So I don’t really watch an awful lot of TV. I watch more now than I used to, but still not heaps. To be honest in the daytime my TV is either off if the kids are at school, or on kids TV if they’re home. In an evening I either get caught up in surfing, blogging, gaming or something otherwise distracting, instead of turning on my TV.

Over the last few months I have been adding a lot of programs to the Never Miss on my Sky account. Programs I intended to watch from the beginning and never got around to it, or ones I lost track of at a certain series and would like to continue viewing. These included things like Doctor Who, House, Bones, 90210, Gossip Girl, Big Bang Theory etc. etc. However it also seems like all these programs started to be shown and repeated at the same time. My Sky box has filled and filled and I’ve had to get ruthless and delete programs, in order to make space for other ones to record. However two nights ago I just got mean! I deleted absolutely everything that didn’t make me go… “OMG I have to watch that now!” As such, I now have about 80% free on my Sky box, when previously I was struggling between 10-20%.

This lead me to thinking about this post I suppose. What is your MUST WATCH television? This is mine.

Game of Thrones

I was very late to the party with watching Game of Thrones. It was something I always wished I’d seen from the beginning, once people started talking about it, but I didn’t like the idea of picking it up mid second season. Over Christmas, both season one and two were shown on different channels at adjacent times. I set both to record, watching season one as often as I could (once a week usually, when it recorded) and then watching all of season two in the space of a week. Now its only three days until season three begins and I actually feel pretty excited! While I wouldn’t say its the best or even easiest TV show to get into and concentrate on (I totally get confused with everyone’s names) I would say it has a good (if not complicated at times) storyline, great actors and massively loveable (and HATEABLE) characters in it. Some of my favourite characters are definitely; Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, Robb Stark, Bronn and Arya Stark.

These t-shirts are floating around the internet, possibly to be sold at Tee Fury, but two are on sale at Tee Turtle. I have to admit I’d be tempted into all three, despite hating Joffrey.

Once Upon a Time

Again, another show I was late to the party on. Originally I didn’t even hear about it, then when I did – I didn’t pay much attention to what I was being told. However again over Christmas I saw it was on, two episodes a day, over a few weeks. I set it to record and the whole series built up. I finally got around to watching it about two weeks ago and I was addicted! For someone who is massively into Disney, loves fairytales, chick flicks and so on, this is the show for you. I can’t wait to get watching season two. So far there aren’t any characters I hate, even the people you are supposed to hate. My favourites however are; Mr Gold/Rumpelstiltskin – largely because its Robert Carlyle, Grumpy, August/Pinocchio and Sheriff Graham (insert sad face here). None of the female characters grab me massively, but that’s not to say they aren’t all well played and acted. I love its balance of past and present, its continual storyline at the same time as having stand alone episodes. All in all its just a very clever twist, for the people like me who love soppy fairy stories.

The Walking Dead

I have never ever been one for Zombies. Not TV shows, not movies. However again I do remember seeing trailers for this in the middle of season two and thinking it looked pretty good. On getting together with my current partner (who is a massive zombie fan), I agreed to watch The Walking Dead. We watched all of season one (he owned the DVD) in two nights, immediately followed by me insisting he purchased season two that night. We then watched season two over another two or three nights, setting the Sky+ for season three which was about to start. Since then we have watched the new episode every week and its now only got two episodes left till end of season.

I’ll be honest, its incredibly gory, but if you can look past that, its an amazing tv show. I would liken it to Lost really, in that the focus is actually on the survivors of the zombie apocalypse, rather than the zombies itself. There are loveable characters and hateable characters, and even those that start off in one category and work their way into another. I especially love Daryl Dixon. He has been from the start and still remains, my favourite character. I also love Maggie and Glenn, though not especially them as a couple. Rick I liked, but its wearing off (though the fact he’s in Love Actually probably saves him for me a little) and Hershel I wasn’t keen on but now he’s one of my favs. Most of the people who have died so far, I have to say…. Good. Definitely wasn’t a big fan of a few specific people, but I don’t want to add spoilers.

Doctor Who – Series 7, Part 2

Specific? Yes. Prior to Series 7, I hadn’t watched any of the more recent Doctor Who. Not Christopher Eccleston and not David Tenant. I had once caught an episode with David Tenant and just thought it was ridiculous, putting me off ever watching it again. However having a friend come to visit a lot towards the end of last year, and want to watch Doctor Who, I found myself getting into it – largely because of Matt Smith, but also because of Jenna-Louise Coleman. The first episode I watched was S7, E1. Jenna-Louise was amazing and I was totally addicted from day one. Episode 2 and 3 weren’t so great, dinosaurs in space and robot cowboys, but after that it picked up again. By episode 5 I was crying for the loss of characters I was invested in and looking forward to the Christmas special. Once again Jenna-Louise Coleman and Matt Smith sold the Christmas special to me and now I can’t wait for Series 7, Part 2 to begin again on Saturday. While I might have axed all previous series of Doctor Who from my Sky box, in my ruthless cut a few days ago, Doctor Who series 7, part 2 will remain firmly on my box, probably watched within a day or two of recording.

I even bought this t-shirt from the awesome Tee Fury site. I’ll be wearing it tomorrow in anticipation of Doctor Who!

Other “must-watch” TV, that I’m currently up to date with

I’ve added these below, largely owing to the fact that they are my secondary must-watch section. These are all shows that I keep up to date with, but don’t rush to watch. I usually watch them all within the week they record, but occasionally they build up to be more than one episode at a time to catch up on.

• How I Met Your Mother
• Glee
• The Vampire Diaries
• The Following
• New Girl

On the whole I watch HIMYM and New Girl fairly quickly after they record, mostly because they are only 20 minute episodes. They are all shows I want to keep up to date with, but they aren’t always a priority.

Habit Shows

Some of you will know what I mean by Habit Shows. Those shows that you have watched for so long now, that you just continue to watch. For some people its soaps like Eastenders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks, Neighbours, Home & Away etc. For me however its Casualty, Holby City and NCIS. 

– Casualty is my longest watched TV show. Its easy to get in and out of, pick up and put down, but since series link was invented for the Sky box, I have to admit I’ve been recording it ever since. 
– Holby City (as you will know if you are familiar with the show) is a sort of spin-off/link-in of Casualty. I probably put this on to record about a year after I did Casualty, but it is now one of my staple records. 
Both these two shows I usually watch within the week they record, but at the most two weeks. For some reason when I don’t know what to watch, these are my go-tos.
– NCIS was an unexpected addition. I once caught a few episodes at the end of season 2, over a couple of days and really got into it. I then continued to watch it solidly through 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 (thanks again series link!). Season 9 was set to start in the not too distant future so recorded that and pretty sure its onto Season 10 now. Since I first started watching NCIS, I managed to backtrack and catch majority of the episodes I’d missed in Season 1 and 2. There are now only about 3 episodes I haven’t seen, in the whole 10 series (other than what’s currently airing).

Other noteable mentions….

A new season of Touch starts this coming week. This is only its second season, but I enjoyed the first and so I have high hopes for the next one.

Revolution is a new show airing tonight for the first time. Its been on in the US for a while now and seems to be a hit, so I’m pretty excited to see how it will be. There are a few familiar faces in the cast, one of which I liked in Lost. The rough storyline sounds good so I suppose we’ll see!

Catfish. I’ve mentioned this before so I won’t go into it in detail, but I’ve really enjoyed this show. I think its possibly at an end now (the next episodes blurb sounds like a finale show) but I’ve loved watching it. I don’t really go in much for reality show but there was just something about this particular one that triggered my interest. I really hope they continue to do more episodes and series in the future.