The Joy of TIVO

TIVO has become a verb as well as noun, as in “I am TIVOing the ‘Barefoot Contessa’.” No, I am not TIVOing her, but I do TIVO nearly every other thing my wife and I watch. We seldom watch live TV, and when we do, one of inevitably says, “Fast Forward!” when a commercial appears. We then both laugh and endure the creepy guy in the Allstate ad.

This fall with so many new shows debuting along with our favorites such as NCIS, Criminal Minds, CSI, and many others, I decided to get Season Passes for nearly every new show.

Now I am glad I did and a couple I started taping have already been cancelled so we no longer have to endure them. That would be “Lone Star” and “My Generation”. TIVO saved us lots of time.

We still found some duds mixed in with some promising new series. “Chase” we chased off our list almost before the pilot ended; the same with “The Good Guys” (god-awful stuff even if the lead is Tom Hanks’ son). I am hanging in with “Rubicon” (not new this fall, but still worth mentioning). My wife thinks it moves toooooo sloooow, and now that she mentions it I have noticed that the dialogue would create a script of about 3 ½ pages. Lots of dead air with people looking at each other. But the premise seems good so I will hang in for awhile longer.

Back to the fall shows. Best so far is “Blue Bloods”. The Tom Selleck vehicle where he plays the NYC Police Commissioner/Chief with nearly all of his kids in law enforcement is entertaining. It works so far with nice, tight writing.

We are on the fence with “The Defenders” (Jim Belushi), but I want to give it a chance. Same with “Hawaii 5-0”. I grew up with the original and have to get that vision out of my head. This is totally different and so when the new McGarrett says “Book ‘em Dano”, it seems like a joke.

“Boardwalk Empire” (HBO) is a great period piece, a little slow, but fast enough to keep you hooked. Steve Buscemi, usually a character actor, carries the lead well.

Last, for now, is “Undercovers”. We thought it had promise with J.J. Abrams in the credits but it is a little too cute and too predictable. Maybe it will improve but it has been already banished from our TIVO list. However, our track record for picking winners is a little sketchy. Guess who never wanted to watch a show called “The Sopranos”?