TV

The Consultant

With apologies to the Addams Family:

He’s creepy and he’s kooky
Mysterious and spooky
He’s all together ooky
The Consultant

Usually I know what is coming up on Amazon Prime, but I didn’t know about this show at all. When poking around on Saturday for something to watch one of the banners for was something called “The Consultant.” I went to its Amazon page and saw just 8 episodes clocking in around 30 minutes each. Intrigued I went to its IMDB page to see what kind of rating it had. It was only a 6.6 out of 10, but I could spare 30 minute for episode one. The next time I looked up I had finished episode six!

It was getting late and I didn’t have time to finish the last two episodes, so I watched them today. In the last episode they basically teed up for a season two. While I certainly enjoyed watching the show and I don’t regret spending roughly 4 hours watching it, I probably won’t watch another season of it.

Cutting Half the Cord

A little cable bill history. Back in Aiken ten years ago, which is the furthest back I can find a bill, we were paying $62 a month for their cable service. In 2016 our bill jumped from $83 to $145 because we dropped AT&T’s DSL internet service for the speedier cable internet. Two years later it went from $164 down to ninety-five bucks because we dropped down to the very basic TV service. We had had probably 100 channels previously, but watched a half dozen of them. This cheaper option gave us what we really needed, just the big 4 networks, PBS and the Weather Channel. By the time we moved west it was up to a few bucks over the hundred dollar mark.

When we moved in here in Oregon we signed up with Spectrum. In 2020 for 125 channels and 500MBs internet speeds it was $134 a month. Because that was an introductory price it creeped up to $215 by this year. There was something about breaking the two hundred dollar that made it seem like that was too much for what we were getting.

Unlike Atlantic Broadband in Aiken, Spectrum’s 125 channel package is the lowest they offer. This is too bad because if they did offer a lower tier and we could save forty or so dollars, we’d have happily stayed. Again, all we really needed were the regular broadcast channels and ESPN for watching NFL football games. The day after the Super Bowl we drove down to the local Spectrum store, handed them their box and remote. The next bill we get from them will be a more reasonable $89 for their 1 Gig internet.

We have had a Roku box for about ten years that delivers all of our non-cable video entertainment. We’ve been paying $6.99 for the ad-free version of Discovery+ for HGTV & Food Network. Plus another $9.99 for Peacock Premium+ (ad-free) and a little over $4 a month more for GCN+ for watching pro cycling.

Probably the two most used apps on the Roku are Radio Paradise and YouTube.

If we we’re just reading a book or doing a jigsaw puzzle RP’s music was on in the background. Because Radio Paradise is listener supported I’ve been donating $5 a month to them for quite so time now. After the cable TV cancelation I bumped up that reoccurring donation to $10.

Whenever I watch car related stuff on YouTube on the PC I never get commercials, but when Donna watches it via the Roku on the TV she was getting a lot of very annoying ads mid video, so we have upped to YouTube Premium for $11.99 a month so she is much happier (and consequently so am I.)

What about NFL football when it starts back up in September? Where we live there isn’t a strong enough signal from the networks to just add a small indoor antenna, plus what about Monday Night Football on ESPN? Glad you asked. The cost savings from eliminating cable TV is roughly the equivalent of half the cost of YouTube TV or Hulu, both of which offer local broadcast stations and ESPN.

Inspired By…

…those insipid Verizon commercials that I see while watching the NFL games on Sunday. Which, while bad, are not nearly as annoying as the multitude of Spectrum (wireless, business and whatever Spectrum One is) ads that they stick in practically every commercial break all dang day long.

Times Miata Driven since 10/28/22: 6

 

GCN

While we don’t cycle as much as we used to, we still like to watch the professionals do it. Every July since in the early 90’s we have watched the Tour de France on whatever network has shown it. Probably for the last decade or so we have subscribed to NBC Sports Gold, the most recent home of the Tour de France 3-week grand tour.

Along with the Tour de France NBC Sports Gold showed several other races as well, from a couple of spring classic one day events, to a couple of week long races like the Tour Down Under in Australia and Paris-Nice in France. We have also been able to watch the Vuelta a España, one of the three other 3-week grand tours.

The only 3-week grand tours we have never seen is the Giro d’Italia, well, that changes this year. Turns out that Global Cycling Network, something that started in 2013 as a YouTube channel, now carries the Italian grand tour. We have signed up for the month of May for GCN+ for a mere $9 just so we can see this grand tour. They also carry tons of other races from Europe, so maybe we just might sign up for a whole ($45) so we can get all sorts of commercial free cycling content.

