I watched “Covert Affairs” from the beginning. While I had issues with the lead character of Annie, I enjoy spy thrillers and it was nice to see a female in the lead. My wife couldn’t get past some of the same issues I have with Annie and refused to watch the show somewhere in the middle of the second season, so I started watching it by myself.
This, the 4th season, came along and episodes stacked up in my recorder for future viewing. Somehow I missed getting around to it and when I finally did sit down to watch it, the first episode of the season was missing. Turns out my recorder is set to hold on to 10 episodes, junking the oldest first. I guess we are at week 11 of the current season and I didn’t realize it.
I go to Hulu to see if they have the episode I am missing. Turns out they only hold episodes of the current season for 35 days. I head over to the show’s network website. All the episodes from the current season are there, but the earlier ones are locked unless you can prove you subscribe to some television service and actually receive the network normally. This is fine, I can do that.
Wait, my television provider is not listed.
I don’t have some “fly by night” television provider. DirecTV may not be perfect, but it’s one of the two major satellite television providers in the country.
Missed the first episode of the season with no prospects of being able to watch it any time soon and my recorder is just going to sit and fill up. Want to guess which show I stopped watching?
It is little things like this which makes me not want to “cut the cable” and watch everything online. While various applications and online services are great for what they do, there simply isn’t a replacement for having a regular television service provider. It’s a shame as it would open up a lot more competition. Until then, I now have one less show to get through the backlog.