11 October 2007 - 2:29 pm

So, what have I been doing with my time of late?

Catching the new television season since I now live somewhere I can get reception on my television still without cable.

I have my old favorites, conveniently located one right after the other on the same night (though different stations). This is my Tuesday night line up:

Bones - Booth, he's so dreamy (I thought so when he was Angel, so at least I'm being consistent)
House - House, he's such an improvement over being the English idiot I first new him as in Black Adders 1-4 and Wooster and Jeeves. And his blue eyes, they're so dreamy...
and then Law & Order: SVU. - Elliott Stabler and his unpredictable rage, strong jaw line that's always tense and concern for anyone harming children, well, he's so dreamy too.

Then I have my new shows:

Pushing Daisies (Wednesday night), Life (Wednesday night) and Moonlight (Fridays).

I love Pushing Daisies, with its bright colors and silliness and warm heartedness. It plays like a continually evolving showing of a movie, each episode a separate chapter, but part of a beautiful, alternate world. And Life, starring yet another Brit playing an American very convincingly, Damian Lewis is on the edge of sanity, spouting zen-like phrases while trying to get to the bottom of his own case that had him jailed for 12 years. Damian Lewis, with his tilted head and intense look, and oh those eyes and the permanently slightly pursed lips, he's dreamy too.

Moonlight, the jury is still out. I can't decide if I'm annoyed at how not original it is, following too close in the footsteps of Angel, or how not particularly engaged in the characters I am. I do like the fact that Sophia Myles, the lead female character in Moonlight, played Erika, the rival female in Underworld. As in, she already played a vampire herself in her career. Now she is Beth, the human potential love interest of the vampire.

Life and Moonlight are both set in LA, so I try and catch scenes that I may have had to make a detour around while filming took place.

Oh, but I have found an even better use of my time:

many of these shows have episodes in their entirity available on the internet at the network websites. A few interruptions for commercials, but no biggie.

So I was thinking about Life again this morning, and wanted to watch one scene over again, found it and watched it again during lunch. And discovered, the soundtrack has been changed. Charlie Crews has a new car in this episode, and when it is introduced with him driving it, when it was broadcast, a distinctive song played that I recognized but can't remember the name of. It is strictly instrumental, and played again when the car appeared in the last scene of the show. But on the internet version, the song has been changed, and is a much blander, less distinctive voice for the car. It actually made those scenes less interesting, because the car's music fit so wonderfully, and now it is just generic soundtrack music.

So, there you have it, one reason to catch the broadcast versions of television shows. I wonder when the show is put out on DVD (and it will, you know it will) whether the generic version will play, or the one from the broadcast. I'm sure it's a licensing issue, but it sure makes such a difference.