shadowkat: (Default)
shadowkat ([personal profile] shadowkat) wrote2009-07-10 11:48 pm

(no subject)

Concerning the Torchwood Miniseries? Please continue to keep ANYTHING resembling a spoiler beneath a cut. I will not be able to catch this miniseries until July 20th - when it airs on BBCAmerica, and most likely will not watch live. From what I've read in reviews this is a suspenseful miniseries that you do not want to be spoiled for.

Sigh. Might just have to avoid flist for the next two weeks or filter out all the people who are watching Torchwood on flist. Could just do that.

It's highly annoying when this happens. I had to do the same thing with the dang Buffy comic, Retreat, because my comic store didn't get it until this week. Also had to do it with Doctor Who - which is FINALLY being televised here. The Doc Who Xmas Special was horrid by the way, I was bored out of my mind and wrote a post while it played in the background.

Hmmm, wonder if this is how you guys who live outside of the US felt when we discussed tv shows you hadn't gotten yet? Aggravating isn't it? When you finally see the thing everyone is rattling on about, you have to hunt for their reviews of it...which are usually about five to six days ago or weeks or even months. And by the time you want to discuss? They've moved on to the next thing.

While the net has to a degree made this less of a problem - it has only done it for those who actually can download tv shows, comic books,books, or movies from the internet and watch them. Those of us who can't? Are just aggravated. ;-)

Simple answer? Because I just don't like downloads - more trouble than they are worth

[identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com 2009-07-11 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for the links.

But.

I do not choose to download for a lot of reasons, and I won't bore you with all of them here's the main two:

1. My RAM capability is limited - so the download takes forever, often crashes the computer, and makes it impossible for me to do much else. I have a DEll Inspirion 6000, circa 2005 and am on Time Warner Road Runner - which is the fastest internet cable modem you can have.

2. Watching things on small screens, 15 inchs or less, in my lap, with my neck crooked, for hours on end, causes eye strain, and gives me a horrible migraine.

3. Cannot afford a computer that would allow me to download files and watch them comfortably.
ext_7259: (Duster_by_awmp)

Re: Simple answer? Because I just don't like downloads - more trouble than they are worth

[identity profile] moscow-watcher.livejournal.com 2009-07-11 05:55 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry for tempting you with piratic treasures...

Back in 2002, I have bought my first up-to-date computer because I wanted to download and watch season 7 of BtVS together with the rest of the world. Before that, I had an ancient PC and was absolutely happy with it, because I could read, write and get my e-mail.

But since Buffy I always watch downloaded files and then buy DVDs.

[identity profile] curlymynci.livejournal.com 2009-07-11 08:57 am (UTC)(link)
It is indeed how it is when stuff is broadcast first in the US. That's why I end up pirating and salving my conscience by buying the DVD later.

You try to avoid the spoilers but they inevitably crop up as a giant picture on the front page of somewhere, or in the comments next to a cut article.

BSG was a sodding nightmare but I managed to make it through intact. Unfortunately every major death in The Wire was wrecked. Thank god Twin Peaks was pre-internet.

Re: Torchwood. Do try hard, because it was a damn great miniseries and would suffer horribly from being ruined like that.

[identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com 2009-07-11 03:58 pm (UTC)(link)
BSG must have been...even when I wrote about it, it was hard to remember to put stuff behind cuts. You forget that half your flist/readership does not live in the same broadcast territory that you do.

I remember people from the UK screaming at folks on discussion boards back when Buffy was airing - because they got the episodes a year after we did. I think it lagged a year behind, just as Doctor Who and Torchwood used to for the US, before BBCAmerica picked them up and decided to show them a lot closer together. BBCAmerica is showing in succession the following series: Doctor Who, Torchwood, Being Human. So while you are getting Torchwood, we're getting Doctor Who. And of course Being Human aired more than a year ago.

The internet really has changed how we watch movies, tv and read books - hasn't it?

[identity profile] curlymynci.livejournal.com 2009-07-11 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank god. Up here in North Wales I only get 3 TV channels!

[identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com 2009-07-11 09:21 pm (UTC)(link)
You're in North Wales? Where? I only ask - because I spent some time in 1987 and 1988 in North Wales. Was collecting Welsh Folktales (actually more ghost stories there really aren't any folktales being orally passed about) in 1988. Very beautiful countryside.
(Reminds me a bit of the Hudson River Valley in NY, except prettier. (Or it is in my memory, been a very long time.)

[identity profile] curlymynci.livejournal.com 2009-07-11 09:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Well I live in Llandudno, work in Rhyl and once upon a time went to university in Bangor. And yes, it's gorgeous. If you're into the outdoors it's kind of a paradise at this time of year. :)

[identity profile] embers-log.livejournal.com 2009-07-11 12:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Don't worry, I won't spoil you... I'm not sure I'll be able to see it either!

It is frustrating avoiding spoilers, but it is worth it in the end (I was away on a trip to Greece during the final three Buffy S7 shows, and I had warned everyone to not say a word in any email if they wanted to remain my friend!). When I got home, I'd been traveling for 24 straight hours, and first thing I did was rewind the video tape and watch those final three episodes (it was awesome).

[identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com 2009-07-11 03:53 pm (UTC)(link)
You were probably less spoiled than I was at the time. I was unfortunately on internet posting boards. And friends with a guy who was obsessed with spoilers. He would keep hinting them to me. And he was always sooo disappointed, because they weren't doing the storyline he had in his head. As a result, my perception of S7 was slightly tainted. I think I enjoy the season more now than I did then, when I was watching it through the obsessed eyes of a group of people who wanted a different story than the one that was on the air.

Do you have BBCAmerica? If not, you can grab the download files from moscowwatcher above - I know you download stuff.
I really can't. Computer crashes every time I do it. And when I do manage to watch - it often gives me a horrible headache. Befor I had a DVD player - people kept lending me DVD's and telling me to watch them on my computer. I remember trying to watch Red Dwarf on it - let's just say, that I thought Red Dwarf was grossly overrated. It's very sexist and quite male centric. But, I probably would have liked and appreciated it more if I'd watched it on my tv set and not the computer.

[identity profile] embers-log.livejournal.com 2009-07-11 05:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't have BBC America available here, I don't know why, but I've cancelled cable anyway...

I'm scared of downloading bit torrent (like you I've damaged my computer when I tried it), and I'm not sure that technology is iMac compatible anyway....
but it turns out my good friends at rootforum have set up Torchwood online w/streaming video (they hide it as though they are posting family videos....), which means I can just watch without downloading anything onto my computer.

Also luckily I have a large flat screen monitor on my computer which is as pleasant to watch as my TV, just a nice clear picture which I can enjoy without being bothered by it (like I used to be w/my old huge monitor).