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Yes it does.  Especially when you consider that in that same time frame the budget theaters that show movies at the end of their theatrical run will let you in for only a buck or two and won’t make you take out a 2nd mortgage to buy a soda and some popcorn.

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There are a lot of people that may not be regular readers of Maximum PC but would buy the issue based on the article alone.  I haven’t subscribed to any magazines in quite a while but I’d pick one up if I saw something that caught my eye.  You would think that subscribers might look into this a bit further and explore other options but that is not always the case.  If MPC is the only exposure they have to the world of PCs then they might tend to take the article as gospel.

Case in point – My Dad got ionto PCs long before I did, but he never explored the world beyond the local Radio Shack.  His idea of PC heaven was an old Tandy Color Computer with a cassette drive for loading software.  Of course, the internet was nothing more than a twinkle in someone’s eye at the time so his resources were much more limited than ours.

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There are a lot of people that may not be regular readers of Maximum PC but would buy the issue based on the article alone.  I haven’t subscribed to any magazines in quite a while but I’d pick one up if I saw something that caught my eye.  You would think that subscribers might look into this a bit further and explore other options but that is not always the case.  If MPC is the only exposure they have to the world of PCs then they might tend to take the article as gospel.

Case in point – My Dad got ionto PCs long before I did, but he never explored the world beyond the local Radio Shack.  His idea of PC heaven was an old Tandy Color Computer with a cassette drive for loading software.  Of course, the internet was nothing more than a twinkle in someone’s eye at the time so his resources were much more limited than ours.

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[quote=”Skirge01″]
Is the show you’re thinking about [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_%26_Order:_Trial_by_Jury]Law & Order: Trial by Jury[/url]?
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Could be.  I seem to recall it might have been a L&O spinoff but it was here and gone so fast most people probably missed it.

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[quote=”Skirge01″]
Is the show you’re thinking about [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_%26_Order:_Trial_by_Jury]Law & Order: Trial by Jury[/url]?
[/quote]
Could be.  I seem to recall it might have been a L&O spinoff but it was here and gone so fast most people probably missed it.

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I just watched The Defenders tonight as well.  I enjoyed it and will probably continue to watch it.  Jim Belushi invokes just the right amount of smirky attitude to impart a bit of wry humor while keeping the general tone of the show serious, but not too serious.

On the flip side, I also watched The Whole Truth.  It’s another intense courtroom drama that looks at both sides of the case and then spills the beans at the end so the viewer knows what actually happened.  I don’t recall the name of the show but I believe there was one that tried this exact same venue a few years back that got canceled in short order.  I guess the studios were hoping that viewers have a short memory.

While it was well acted, I’m getting a bit tired of these overly dramatized courtroom scenarios.  It makes me wonder if anyone in Hollywood has ever actually been inside a courtroom watching an actual court case other than O.J. Simpson.  Virtually every TV show about lawyers ever produced gets it completely wrong.  The same holds true for medical dramas.  I spent three years working in hospitals around the country after I graduated college and it’s nothing like they show on TV.  Fact is, most of the situations in real life are completely boring so they have to spice it up with a lot of extra drama so the audience doesn’t doze off.

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I just watched The Defenders tonight as well.  I enjoyed it and will probably continue to watch it.  Jim Belushi invokes just the right amount of smirky attitude to impart a bit of wry humor while keeping the general tone of the show serious, but not too serious.

On the flip side, I also watched The Whole Truth.  It’s another intense courtroom drama that looks at both sides of the case and then spills the beans at the end so the viewer knows what actually happened.  I don’t recall the name of the show but I believe there was one that tried this exact same venue a few years back that got canceled in short order.  I guess the studios were hoping that viewers have a short memory.

While it was well acted, I’m getting a bit tired of these overly dramatized courtroom scenarios.  It makes me wonder if anyone in Hollywood has ever actually been inside a courtroom watching an actual court case other than O.J. Simpson.  Virtually every TV show about lawyers ever produced gets it completely wrong.  The same holds true for medical dramas.  I spent three years working in hospitals around the country after I graduated college and it’s nothing like they show on TV.  Fact is, most of the situations in real life are completely boring so they have to spice it up with a lot of extra drama so the audience doesn’t doze off.

