Cable Channels

I recently had my Skycable digibox installed. I'm still enjoying the Sky Silver package but have added two channels that I watch often when I'm at my dad's (he subscribes to Destiny Cable). I've added Hallmark and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) at an additional 20 pesos each per month.

I added Hallmark because I love Hallmark movies and their Oprah show schedule is better suited to my personal schedule than other channels that offer Oprah. On the other hand, I absolutely adore old movies and TCM plays nothing but old movies. More often than not, I'm tuned into this channel.

I had a chance to watch the additional HBO channels (HBO Signature, HBO Family, and HBO Hits) for a week when I had the digibox installed, but didn't really enjoy the movies much. They all had appeared on the regular HBO at one time or another -- and I should know -- having watched HBO continuously over several months until recently. ;)

So what cable channels do I regularly watch anyway? Here's a rundown:

• Etc - Project Runway Philippines, occasionally the Tyra Banks Show and America's Next Top Model (ANTM)
• 2nd Avenue - Entertainment Tonight, sometimes The Ellen Degeneres Show; RJ during Sunday mornings. :)
• Star World - ANTM, Castle (it's on a break right now though), 2 other shows
• Hallmark - besides Oprah, I watch The Nanny reruns and also the Wonder Years; the TV series Merlin seems to be pretty interesting too
• Velvet Channel - used to watch The View every single day until they stopped showing it, bummer; I finished the whole Harper's Island series here, and they show very nice movies not shown in other channels. Though since the movies are shown at midnight on weekdays, I can't watch anymore now I've started working again.
• Lifestyle Network - Extreme Home Makeover and all other home makeover shows if I can; I also like to catch Giada de Laurentiis when she goes around different places tasting food in restaurants and stuff
• SciFi Network - I actually emailed Destiny Cable back in early 2000s asking them to bring this channel here. That was the time Skycable got all the Star channels exclusively and then managed to get AXN too. I'm glad SciFi is not exclusive to any one channel though. I watch about six shows on this channel, including Joss Whedon's Angel. Yes, I have the complete series on DVD (specially ordered from Amazon) but I still watch it.
• AXN - I watch Numb3rs and they have some nice movies; plus the CSI shows
• AXN Beyond - I watch Buffy of course, plus about three other shows. Love this channel.
• Foxcrime - Dexter and the CSI series
• Teleradyo/ ANC - only when I'm hungering for local news
• CNN - oddly enough, I like watching the Situation Room (a political analysis show) as well as Larry King Live, but again, not so much now that I've started working again
• Fox News - I don't really have this channel right now, but I catch it at my dad's. Bill O' Reilly is obnoxious but fun to watch. LOL.
• HBO, Star Movies - these are the only movie channels I have right now in addition to TCM. These are the first channels I check when I turn on the TV. If there's nothing nice on, I watch other channels.
• MGM - my dad has this channel too. I'm thinking of subscribing to it next month. They also have movies not shown in other channels.
• Cinemax - I would love to have this channel, but can live without it if I have to pay. If I have to choose between Star Movies and Cinemax, I pick Star Movies.
• TCM - I adore this channel; enough said. :)
• History Channel/ Bio - new additions to the Silver package (only if you have a digibox); very very interesting documentaries; great channels
• FX - another addition to the Silver package with the digibox; they've got Alias and Mad Men and McGyver!!! This channel is targeted to male demographic but I'm liking it a lot

Now, if Skycable will let me just watch all these channels at a package rate and take out those sports channels, I'd be a happy customer.

Some thoughts on CSI.

I watched CSI yesterday, so my post below is just some of my ramblings regarding that episode. If you don't like to be spoiled, stop reading please.

~SPOILERS FOR SEASON 9 EPISODE 10~

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It was Grissom's farewell episode. I gotta say I teared up at the end. There was no big goodbye for him at the lab, and only Catherine noticed that Grissom was going around saying his silent goodbyes for the last time. For me, it was the perfect exit for him. It fit Grissom well -- he dislikes a lot of hullaballoo, so the quiet curtains-down came off just right.

I'm a GSR (Grissom Sara Romance) fan too so I absolutely loved the ending where he goes and looks for Sara somewhere in the jungles of Costa Rica. I think he will be happy there. Showing that bug in the leaf was a nice touch too -- certainly he won't lack for itty bitty creatures to study there, LOL. I wonder if they're going to get married? Maybe. He did ask her several episodes ago, after all.

Some folks over at several CSI-centric forums have stated that they will stop watching the show now that Grissom is gone. I myself will still watch though, as I like the show itself. However, after seeing the last episode and how Lawrence Fishburne's character, Dr. Raymond Langston, went about trying to solve his first crime in CSI, I am forced to conclude that if he was meant to replace Grissom, it ain't going to work, and the show is never going to be the same again.

Don't get me wrong, ok? I like the Langston character, and I think there will be people who will probably start watching the show because of Fishburne and his acting calibre. The problem is, I don't think the people who were drawn to Grissom's character will be drawn to him in the same way. He's just very different. Different target audience, CBS guys, ok? Lemme explain.

It's quite simple. Grissom is a science geek. When he doesn't know where to go next in a case, he goes back to the evidence. He analyzes STUFF. This last episode where he touches on forensic astronomy was pure Grissom. And remember there was this one episode in Season 1 (or maybe it was Season 2), where Catherine wanted to go out and talk to witnesses and suspects, but Grissom chose to stay in the lab and go over the evidence? (I don't remember which episode this was but it had a boathouse in it, and the victim was having an affair there). At the end of the episode, both Grissom and Catherine came to the same conclusion, but their methods were thoroughly different.

Now Dr. Langston is more of a detective rather than a scientist. When he reaches a dead end, his instinct is to go back to the suspects. He analyzes PEOPLE. He wonders about their motivations and thinks he can "trick" a villain into revealing information through psychology. I actually think Dr. Langston will be a better fit in Criminal Minds rather than CSI. Maybe the defunct Profiler. Or The Closer.

I'm not saying that the people route is bad, but it's very COMMON. Detectives in countless cop shows use this. All detectives are supposed to have a gut instinct for reading people and getting information out of them. But crime scene investigators? Grissom is the quintessential CSI because he goes back to the evidence. Who else remains in the cast who is like that? This is also one of the reasons I like CSI Las Vegas over the other CSI franchises. The instinct in the other characters (think Horatio Caine) is to go the people detecting route. Sigh.

This makes me wonder about the future of CSI. CSI made science cool. GRISSOM made science cool.

CBS, please please PLEASE find another geek please. Somebody should be saying "go back to the evidence" and make the science of it fascinating for us. That's what CSI is. The show is different because it looks at STUFF, not PEOPLE. I just can't envision anyone in the current cast who holds that same enthusiasm for science (well, maybe Hodges... or one of the lab rats, but this show is called CSI and NOT Lab Rats).