You may be already aware of my dislike for free to air television, I’ve blogged about it before. I don’t even know how to put on the free to air channels in this house. I have Austar and I love it.
Recently there’s been one hour a day when I drop everything I am doing and sit down in front of the TV – I am watching The West Wing. This is another show that has been around for ages but I have never seen much of it thanks to Channel Nein and their constant love of fucking with the minds, hearts and scheduling timetables of their viewers. They loved to schedule a show at 10:30pm at night but they rarely played it at 10:30pm at night, sometimes the show would be 10, 20, or even a full 30 minutes late, and often it would not play at all, just to keep everyone surprised and on their toes.
Arena TV on Austar plays the show weekdays at 1am then repeats it on their +2 channel at 3am. So I really can’t miss it without making a big effort. This is what I need from a TV station. I need set times so I can commit to watching something. The free to air tv stations are often surprised when something does not rate, well how can it when nobody knows when it is supposed to be on? They need to commit so I can commit.
I am considering getting the whole series on DVD in fact, I am enjoying it so much. And it’s on special, the first series is just under $25. But the trouble with being given the power of the dvd box set is, I can’t stop at just one episode. I know this, I’ve done this with other series.
I have no idea where they are up to in the general scheme of west wing or even which season I am watching but at this stage that’s fine, I’m just enjoying the excellent acting and the very witty writing.
