First there was the TV. And we looked upon it and said, “It is good.” Then, there was the VCR. And we looked upon it and said, “It is good… even if we have to deal with stacks of tapes we sometimes forget to label, making it hard to find that MIA episode of EVERWOOD.” Then there was the DVD. And we looked upon it and said, “It is good… even if I now have to replace my videotape collection of TWIN PEAKS episodes with the DVD version because it has all these cool extras!” Then there was the DVR. And we looked upon it and said, “It is good… what with not having to stack video tapes and being able to watch the shows whenever I want, but if I have two 60-hour DVR’s and both are full, when am I supposed to catch up?”
Throw in iTunes, 500 cable channels and episodes streaming on the web and every other option available to TV fans and one can’t help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, we’ve reached saturation point. At what point does a TV fan – let alone an addict – throw up their hands in defeat and say, “Alright, I surrender. I will never have time to watch the special edition DVD of Shogun, all 13-weeks of TiVo’s WICKED, WICKED GAMES episodes, five hours a week of AMERICAN IDOL and the second season of ROME via HBO/TMN On Demand.”
Something’s gotta give!
Is it just us, or has it gotten to the point where there are so many options with regards to what to watch that sacrifices – tough, tough sacrifices – now have to be made? A friend has recently created what he calls his “retirement library”, filled with DVD’s of shows he always intended to watch but never got around to, including the first three seasons of NIP/TUCK. He operates under a “buy now, watch later” theory which seems reasonable… until you realize that every few weeks, he’s adding another DVD collection and there’s no indication that the madness will ever stop.
So our question to you is this: Is there now so much good TV available – whether currently airing or thanks to classic shows being released on DVD – that you have to make sacrifices? And if so, what doesn’t make the cut? 