18.5 mile trip to the Running Y for a 3 mile walk.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 18

 

I Suppose It Is the Fourth of February Already Somewhere

Earlier this evening I sat down in front of the PC, and because it is the day before the Reacher series premiers on Amazon, I might find a newer or different trailer out that I hadn’t seen yet. Well, there wasn’t any trailer, but the entire show was there waiting to be watched.

So I watched the first of the eight episodes. Watched it all the way through, even the credits. The lead actor fits the bill and I believe he is Reacher incarnate. From now on whenever I’m reading a Jack Reacher book I will picture Alan Ritchson in my head, just like I visualize Sam Heughan in any of the Outlander books.

This story is based on a book set in Georgia and the scenery looked the part, from the countryside to the small town square. I checked IMDB and the only filming locations mentioned are in Ontario, Canada. I guess it is a good thing they filmed it in the summer.

Also on the IMDB page there were several user reviews already there and they were dated February 4th even though it was early evening here. It wasn’t even past midnight on the east coast.

But then I remembered the credits I watched. I had noticed at the end of them the voice actors were listed for all the different countries that will be seeing this show. I realized, at least from the languages I recognized, many were in Europe and it was actually February 4th there.

Peacock, We Hardly Knew Ya

Earlier this month, somewhere, somehow, I found out there was an offer for a year free of Peacock Premium just for Specturm subscribers. So I signed up. Here is the welcoming email:
———
Thank you for signing up for Peacock Premium.

You now have access to thousands of hours of classic and current TV hits, movies, Peacock Originals, Dreamworks titles, live sports and more—included with your offer until 01/05/23 at no extra cost.

On 01/05/23, your access to Peacock Premium at no extra cost will end and you will be charged $4.99/month plus tax on a recurring basis unless you cancel before then. To cancel your Peacock Premium plan before you are charged on 01/05/23, please visit My Account.
———

We downloaded the Roku app, signed in, poked around a bit and then exited. Never went back. Then 2 days ago, 01/18/22, we got another email from Peacock:
———
Your Peacock offer has ended.

We hope you’ve enjoyed Peacock Premium at no extra cost. You no longer have access to Premium content but you can still watch Peacock for free. Restart Premium for only $4.99/month plus tax!
———

Wow, that year went by fast! Seemed like just 13 days.

Santa, All I Want For Christmas Is A New TV

Downstairs in Family/Entertainment Room we have our old 50″ Samsung TV that came with us from Aiken. Since its arrival from the east coast it has started to develop some vertical lines on the far left side of the screen. We have been able to ignore them mostly, but they are now starting to get on both our nerves.

It is Christmastime, so we thought maybe we should give ourselves a present of a new TV that has a nice complete picture. There are only a couple of places in town where you can buy a TV, but that is not really helpful as they would be no way to transport it home, so I went online to see about getting something delivered. Found a sweet Samsung 50″ UHD on Best Buy for $379. The best part is free shipping with arrival early next week. I was going to bump up the size to 55″ for $20 more, but the free shipping changed to $190!

I stuck the TV in my cart and headed to checkout. I filled out the requested personal info, entered my charge card info and hit the buy button. I got a screen telling me they couldn’t process my card and I should try another one. Thinking I may have entered the number wrong, entered a “new” card. Really the same one, but I made sure I double checked that everything was correct. This time when I hit Buy, I got a confirmation saying my order was placed.

About then I heard a couple of notification beeps on the phone. I figured it was Best Buy because I had signed up for order/delivery texts. I was right, there was one from Best Buy, but there was also one from Chase, the Fraud Department. They had declined the charge. They wanted to know if it was me. I responded with Yes. Chase sent back another text saying that the transaction was not completed and I should ask the merchant to reprocess the transaction.

On the Best Buy website, it showed the order as in process, so I tried contacting Chase. Instead of waiting for a representative on the phone, I tried their chat bot. After 7 minutes, I got started chatting with Doris Brown (who I’m sure was actually Prisha Banerjee) who after asking a couple questions to ensure I was really Brian Bogardus (not Changying Zhao) before asking what my issue was. Then she said give me a few minutes to look into this. Couple minutes she returned to tell me that I needed to contact billing to get them to reprocess a transaction and gave me that 800 number.

I dialed the number and navigated through the menu and then I was informed that billing was closed. Fast forward to this morning. I went to Best Buy’s website and my order was still showing in process. I went to the Chase website and the charge showed as pending.

So, is Santa bringing us a TV for Christmas, who knows. This morning I called Chase again. This time it only took a few minutes before I got a Customer Service Representative, and after a couple of questions was told that the transaction was actually approved and everything is fine. We’ll see.