The DVR is a magical device. Not only does it digitally record shows for you, it stores them until you are in the right frame of mind to watch them. So, if you’re not interested watching American Idol at its normal time because you fear that you’ll reach into your TV and rip Simon’s neck off, you can watch it a few hours later after downing some codeine cough medicine.

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of this delayed viewing with Bones. For some unfathomable reason I can’t get into the show since it returned with new episodes earlier this month. Sometimes it takes me several days to get into the zone to watch the newest episode. Such was the case this past week. After spending a few days in the queue, my wife and I were finally in the right state of mind. So, we pressed Play, watched a few minutes…

…and promptly fell asleep. It wasn’t that it was late in the evening – it was probably around 9:00 PM. Frankly, the episode was downright dull. I can’t put a finger on why that was. We had a new intern for Temperance to berate, a focus on the Squints, and a fairly good mystery. Still, the show dragged. In fact, I remember complaining to my beloved wife that only a half-hour of the show had run during one of my commercial fast forwarding sessions.
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Julia Hass is back Guest Clacking for us again after her great five-parter last month:

Like every other family in America, my family will, when asked what the best part about our relatively new acquisition of a DVR (yeah, we’re behind the times) is, answer “we get to fast forward through commercials.” Commercials have been the bane of any television watcher’s life, the scourge of their existence. They are the meaningless fodder stuck in between the tensest moments when you very desperately need to know what happens on the other end of the commercial break.

I don’t know. Call me crazy, but I kind of miss them.

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American Idol is upon us. There’s no denying it, but we can avoid it; there are other TV viewing options on Wednesday nights at 8:00, you know. Yes, most other networks do fear the opposite-Idol timeslot and don’t schedule their good stuff, but this is America and we are free. We’ve also got TV on DVD, our trusty DVRs and heck, we could even read a book or two.

So what do you watch on Wednesday nights at 8:00? Do you rebel, or are you a sheep? Vote in our poll below, and as always, we’d love to hear from you in the comments.

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CliqueClack

“Hey honey. What’s on television tonight?”

“Oh, you know, there’s the presidential debate from nine o’clock until the sun rises.”

“What? Again?! Oooouuuuh…”

Has this happened to you? The lack of real, quality TV programming getting you down? Well your worries are over, thanks to a space-aged new technology that will revolutionize the way you enjoy television.

Introducing: The Digital Video Recorder!

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