Boooo, HBO. Yay, Netflix

My TIVO has fallen on hard times. It seems that the network executives cancel shows faster than I find new ones to watch. The ones they don't cancel, become bad. Let's have a moment of silence for the dearly departed...

Futurama, Firefly, The $treet, Invader Zim, Deadwood, Carnivale, The Restaurant, Six Feet Under, The Job, Insomniac With Dave Attell, Samurai Jack, Sex and the City, NYPD Blue, Friends, That '70s Show

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Well, in fact most of the shows that were on my old TIVO list. In particular, HBO has been especially keen on destroying my viewing list. Granted, some of the shows like NYPD Blue and Friends have lived longer than they should have, but on HBO Deadwood and Carnivale have been cut down in their prime, most annoyingly, not even ending cleanly.

In light of this, and to protest the cancelling Deadwood and Carnivale, I cancelled my HBO subscription and got a Netflix subscription instead. I still like Rome and The Sopranos, but I can wait until they are out on dvd. So HBO, I have only one thing to say to you. Booooooooooooooooooooooo. Boo. Well, OK, that was two things.

Compared to $12 a month for HBO, Netflix is a bargain at $9.99. The only problem is that I don't like the DVD player's interface - I have to wait for the menus to load, skip the previews. Fast forward and back is not as smooth as in TIVO and there's no way to watch some other disk, and then come back to where I stopped watching another. I think I need something like Kaleidescape, except cheap and with storage for only a couple of DVDs at the time. Or maybe just a well-designed dvd player.

Sadly, Netflix does not have a particularly impressive inventory. Peerflix has a much better one, and is also a good way for me to get rid of the dvds that I don't need anymore and get some obscure stuff that I do need.

All's not too bad in TV Land overall though. I am frustrated with DirecTV TIVO not having networking and online scheduling and for that reason I am not upgrading to HD DirecTV TIVO. Tivo Series 3 does not work with DirecTV and is outrageously expensive. Well, at least there are some new shows that I like.

At the top of the pile is How It's Made. It's a Canadian show that mostly takes you inside factories and shows you amazing manufacturing and automation techniques. There's a number of similar shows around, but they are all suffering from the same problem: TV personalities. It's annoying to see idiotically grinning morons making bad jokes and drawing attention to themselves rather than to what the show is about.

For instance, Dirty Jobs is not really about messy, smelly, funny and horrible jobs. It's about messy, smelly unfunny and horrible host, Mike Rowe. The last segment of Dave Attell of Insomniac with Dave Attell often had a segment similar to Dirty Jobs, but Attel, unlike Rowe is both charismatic and funny. Well, at least I think so.

Overall I feel that in a show about working a host is not very important. Take This Old House, for instance. It's really about Tommy, Norm, and the lesser subcontractors such as Richard and Roger. But you can take one host with another and then with another without the show suffering. I, for one, find the last host least annoying.

Anyway, what's different about How It's Made is that it does not have a host, only an invisible narrator. The show walks you through various industrial manufacturing processes accompanied by the Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka-like music and almost hypnotic narration. It's pure engineering porn. It seems like youtube has pulled down most of How It's Made clips, but there's still one on google video.

Now I can't look at any mass-produced item without trying to picture the assembly line that created it. Some of the machines that I've seen are still haunting my mind--the ingenuity with which they are made are just amazing. I wish the show would interview the engineers who made the machines and spent more time on some of the more complicated ones.

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Comments

Wed, 04/11/2007 - 03:34 — deadprogrammer

Eh-oh, looks like I pissed off Rowe's fan club.

Lookit, Rachel. Mike Rowe is a handsome man, I'll give you that. Hilarious and genuine? I really don't know how much self-deprecating humor and bumbling a host can do and continue being funny and genuine. The whole "look at me, look how much I suck at this" shtick gets old fast.

Yes, my job involves pushing bits and bytes inside a computer, but I'd really take cleaning up gross fluids and semi-solids over cleaning code any day of the week. Well, if it paid the same.

And it's not that I haven't had dirty jobs myself. I've cleaned toilets. I cleaned clams. I picked up puke. If you'd have read my blog and did not just come here to avenge your beloved hunk-o-host, maybe you would not have had this knee-jerk reaction.

P.S. Shortly after this post I canceled my cable subscription and did not watch TV for a long, long time. I do miss it sorely though.

Tue, 04/10/2007 - 21:39 — Becky Platt (not verified)

Mike Rowe is an excellent host and hilarious. I've seen every episode so far and never has he made the show more about himself than what he is doing. He also has an impressive vocabulary, sings well, and has an awesome sense of humor. Somebody knew what they were doing when they made him host of Dirty Jobs, because everybody I talk to loves the show and loves Mike. By the way, what's your name? And what do you do?

