’t seen before, and watching it is definitely distracting. But I figure I need to get away from my work every once in a while, relax on the couch or with friends and watch a movie. It’s good for me. I’m a workaholic. ; )
I would kill for a multi-region player!
Um…that’s all I had to say. ;o)
Oh, and Rah, have you seen Alias before? Or is it going to be all new to you? Because it is just about one of the most awesome shows ever, if I do say so myself.
Rob
I’ve found that the best TV to have on while working…
…is MTV, especially shows like “The Real World” or “Road Rules” or “Punk’d” or some such nonsense, just because they do not require any great attention of any kind, and I can kind of tune in my brain when I hear or see something I might be interested in for half a second, and then tune it out till it just becomes a gentle, satisfying hum in the background while I work on my annotations! Shows I actually care about I invariably end up getting sucked into, even if they’re episodes I’ve seen over and over again. So, ironically, no “Buffy” or “Angel” for me while I work on my “Buffy” website!
Rob
Re: I know I’m keeping them
I actually have an embarassing large collection of TV on DVD, which I bought. Can’t always really afford them, but on the side of the good, that’s pretty much all the DVDs I buy, except for absolute must-have movies, like “Terminator,” “Back to the Future,” “Star Wars” movies and other things of that ilk.
Rob
I’ll be new to Alias, too
But that’s why I’m renting it. Didn’t get a chance to tune in when it came on the air.
Re: I’ve found that the best TV to have on while working…
I actually find watching Buffy and Angel with the sound off very comforting. I can’t watch stuff that would drive me crazy (like the so-called “reality” shows) even with the sound off. I have enough natural anxiety!
I’ve watched Buffy and Angel so many thousands of times, they’re like an old friend hanging out in the room working quietly on their own stuff while I work on mine. And if I need to hear them speak, there’s the mute button at my fingertips.
Re: I’ll be new to Alias, too
GREAT characters, GREAT plot twists. The main plot of the series has completely changed a few times. Very like AtS in that regard. You never know when what you think you’re heading towards is going to shift and completely veer off into another direction. Also, like “Buffy” and “Angel,” it uses exaggerated circumstances to explore very realistic, 3-dimensional characters. The downside is at times, the cast being huge, some characters do get shoved into the background, but at some point in both seasons, each character has been given at least one important arc, so even when someone hasn’t been used in a while, they usually bounce back in a huge way.
Rob
Re: I know I’m keeping them
Wow! I am green with envy! I am a working woman with a steady income, and want to have an embarassingly large collection of TV on DVD, but instead I have a few DVD sets and an embarassingly large collection of home-made VHS on DVD. We’re talking entire bookshelves (plural) full.
This is the work of over 15 years of taping TV shows and movies (my home-made VHS movie collection is an ’80’s cornucopia!)
I wish I could get all this on DVD because it’s better quality and would take up a lot less space (moving these things to new apartments is a *pain*), but I would need a King’s randsom to buy all the movies I want to have and TV shows on DVD. Some of the prices they’re asking are absurd, even with the amazon.com marketplace discounts.
So I’m buying them one at a time. This month, it was Highlander Season 1. In September, Angel S. 2. By the time my collection is complete, DVDs will be outmoded technology!! ; )
PS…
We have the exact same taste in movies! Cool!
Re: I know I’m keeping them
Guess it helps that I’m living at home and the moment and don’t have any other expenses besides gas for my car and lunch at work. I’m sure my spending will have to slow down eventually. Which may be why I’ve been so procrastinatey about finishing college, which I should have done a year ago. ;o)
Rob
Re: PS…
I’d love to spend a few years perusing your TV video collection! ;o)
And that’s very cool re: the movies! I’m very into 70s and 80s sci-fi and fantasy. I’ve probably seen the Back to the Future movies more times than any other movies. I know them practically by heart. I’m a sucker for time travel movies, even those that don’t completely make sense, like Peggy Sue Got Married. Other 80s sci-fi/fantasy faves include Indiana Jones, Labyrinth, Flight of the Navigator, and for laughs, Howard the Duck (ashamed to say!).
Rob
Rob
This is scary!
I have all those movies on video. Except Howard the Duck.
Back in the summer of ’90, I was kind of depressed (hey, I was living in Arizona and it was summer time–you spend all your time indoors with the shades pulled and the swamp cooler blowing. It makes people depressed).
Anyway, that was the summer “Back to the Future III” was in theaters, I think. I had BTTF I and II on tape. I watched them over and over and over and over and over and over. Then I went to the movies and saw part III.
When I finally stopped, I did the same thing with “Bill and Ted” the first one on tape, the second at the theater. This is where I first liked Keanu Reeves as an actor.
It was a thing.
Bill and Ted!!
Yup, we definitely have the same taste in movies!
Rob
Re: I would kill for a multi-region player!
I’ve seen most of the last season, but missed the first, and I agree, it’s a very good show!!
I love all the characters, especially the Spy Family. Will not discuss further, cos spoilers!
Makes a certain amount of sense
Seeing as we have the same taste in TV shows…
Much appreciated.
Spoilers are evil. I will see Season 1 in September, if the demand for the Alias DVDs on netflix is not too high!
You two are scaring me
cause I love Bill & Ted and have watched pretty much all the movies you’ve mentioned. I just don’t own them. My collection is mostly chick flicks and nearly every Jane Austen adaptation that has come out in the last 7 or so years. And Buffy S1-4. I don’t have Angel yet but it’s next along with Futurama. I’m also starting to branch out into musicals.
Re: You two are scaring me
Chick flicks and musicals. That’s where we part company. The only “chick flicks” I have in my collection are French Kiss and A Walk in the Clouds.
I’m sensing a Keanu Reeves theme in my video collection.
Re: You two are scaring me
Oh, I do have one musical. “Hair”.
Re: You two are scaring me
whoa… 😉
sorry, as a Matrix fan, it was irresistable.
Re: You two are scaring me
Have you seen “The Watcher”? I caught it on cable while I was on vacation. Keanu as a serial killer. shudder
Re: You two are scaring me
No. As soon as I get over my Keanu fantasies, I’ll grab it… cute serial killers (are there any other sort?) really squick me…now I’m trying to somehow figure out the lestat thing as related to that because obviously he’s a CSK also…hrm, reaching for the merlot now… it’s summer, I refuse to engage more than one brain cell at a time because of the heat.
Is it worth seeing?
Any other recommendations?
Did you see any difference in the acting between Matrix 1&2? I hope I’m not going to have to feel this apologetic about using the word ‘acting’ after seeing League… OMG please let it have a decent script…
KdS hated it
“League”, I mean. Don’t know much more about it, except it has some big-name actors (Connory!)
“The Watcher” was a made-for-cable movie, and had a script to match. Not that that’s a bad thing, but it’s not a summer block-buster, either. Not sure how they nabbed a big Hollywood name like Keanu, but his acting in the role is really chilling. “Cute serial killer” indeed. Cute and charming and wacko!
Re: KdS hated it
Darn… I just wrote this and lost it. Here’s goes again.
Peta Wilson?
KdS was objecting to the continuity issues if I recall. Having sat through/enjoyed Jackson’s LotR, Singer’s take on Xmen, and seven seasons of Buffy, I can’t really (with a straight face) claim that as a problem. We want to see T3 too, but there’s Pirates coming out this week and League and they will probably come first. I’d write more but Ben is at my elbow hopping up and down and “Saying are you done YET?” It’s distracting. He says “Hi” by the way.
Re: You two are scaring me
But Keanu is not a bad theme to have!