What to do, what to do...

Today during my breakfast (12 a.m.) I finished the last currently available Scrubs episode (S07E06). I managed to watch all the episodes starting from the very beginning since I got back to Vienna after the holidays. That's ~150 episodes in less than 4 weeks, quite impressive, ey?

And now I have no idea which series to move on to. During dinner I watched some Friends, but having seen most of the episodes at least 3 or 4 times it's simply not that entertaining anymore. At the same time it seems useless to wait for the next Scrubs or Aliens in America episodes due to the writer's strike in Hollywood. What to do, what to do?

At the moment I'm thinking about going back to watching "6 Feet Under" which I had previously seen during my first year here in Vienna, though I don't know how many seasons I watched back then.

It's weird, before moving to Vienna I hadn't watched any TV series for quite a long time (with the notable exception of Friends of course). I think the main reason why I started watching more stuff was that I was looking for some kind of routine while eating dinner. At the beginning I caught myself eating while working on the computer a couple of times and apart from the fact that I don't like spaghetti sauce on my keyboard it simply doesn't seem to make any sense. Dinner had been reduced to mere food consumption and I didn't like that. So to turn this into more of a ritual I started watching TV series while I was eating. And I haven't stopped since. I found it to be the perfect time for enjoying 20~40min episodes plus I noticed that it actually helped me to eat slower (which is also supposed to be healthier or so I hear).

Anyway, I guess I'll have to start looking for a new series because those weekly video-podcasts, Scrubs and Aliens in America updates won't keep me entertained for long.

And now I'm off to the Smashing Pumpkins concert! :-)

It's a good Sunday for (online-)videos

Ahhh, what a great Sunday to be watching some online-videos... Given that I was quite busy these past couple of days I haven't really had the time to check out the latest episodes of all my favourite (online-) shows. So while I'm writing this I'm downloading the latest episodes of CrankyGeeks and Diggnation for my viewing pleasure. Plus the latest Scrubs episode is also being transfered to my hard-drive as we speak. That should make for a good 2 hours of watching amusing videos instead of completing my university assignment in "functional programming" (yes, it's as amusing as it sounds!).

One question that I'm currently pondering is whether I should add any of the ChannelFlip shows to my RSS reader. While I really enjoy reading Wil Harris' blog none of the 3 shows they produce over there at the moment have really managed to capture me. While Play:Digital is certainly an excellent show my interest in video-games is so low at the moment that I can't bring myself to watch it. Unwired on the other hand is too focused on gadgets in my opinion and by the time they actually produce a show about something I'm interested in I've read all about it on another website anyway. I haven't watched their third show, Discus, so far but I don't really like movie-reviews to begin with (except in 2000 ~ 2001 when I regularly watched the BBC World's "talking movies") so it's not something I'm really interested in.

One last video that nearly forgot to mention here is the latest one from Technology Review: It's called Twitter and Ambient Intimacy. I haven't watched it so far but in general TR's videos are extremely interesting and always talk about or provide a new perspective of things that I haven't thought about.

Well, off to watch some videos... Have a great Sunday everyone!

Aliens in America

While I do take pride in the fact that I haven't really spent (aka wasted) any significant amount of time with regular television these past few years I have a habit of getting hooked on television series. It all started with a long-term addiction to Friends (still the best TV series ever made IMHO), which continued (to a lesser degree) with its spin-off Joey. Once I moved to Vienna I started watching That 70's Show again, I had loved watching it while I lived in Peru from 2000 to 2001. The next thing that hit me was Six Feet Under which I absolutely loved for its weird setting. Afterwards I think I went back to Friends, I've always had a weak spot for them and by now I've probably seen most episodes 3 or 4 times.

Sometime in early 2005 I discovered Scrubs and have been hooked on them ever since. At the moment I'm close to finishing the second run through all the episodes. And of course I'm very happy that the 7th season just started airing 2 weeks ago as that means a fresh episode for me each Friday.

Ah, and I nearly forgot about my secret love for Futurama, easily the best comic series ever produced. Apart from being incredibly funny Futurama brought us some of the best quotes ever:

"Bite my shiny metal ass" (the one and only Bender)

"Good news everyone..." (the professor)

"Tell my wife I said 'hello'" (the leader of the Democratic Order Of Planets)

Anyway, what I really wanted to write about today is that I may have found a new candidate to make it to my list of "must-see TV series":

Aliens in America (official website / Wikipedia entry)

The basic story is that an American family decides to host an exchange student because the mother hopes that this will help her 16-year old son Justin be more popular in high-school. Imagine their surprise when they pick up Raja, a 16-year-old Pakistani Muslim!

I've only seen the pilot so far but I'm really liking it and can't wait to see more episodes (though that probably won't happen before the weekend). The cultural context the whole story is set in is definitely very interesting and it's great to see a TV series that doesn't involve cops, terrorists, the president, politicians, etc. I'd definitely have to say that this is probably one of the more daring TV series and it will be very interesting to see how it all works out. If that sounds appealing then I'd definitely recommend you to give Aliens in America a shot!