Tue, 04/10/2007 - 23:53 — deadprogrammer

Well, I think that show would have been better without a singing, verbose and not-very-wise-cracking host.

My name features in the site headline and there's a big "About the Author" section right under it.

Wed, 04/11/2007 - 03:06 — Rachel (not verified)

First off, you watch know way too much television. Mike Rowe is amazing. He's hilarious,genuine and down right georgeous. But more importantly- he isn't a phony, and he certainly isn't hiding behind a computer screen down talking others. He's out there experiencing reality, and by the sound of it, way more than you. In my opinion , youre just jealous. I know i am of him! he's seen more than i ever will in my life. And he's not afraid of work. Hell he could be the perfect man!

Sat, 05/05/2007 - 00:28 — Lisa (not verified)

Mike Rowe is hunky and I have terrific sex dreams about him. He has one of those personalities that can make you laugh at just about anything. Truth is, from what I've read about him off-screen, he is a humble sort and very basic. I suppose his un-complicated nature is part of his great appeal.

Thu, 05/10/2007 - 04:37 — Kayiko (not verified)

If you want to know where these people are coming from, you just have to type of Mike Rowe, and your blog comes up. Thats how i found your blog. I am a Mike Rowe fan myself, however, im not going to make completely one sided comments.. bout sex dreams no less, is order to get my point across. I don't really think that Dave Attell is that much better of a host then Mike Rowe. Their type of acting is very different. The show Dirty Jobs is not only about showing everyone the jobs others have to do.. Its also trying to put us in that situation for a day, and Mike is the person who does that. So he is a main point of the show because he is the outside person(like all of us) trying to do these different and dirty jobs. Thats why the show seems to be centered around him. Now he tries to make it fun by making comments.. but people love to see him get grossed out, and freaked out, because more then likely, thats exactly what we would be doing if we were in that situation. I have seen this show "How Its Made" and though its good, they don't really get into how something is really made. They sugar coat it more then anything.. So i don't think a person can learn much by watching how 4 things are being made in the shortness of a half hour. Leaving the segment about 5 mins per object being made. Thats not exactly teaching anyone anything. Its sometimes even hard to follow a long because they move so fast because they only have 5 or so mins to show you how a camping trailer is made. No one is there to ask how or what is being done. Like Mike does on his show. So having a host has its advantages. But it is all your personal taste and no one has the right to tell you how wrong or right you are about them.

Tue, 07/03/2007 - 19:19 — Debbie (not verified)

Deadprogrammer's name speaks for itself: no personality and devoid of humour.

Sun, 07/08/2007 - 07:01 — Josh (not verified)

Mike Rowe is an amazing host, he is hilarious, talented, and smart.

Mon, 10/29/2007 - 15:20 — Anonymous (not verified)

The only difference between Mike Rowe and Dave Attell is that Mike Rowe admits he isn't funny.

Wed, 05/07/2008 - 01:39 — cor (not verified)

i adore mike rowe. i find him extremely brilliant, witty,a fabulous host with genuine interest and curiosity, that has bravely(him and his cameraman) taken us and shared to everyone, the types of jobs people have to keep our country going. without knowing all of the things people do, i was ignorant and applaud, the people who can do these types of dirty jobs, that most people cannot handle. i applaud him for bringing these people and there work to our attention with a new appreciation for what they do. i find mike roweso fascinating, i love his smile, his teeth, his play boyish actics, his beautiful angelic voice, and with his intellect he is one of the most handsomest man i have ever seen. not to be disrespectful of my intelligence, but he sure looks HOT in those LEVI'S, and he has a better glutious maximous then the cover of the bruce springsteens albumn. i have never written about a celebrity before, but this man deserves an award for all he has provided for the dicovery channel, and certainly has boosted there ratings. thankyou for spreading the dirt, and rediscovering the real workers, that hold our continent together. by, the way mr. rowe, i came to america when i was 20, and my first place to move to was Bowie, Maryland. do you know where that town is? i loved it there, and then moved to scappoose oregon. which is known for the larget candle in the world, and steinfelds pickles. i live in Arizona,now. just , additional info of a wee lil bit of me. i hope you are able to read this, and thankyou, for providing an interesting show, and a chance to explore a bit of your personality. you should host the Emmy's, or run for congress!! anyway, last of all, have you made a record of songs, with your voice, that is available to the public?? as we say in Spain, 'que' te vayas con DIOS'!!" sincerely, cor d'angelo

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