![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelophile
There's seriously not enough hours in the day for me to watch all the TV I want to watch.
See, back in the day, when there were only four TV channels (shocking, I know) US imports were a rare breed. Occasionally one would flit across the Atlantic and become a big deal - the LA Laws or the Babylon 5s or the Due Souths or the Buffys or the Northern Exposures or the or the X-Files or the ERs or the Sienfelds or the NYPD Blues. Or even American Gothic. Anyone remember that one? Channel 4 was pretty much the only channel to make a song and dance about imports and put them on at a reasonable hour (mostly. Babylon 5 and Angel got relegated to graveyard slots pretty early on), while the BBC had a tendency to buy critically acclaimed shows like Sienfeld and put them out in the early hours of the morning. But sitting down and watching ER and X-Files one after another was an event in our house.
Now imports are the easy and cheap way to fill the schedules for the countless digital TV channels that have sprung up in advance of TV here switching over to digital. With set-top boxes beaming more and more channels into people's homes, there's only so many repeats that can be shown. So, buying US programming's the easy option. Coupled with the internet and hearing about US series that much earlier, my "To watch" list's grown to unmanagable proportions.
Because the US produces so much TV I could never keep up with all the TV I want to see. Oh, it's not so bad if you're able to jump in on a ground floor level, but all too often I only pick up on series after they've one or two seasons under their belt. Often more. And who has time to go back and watch the five seasons of a show you want to watch, but have missed? And that happens to me a lot.
Let's see... currently in my "To watch" pile of DVDs, imported series I was interested enough to buy, often from recommendations from friends, but just haven't found time to watch yet are:
And now, Mad Men. And that's not even taking into account Rome, which I've had my eye on for some time or other, home grown series (Doc Martin, the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes, The Street) or rewatches of stuff I've bought on DVD after only seeing once on TV many moons ago (step forward ER and Northern Exposure).
Even if I watch one or two episodes of something a night, which I often do, (I rarely sit down and watch TV that's on now. I watch TV I've missed.) I'd still not find the time to catch up with all this stuff. The answer is, of course, to stop buying, but some of these boxed sets are so cheap and so shiny.
How do people find time for all their fandoms?
