About
My name is Nick Sauer. I’m 51 years old and, while never a big fan of tv, have always been fascinated by sf and fantasy (what people today call genre) television. This is especially the case today with the proliferation of cable channel original programming. I have never really followed network television. I do not count CW as a network yet (based on their programming behavior) and only consider FOX to have truely become one in the late nineties. My problem with network shows is that between FCC oversight and having to appeal to a much larger (mass market) audience I feel they are kind of writing stories with one arm tied behind their back. Cable and syndicated series can take more risks and generally give series a longer chance to find an audience. As a result, I mostly watch non-network shows. There are occasional exceptions like Person of Interest, for example. I am also watching a good deal of shows on DVD. Between Netflix streaming and Amazon sales on genre series (conveniently timed to match with my income tax refund) I have a steady stream of genre content on my “pile of shame”. A lot of this is stuff from the 90’s explosion of shows that I missed due to my first marriage falling apart at the time but, there is also a large amount of British series. Somehow British television always seems to kick US tv’s ass. Finally, I’m also a big fan of anthology shows which tragically no longer seem to be popular. So, I am almost always watching an anthology series as well.
If you have any comments or questions, you can email me at: njsauer@yahoo.com
Fantastic Television 
Hi, Nick
Well, let’s get the discussion started…
I used to be a much bigger fan of Fantastic TV. Somehow I just cannot commit these days to an hour a week watching a program. If it is good I will wait and get it from NetFlix in batches of three episodes. I did spring for GAME OF THRONES Season One, and am looking forward to the release of Season Two. Costco will probably have it at a reasonable price. We watched FRINGE Seasons One to Three that way, and friends suggested that most of the good stuff is in the first three seasons. We have put CHARLEY JADE on our to-watch list, but that might take a while. Did you say somewhere that the series was canceled before the story could reach a conclusion, and is it still worth watching?
Hey Mark,
To answer your Charlie Jade question first, Richard mentioned it ends on a cliff hanger but, it is only a little piece at the end and is clearly a set-up for the second season that never happened. The main story of the season has a logical and amazingly well scripted conclusion. It is definitely worth checking out in my opinion. It’s really a pretty unique series.
As far as watching stuff goes, however you choose to do it is fine. I really think it’s just a matter of taste. I know some people (I’m looking at you Kevin) that do what is called main lining which is watching a bunch of episodes of a series back to back as fast as their schedule permits. That doesn’t work for me but, that’s just me. I’ll watch at most one episode a day in the potentially vain attempt to capture the episodic feel of the media. However, that is not a hard and fast rule for me in that I will watch a second episode if I can’t wait. Supernatural and Leverage each had one of their two-part season finales so intrigue me that I just went ahead with the last episode after watching the penultimate one. With The Shield, when I recommend the series to people I let them know that they should be set to watch the first two episodes back to back because the first episode ends with such a shocker that it will be hard not to immediately watch the second episode. I can still watch weekly shows but, I have to admit that having the once a day dosage from DVD sets has certainly weakened my patience on some level. What I keep in mind whenever I think about complaining about the lack of instant gratification of Netflix or a DVD set is one of the lines my sister had in response to my complaining about a Supernatural season cliff hanger where I had to wait for the next season box to arrive from Amazon. She said “You know, some of us had to wait six months for that”.