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The way I understand it, DVR viewers were not counted intentionally because so many commercials were time sensitive and recorded shows may not be watched until after their expiration date.  Ratings relate to dollars spent by advertisers to have their commercials placed in time slots that will gather the most viewers.  Most DVR users will skip right past commercials, rendering viewing results essentially useless for their intended purpose. 

Studios don’t want their advertisers to know that even though the shows are being watched by a wider audience, the commercials are not.  An increase in shows being recorded by DVR may actually result in the show being canceled if the studios can’t get people to watch the commercials.  Lack of commercial viewers could result in advertisers pulling their support. which can kill a show licketysplit.  What you end up with is a lot more game shows and reality TV because they’re the cheapest shows to produce.

Even so, DVRs are getting into more households and the studios have to face the fact that they’re out there.  There’s little they can do to prevent people from skipping past commercials, although Tivo tried to slip that little feature past their DVR users a while back.  Needless to say it didn’t go over so well with Tivo owners. No doubt the studios will put some kind of spin on the viewing numbers, even taking DVR owners into account, that will have them coming out on top, which is good news for everyone.  It will be interesting to see how this affects future programming.

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The way I understand it, DVR viewers were not counted intentionally because so many commercials were time sensitive and recorded shows may not be watched until after their expiration date.  Ratings relate to dollars spent by advertisers to have their commercials placed in time slots that will gather the most viewers.  Most DVR users will skip right past commercials, rendering viewing results essentially useless for their intended purpose. 

Studios don’t want their advertisers to know that even though the shows are being watched by a wider audience, the commercials are not.  An increase in shows being recorded by DVR may actually result in the show being canceled if the studios can’t get people to watch the commercials.  Lack of commercial viewers could result in advertisers pulling their support. which can kill a show licketysplit.  What you end up with is a lot more game shows and reality TV because they’re the cheapest shows to produce.

Even so, DVRs are getting into more households and the studios have to face the fact that they’re out there.  There’s little they can do to prevent people from skipping past commercials, although Tivo tried to slip that little feature past their DVR users a while back.  Needless to say it didn’t go over so well with Tivo owners. No doubt the studios will put some kind of spin on the viewing numbers, even taking DVR owners into account, that will have them coming out on top, which is good news for everyone.  It will be interesting to see how this affects future programming.

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[quote=”Skirge01″]
Ironic that you mentioned that show, since we started watching it, but lost interest after the 2nd season.  We just didn’t find anything appealing about it, especially with how “real” it was becoming.  I liked his hallucinations, but that didn’t last very long.  Let’s see what we’re left with… there’s cheating, whoring, lying, abuse, drugs, alcohol, mental issues, child endangerment, death.  If I wanted all that with minimal comedy, I’d either watch soap operas or the evening news.  Thankfully, almost all of that is included with loads of comedy via Two and a Half Men.[/quote]
Rescue Me was probably not the best example when it comes to discussing sitcoms because it was anything but a sitcom, at least not in the normal sense.  There was definitely a lot of dark content portrayed on the show, which you would expect from anything based on 9/11.  The show would be better classified as a Dramedy (Drama-Comedy).  The banter between the firemen at the station house was absolutely priceless and more than slightly blue.  You could tell that a lot of it was generated spontaneously on the set and not something that was forcefed the cast by mediocre writers as with Shatner’s show.  It probably helped that much of the cast were all standup comics and not regular actors.

[quote=”Mikinho”]
After the few premiers I’ve watched I don’t think I’ll watch much TV this season: Dexter, Castle and Big Bang Theory.  The occasional Modern Family when my wife is watching it.

I’ll record a bunch of the others (Event, Haven, How I Met Your Mother, Bones, Law & Order: LA, …) and maybe watch them between seasons but if not, meh.

The only “new” show I really enjoyed was “The Glades” which has its season finale next weekend after Dexter.
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LOL.  That’s probably the most sensible decision I’ve heard yet about the new season.  I haven’t seen all that much that really gets me excited about any of the new shows, other than a curious interest as to how some of the stories may develop.  I’ve already weeded out quite a few new shows from my recording schedule as well as a few older ones and I’m not done yet.

