Done Away With Cable TV

 

JULY 2021...  marks the date that my wife and I finnally eliminated our dependence upon CABLE TV...  Prior to this month, we had internet, cable, and phone from our local cable provider and no only were we experience connectivity problems but technical support was lacking in competence as well.

We both have cell phones so we no longer needed our landline through our cable provider.

We went from a cable coax connection to the internet to a fiber optic internet connect which is must faster and much more reliable and has greater bandwidth than cable internet.

We went from cable TV to HULU LIVE which includes much more than our current cable package and the fee is much less than what we were paying.

In short, we are getting more for less money each month.

We are streaming HULU through a ROKU device which is a one time equipment purchase.  And, we have all of ROKU's free channels and movies as well.

We also have a KODI box which was a one time equipment purchase and while it offers access to more recent movies and is no always reliable...  so, we don't use it much.

Later in the week, we are going to make another one time equipment purchase for a digital antenna where once connected to our TV, we will be able to watch local channels free-of-charge within a 50-100 mile radius.

Our HULU contract is on a month-to-month basis which is good...  but our fiber WIFI is on a 2 year contract which does gives us some concern but something with which we have to live...

BREAK FREE OF CABLE...

"Twenty Four"

Using a ROKU device purchased a while back, we purchased subscriptions to NETFLIX and HULU to access a variety of extra services that were not available on CABLE without paying very high monthly fees...  and, while we still have to pay fees for these additional services, they are not as high as CABLE.

It would appear at least from my perspective that HULU offers a better variety of choices than NETFLIX...  one of these choices is the HULU offered series "24," which has a total of nine seasons which is a long time for any kind of recent series.  Among other well known actors, the main actor is Kiefer Sutherland who I never much cared for as a young actor and who has seemed to have improved as he has gotten older.  His father, Donald Sutherland, always played weird roles and his facial expressions made him perfect for those roles.  Kiefer does not have those facial expressions but he does seem to be a better overall actor than his father...  at least as far as this series is concerned.

HOWEVER...

the series is flawed and season after season they have perpetuated those same flaws so it would appear that neither the writers or the Director saw them as flaws, rendering my comments constructive but without support from Hollywood.

Here are my reasons:

1.  While the overall series is interested and each episode of each season is unpredictable, the same basic premise is played out each of the nine seasons, making it rather predictable  in general with unexpected twists and turns resulting in an inevitable outcome or conclusion.

2.  Every season and every episode relies on workplace incompetence and workplace egos which really is difficult to believe would take place in a COUNTER TERRORIST UNIT.  Maybe it could happen once, but this incompetence manifests itself in every single episode in every season as if these people have never learned anything from previous experiences.

3.  It is believable that spies could have penetrated a government organization, but the foundation of this series is that SPIES are at ALL LEVELS of our Military and Federal Government which is highly unlikely which causes the series to lose some credibility with the assumptions that have been made.  Not only are there SPIES in the government but there are spies in high levels of business organizations that have contracts with the government.

4.  Like Raiders of the Lost Ark, each episode of each season is filled will unbelievable twists and turns that could never take place and the reason that they continue to take place in this series is that many of the characters involved MAKE STUPID MISTAKES over and over again, which again is not that realistic.

5.  While the plots are PLAUSIBLE they always involve terrorists from a foreign country, usually in the Middle East, who wants to get revenge on the USA because of something the USA did to the people of their country, even though the USA had been invited to take military action in their country.  Also, each of the nine seasons involve some sort of nuclear device and the terrorist always seem to get the codes to make these nuclear devices active.  Again, the USA never seems to learn from previous experiences even though some characters continue to play role in subsequent seasons.

6.  Kiefer Sutherland plays the main character in all nine seasons and goes by the name of JACK BAUER.  Jack Bauer seems to have RAMBO like characteristics and no matter how often JB gets shot, stabbed, or suffers broken ribs from a brutal fight, he always seems to get back into the action without resting or recuperating as would be the case of a normal man.  Not only does he have the ability to recuperating fast, he seems to be impervious to ALL TYPES of torture both mentally, physically, and psychologically.

HULU

My wife and I decided to try a free 30 day subscription to HULU last week and while she is watching a sub titled comedy from South Korea, I am watching the X-FILES with Agents Scully and Mulder...  There are eight seasons of the show, so obviously I started with Season 1, Episode 1 and amazed myself because I do not remember any of those shows...  when it first started out, the shows focused on weird things happening and not totally on UFO's and alien visitors...  which I would not have thought or believed if I had not seen these episodes for myself.



My wife and I like watching BBC Detective Shows and have watched many on NETFLIX before started enjoying DCI BANKS on HULU.  I am not sure why, but I prefer watching BBC Detective Shows rather than American Detective Shows...  I suppose because they seem more realistic in that they do not always work out where good triumphs over evil which to me is more real life.  However, the accents sometimes are hard to understand and we are constantly asking each other what they said.  Their slang terms are different than ours as well like flat for house and lockup for storage building.