Cable Television Rant and On-Demand

I just want to put in my .2¢ worth about Cable TV and in particular the "On-Demand" feature. I'm not talking about using Tivo or recording/viewing with a DVR. Nor am I talking about any Pay-Per-View stuff. Just the basic cable services and the On-Demand. I'm tempted to make this rant just a list of my complaints about the whole thing. So:

•  First you are paying a heck of a lot of money, for the privilege of getting specialized programing from satellite TV stations/Networks. You even have to pay for the regular broadcast stations that were at one time FREE, but now with everything being broadcast digitally and mostly in High-Definition or from satellites anyway there is no such thing FREE broadcast TV anymore.
• Even though there are hundreds or thousands of movies and television shows available with the On-Demand feature, there isn't much in the way of "on demand". Sure you can view them anytime you want (but within a 24 hour period before you have to look for that program again if you didn't watch it within that small window of time), HOWEVER, the selection isn't always great, and many programs are only available for a couple of months before they are removed from the listings. Then you have to wait who knows how many months before they bring them back. Some programs never make it to the On-Demand lists sometimes even very popular shows. Sometimes shows that used to be available On-Demand are no longer available. I'm talking shows that are still currently running not shows that were cancelled by their network. There does seem to be a limited amount of movies available for selection.
• Many of the networks now are disabling some of the playback features in order to force you to watch the commercials, you are already paying for the programing and now they are forcing the commercials on you. More and more of these networks have the fast-forward feature disabled. It is very annoying and one of the things that annoys me the most about cable. Plus most of the time the programing is just a straight copy of whatever was originally broadcast commercials and all including those "coming up next" promos. I could get the same thing with my old VHS recorder, but at least with that I can fast forward through the promos and commercials. It used to be the On-Demand programing was just the program itself with no commercials in between. If that isn't bad enough sometimes the commercials they do have are from just one or two sponsors and every break they show the same two commercials (like Hulu and some of those TV online services do every FIVE minutes) which since they disabled the fast-forward you have to sit through again, at least the mute button usually works.
• Oh and sometimes the playback for movies on demand and some of the broadcast shows for some reason block the closed captioning. So you have to rewind sometimes to catch dialogue you might not have heard or heard weird.

OK I think that is all for now. Just wanted to get some of that out.

CSI Second Crossover Event

CSI - CSI:NY

CSI FRANCHISE CROSS-OVER EVENT

February 2013

The CSI Franchise shows recently had a second Cross-Over Event. Technically they had had a few other crossover episodes before that blockbuster event but that was the first one to go across ALL The shows in the franchise not just two (mostly to jump start a new series). Since there are only two shows now, the Original CSI set in Las Vegas and CSI: New York, it was more manageable and in my opinion more enjoyable than the three parter they had back in 2009. Was it that long ago? Of course once again they only had the main star(s) Cross Over. This time at least Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) got to go to Vegas. If I recall correctly, the Trilogy from '09 only had the then Main Vegas CSI Dr. Raymond Langston (Laurence Fishburne) traveling through all three of the shows. [CSI: Miami was cancelled last year.] I had taped the trilogy x-over, I didn't tape this one. Yes I still have a VCR I haven't broken down and joined the 20teens by getting a DVR. I almost don't really need one. Plus it has been ages though since I've gotten a "new" tape so I will have to go through my old tapes sometime and decide what to tape over. It is difficult to find blanks now-days.

Here is my sort of mini-review of this cross-over.

WARNING: This Review contains spoilers.

CSI - Episode 1: In Vino Veritas

To get this party started we attend a fancy black tie private invitation only High Quality wine auction in Vegas (or just outside). Lots of fancy dresses and pretty women barely wearing those fancy dresses. A group of men discuss some sort of private deal and go to the wine cellar. Cut to some young men in an alley shooting at a wooden wine barrel. Oops that's blood. The CSI team discovers a pickled person in a tux in the barrel. Meanwhile at CSI Crime Lab Vegas Detective Mac Taylor (Sinise) is in town and is scheduled to meet up with his girlfriend Christine later. She is supposed to be in Vegas to meet up with a potential restaurant owner who plans on opening a restaurant like hers. Crime Lab Boss D.B. Russell shows Mac around and then goes with him to meet with Christine. They arrive at her hotel room to discover a crime scene with blood and no Christine. As they piece the mystery together they discover that an eccentric wine connoisseur is counterfeiting super valuable fine wines. A botched jewellery store robbery uncovers Christine's cell phone, blood from an unknown female suspect at the scene matches blood from the hotel crime scene. The crime lab tracks down the wine counterfeiters, and the killer who stuffed the victim into the wine barrel. They find the jewellery store robber, who is also suspected of kidnapping Christine. He is Christine's co-worker but he isn't her kidnapper. He has to hand over the stolen diamonds to the real kidnappers, whom he owes a large sum of money to, or they will kill Christine and his brother in 24 hours. The snag is Christine never left New York.  Mac has no choice but to take the robber back to New York with the stolen Diamonds to make the trade for Christine. D.B. tells Mac that he isn't going to stop him, but that he will need his help in doing it. So "To Be Continued..." In New York.

CSI: NY - Episode 2: Seth and Apep

Mac and D.B. arrive in New York and get to work to arrange the exchange. The kidnappers are of middle-eastern descent and are part of an Egyptian gang. They learn that Christine is Mac's girlfriend and make some adjustments to the plan to string Mac along and separate him from his people. A connection with a dry-cleaners and a protection extortion ring for businesses in the "Little Egypt" Neighborhood. After a long day of playing cat and mouse with the kidnappers, who are behind the extortion ring, Mac solves the case, gets the crooks and gets his girl back.

All in all these two episodes were very good. The original CSI has improved with the switching out Fishburne and bringing Danson in. I had my doubts at first but he makes a fine addition to the series. I give this x-over 4 out of 5 stars.

Previous CSI Cross-Over Postings:
CSI Trilogy Crossover Special Episodes
CSI: Crossover Episode 1
CSI: Crossover Episode 2
CSI: Crossover Episode 3