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[quote=”Skirge01″]
Ironic that you mentioned that show, since we started watching it, but lost interest after the 2nd season.  We just didn’t find anything appealing about it, especially with how “real” it was becoming.  I liked his hallucinations, but that didn’t last very long.  Let’s see what we’re left with… there’s cheating, whoring, lying, abuse, drugs, alcohol, mental issues, child endangerment, death.  If I wanted all that with minimal comedy, I’d either watch soap operas or the evening news.  Thankfully, almost all of that is included with loads of comedy via Two and a Half Men.[/quote]
Rescue Me was probably not the best example when it comes to discussing sitcoms because it was anything but a sitcom, at least not in the normal sense.  There was definitely a lot of dark content portrayed on the show, which you would expect from anything based on 9/11.  The show would be better classified as a Dramedy (Drama-Comedy).  The banter between the firemen at the station house was absolutely priceless and more than slightly blue.  You could tell that a lot of it was generated spontaneously on the set and not something that was forcefed the cast by mediocre writers as with Shatner’s show.  It probably helped that much of the cast were all standup comics and not regular actors.

[quote=”Mikinho”]
After the few premiers I’ve watched I don’t think I’ll watch much TV this season: Dexter, Castle and Big Bang Theory.  The occasional Modern Family when my wife is watching it.

I’ll record a bunch of the others (Event, Haven, How I Met Your Mother, Bones, Law & Order: LA, …) and maybe watch them between seasons but if not, meh.

The only “new” show I really enjoyed was “The Glades” which has its season finale next weekend after Dexter.
[/quote]
LOL.  That’s probably the most sensible decision I’ve heard yet about the new season.  I haven’t seen all that much that really gets me excited about any of the new shows, other than a curious interest as to how some of the stories may develop.  I’ve already weeded out quite a few new shows from my recording schedule as well as a few older ones and I’m not done yet.

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I don’t watch PPV at today’s prices so I certainly wouldn’t pay extortionist prices to see one.  At this rate, Hollywood is going to start charging as much for a movie as professional sports teams charge to watch a live sporting event at a stadium.  Did I mention that I no longer pay for tickets to see the Orioles, Capitals, or Ravens unless someone passes along some free tickets?  I refuse to help pay for ridiculous salaries to overpaid athletes so why should I do the same for movie stars and greedy studio execs?

I have no problem waiting an extra 30-60 days to see a movie released on Blu-Ray.  Anything I rent could end up copied and sitting on my server for up to 12 months before I get around to watching it, if ever.  Of course, once they get watched they get deleted because I rarely have time to watch a movie the first time let alone multiple viewings.  I never buy movies on disc for that very reason.  Heck, I’ve still got DVDs that I received as gifts years ago that are still in the shrink wrap. 

I don’t feel compelled to watch any movie as soon as it’s released.  I figure if it’s good enough to watch now it will still be good 12 months from now.  Having enough material to satisfy my viewing habits has never been an issue in my household.  In fact, I relish the times when all of my shows go into reruns just so I can get caught up and maybe watch an occasional movie or two.

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I don’t watch PPV at today’s prices so I certainly wouldn’t pay extortionist prices to see one.  At this rate, Hollywood is going to start charging as much for a movie as professional sports teams charge to watch a live sporting event at a stadium.  Did I mention that I no longer pay for tickets to see the Orioles, Capitals, or Ravens unless someone passes along some free tickets?  I refuse to help pay for ridiculous salaries to overpaid athletes so why should I do the same for movie stars and greedy studio execs?

I have no problem waiting an extra 30-60 days to see a movie released on Blu-Ray.  Anything I rent could end up copied and sitting on my server for up to 12 months before I get around to watching it, if ever.  Of course, once they get watched they get deleted because I rarely have time to watch a movie the first time let alone multiple viewings.  I never buy movies on disc for that very reason.  Heck, I’ve still got DVDs that I received as gifts years ago that are still in the shrink wrap. 

I don’t feel compelled to watch any movie as soon as it’s released.  I figure if it’s good enough to watch now it will still be good 12 months from now.  Having enough material to satisfy my viewing habits has never been an issue in my household.  In fact, I relish the times when all of my shows go into reruns just so I can get caught up and maybe watch an occasional movie or two.

