Pros/Cons of Over-the-air television

Before moving to Omaha, the wife and I had DirecTV w/ DVR, so we were quite the television aficionados. But, once we got to Omaha, we reverted back to the trusty "rabbit ears" television.

Pro: DirecTV while at college would have cost us about (36 months x $35 a month) = $1250
Con: TV experiences a 2-3 second delay every time a car drives by our house.

Pro: Now there are only 8 channels with "nothing on".
Con: Our football experience ends on Sunday night now that Monday Night Football is on ESPN.

Pro: Less channel surfing.
Con: Weakened thumb muscles.

Pro: Less commercials now that half of our channels are paid for by the US taxpayers.
Con: Digital conversion box fiasco.

Pro: Thanks to Netflix, catching up on old TV shows that we never had time for in the past and/or missed out on. For example: Life, The Wire, Ultimate Fighter, Numbers, Sleeper Cell, Boomtown, Generation Kill, Prison Break, Bones, Six Feet Under, Kill Point, Undeclared, etc.
Con: Have to watch current shows online (if they even get posted) or else wait for half of a year for them to get onto Netflix. For example: Mad Men, Psych, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Burn Notice, Dexter, True Blood, etc.

Pro: Catching up on a lot of movies.
Con: Seems like fewer and fewer good movies are coming out these days(*).

Pro: Most of the major networks have decent primetime shows and decent weekend sports coverage.
Con: The President can ruin an evening by giving a speech, which every channel will ultimately carry.

Pro: Boning up on my Espaniol.
Con: 1/8 of the channels available to me are broadcast in Spanish.

All in all, I'd say the pros are currently outweighing the cons, but I can't wait until we have a little more disposible income so we can have satelite tv again.



(*) Over the past two days, the wife and I rented "Sunshine Cleaning", "Tyson", and "State of Play" from the RedBox at the local WalMart, which ended up being a string of 3 good movies.

While Sunshine Cleaning was not my cup of tea, my wife enjoyed it. It was too similar to Dan in Real Life/Little Miss Sunshine/Juno, which is why I was luke warm to it and why the wife enjoyed it. I am not a huge fan of the the "realism" genre, where the story just meanders along. I would give it a B-

However, Tyson was amazing. I had heard an interview with the director on the radio when it was coming out in theaters and was intregued. I had forgotten about it until seeing it in at the RedBox. From start to finish, I am hard pressed to think of any documentary that I enjoyed as much as this one. It was basic: an interview of Tyson about his life, with footage of his fights intersperced, but captivating. I'd grade it an A+

I got State of Play on a whim. I was plesently surprised with the result. For a movie full of d-bag actors it was a great movie. It had nice plot twists, some good action, and a strong storyline. I'd score it an A-.