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Different strokes, I guess.  My wife didn’t think it was funny either, but then she doesn’t have much of a sense of humor.  I didn’t like it because it was like 1,000 other sitcoms I’ve seen in the past.  The actors were stiff and everything was too rehearsed.  Comedy is much funnier if it appears spontaneous, which it usually is when the actors ad lib.  Watch any episode of Rescue Me and you can appreciate where I’m coming from.

To be fair, sitcoms have to be the hardest thing to write for TV.  It’s a monumental task to come up with something new and fresh, not to mention funny.  Far too often the writers stick with stereotyped characters in the same old situations and this one is no different.  I hate jokes when you can see the punchline coming way in advance.  I also hate it when they try to make the situation too serious, like the guy losing his job and being too afraid to tell his Dad.  Sitcoms are supposed to be uplifting escapist entertainment, not dismal social commentary about the economy.  I can only imagine how many people in the unemployment line wanted to jump off a bridge after watching this show.

Frankly, I can sit through just about anything.  Halfway through the show I looked at my wife and said I really wasn’t all that interested in sitting through the rest of it, to which she gratefully agreed.  A program has to be pretty uninteresting for me not to want to see it through to the end.  With the number of new shows this fall, it’s also going to have to be something pretty special for me to want to fit it into my already overcrowded viewing schedule.  Needless to say it didn’t make the cut.

On the subject of Haven, I’ve watched the show because it’s different and shown during the summer when there’s a lot less competition.  Am I the only one that finds the storyline to look like swiss cheese that’s been shot with a scattergun?  I mean, this female FBI agent shows up in this town that is apparently plagued by the return of “The Troubles” and all sorts of weirdness begins to happen.  She buys into everything without batting an eye.  The whole town seems indifferent to things that would have the vast majority of any sane population heading for the nearest exit.  It’s weird enough that it’s enjoyable.  Just don’t try and put any rational thought into it and you’ll probably like it.  I can only imagine what kind of mind trip Stephen King was on when he wrote “The Colorado Kid,” which is what the show is based upon.  Then again King has probably been on LSD since the days of Timothy Leary.

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Different strokes, I guess.  My wife didn’t think it was funny either, but then she doesn’t have much of a sense of humor.  I didn’t like it because it was like 1,000 other sitcoms I’ve seen in the past.  The actors were stiff and everything was too rehearsed.  Comedy is much funnier if it appears spontaneous, which it usually is when the actors ad lib.  Watch any episode of Rescue Me and you can appreciate where I’m coming from.

To be fair, sitcoms have to be the hardest thing to write for TV.  It’s a monumental task to come up with something new and fresh, not to mention funny.  Far too often the writers stick with stereotyped characters in the same old situations and this one is no different.  I hate jokes when you can see the punchline coming way in advance.  I also hate it when they try to make the situation too serious, like the guy losing his job and being too afraid to tell his Dad.  Sitcoms are supposed to be uplifting escapist entertainment, not dismal social commentary about the economy.  I can only imagine how many people in the unemployment line wanted to jump off a bridge after watching this show.

Frankly, I can sit through just about anything.  Halfway through the show I looked at my wife and said I really wasn’t all that interested in sitting through the rest of it, to which she gratefully agreed.  A program has to be pretty uninteresting for me not to want to see it through to the end.  With the number of new shows this fall, it’s also going to have to be something pretty special for me to want to fit it into my already overcrowded viewing schedule.  Needless to say it didn’t make the cut.

On the subject of Haven, I’ve watched the show because it’s different and shown during the summer when there’s a lot less competition.  Am I the only one that finds the storyline to look like swiss cheese that’s been shot with a scattergun?  I mean, this female FBI agent shows up in this town that is apparently plagued by the return of “The Troubles” and all sorts of weirdness begins to happen.  She buys into everything without batting an eye.  The whole town seems indifferent to things that would have the vast majority of any sane population heading for the nearest exit.  It’s weird enough that it’s enjoyable.  Just don’t try and put any rational thought into it and you’ll probably like it.  I can only imagine what kind of mind trip Stephen King was on when he wrote “The Colorado Kid,” which is what the show is based upon.  Then again King has probably been on LSD since the days of Timothy Leary.

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