Yes. I have to skip more hours of good TV now then I watched ten years ago. Outside of Survivor, I only watch scripted shows. Conversely, my movie viewing - both at home and the theatre - has dramatically declined. My friends and I use to see 25 -35 new movies a year. I'm down to 5 -10 now.

I got rid of Dish. All I have is Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon. I'm good.

This is why I love 10-13 episode seasons. I have no time for 22-24 episodes and nine times out of ten the quality suffers. I'm already burning out on Gotham.

Agreed. I used to watch maybe 2-3 movies/week. Now I'm down to perhaps 1/month it seems.

What makes the status of current TV content challenging for me is the year-round programming aspect -- and the number of cable shows that output such quality programming.

15 years ago, quality scripted programming was primarily limited to just a few channels -- now it's expanded to dozens of channels and online outlets. I do my best to choose quality programming, but when there are so many quality shows to choose from, it can become daunting.

Just answer the question we all want to know DJariya...how many TV shows do you watch that are currently airing every week. 20? 30?

I'm currently watching 4 shows per week (Walking Dead, Justified, It's Always Sunny, and Better Call Saul).

I do keep a list of shows I'm interested in checking out, and it is lonnnng. Minimum of 20. I will eventually try them all, but who knows how many I'll commit to.

Overwhelmed at the options with which to view the programs? Yes. There's so many choices we have to view TV nowadays that it can become overwhelming. I currently have Directv (including OnDemand), Netflix, and, Amazon Prime.

Overwhelmed at the amount of content? No. There's far less programming I watch now than I have at any time in the past. More viewing options doesn't mean better content.

I'm backed up at least one season on a ton of shows. Walking dead, Homeland, Boardwalk Empire, Vikings, Bates Motel, The 100, etc. All with at least 1+ seasons sitting on my DVR.

Absolutely.

A major issue I have is that TV discussion is so integrated into water cooler conversations at work that if I don't keep up with my shows I will undoubtedly run into spoilers (between that and social media they are almost impossible to avoid). Couple that with all these new viewing options (Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime are new to me) and I get paralyzed by choice often. More and more I seem to find myself culling my list of shows and relegating some to Blu-Ray binges if I know I can avoid spoilers.

The good thing is that it's made me more selective of what I watch and more prone to eliminate stuff that isn't instantly grabbing me.

Maybe more annoyed than overwhelmed. I was busy for a couple weeks and am now trying to get caught up on the handful of shows I watch. Meanwhile shows that I started and want to continue like Agent Carter and 12 Monkeys are still (I think) available on demand but for how long? And then there's all my physical media. Something like Freaks and Geeks seems doable, but I want to watch Breaking Bad, and that's a big load! I finally started to tackle Buffy and got through four seasons before I had to take a break.

I don't have Netflix streaming but I do have the disc rental so I watched a couple episodes of Orange Is the New Black that way. Then the BD was cheap during the holidays so I went ahead and bought it rather than trying to time disc rentals to my watching schedule. So I'm about six episodes in, and it's fine, but honestly I wouldn't mind letting it wait till the summer. House of Cards is still on my list, though.

I do buy some shows digitally but then get annoyed when they pop up on streaming before I get a chance to watch them. That happened with Orphan Black, and then just over the holidays with The White Queen, which I bought on BD then saw it appear on Prime maybe even before my order arrived. And I bought it from Amazon so I probably would've noticed the Prime option on their page.

It's not just TV, though. It's become a really annoying catch-all phrase for any kind of viewing/reading/playing. Now people aren't watching movies--they're "consuming content." I guess I still have the romantic notion that people are getting "an experience" from their entertainment.

I go back and forth all of the time on whether I am overwhelmed by the TV shows I watch. Part of me says to stick with the best shows out there and focus on them more (maybe watching each episode twice because you miss certain things). I can't wait for Game of Thrones, Homeland, Mad Men, and The Walking Dead, so I never feel burdened by them. These are the only shows I still watch on Sunday night, because many co-workers are talking about them on Monday so I don't want to hear some spoiler.

It's when I look at the 'B' shows that I watch (good shows, but I am not dying to watch the next episode like I am with Game of Thrones). These are shows like The Affair, Halt and Catch Fire, The Leftovers, Better Call Saul, Outlander, etc. That is when I start to feel overwhelmed cause sometimes they pile up in my DVR and I have to be in the mood to watch them. In some ways they are a chore to watch, so you have to ask yourself why keep watching? But they are still good enough where if you do make it through a season, it is rewarding at the end.


Shows like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones you literally have to avoid all social media the day after an episode, especially if someone dies. And the worst is if you talk to someone who saw The Walking Dead the night before you can usually tell if someone dies as they will say, "I'm not saying anything about last nights episode!"

I'm pretty selective with what I watch. I probably only watch four or five shows at a time out of each season of the year when new content is airing. Right now the only shows that I consider "must see tv" are: Bates Motel, Better Call Saul, The Big Bang Theory (although I'm losing interest), and The Simpsons. Louie starts pretty soon and I'll be watching that too. There are some shows that I'm backlogged on that I'd like to get to eventually but I never really get overwhelmed.

I don't know that overwhelmed is the right word, but yes, there is A LOT of stuff to choose from these days. I realize I need to start becoming way more picky about what I watch. I'm surprised that Playstation has original content and recently realized how much original content Audience (which is a Direct TV channel) is producing. With so much content, it's not easy to find the stuff that I like.

First world problems at the end of the day...

I give shows I watch far shorter rope than I have in the past. If I think there is a dip in quality or the storylines are going in a direction I don't like, it automatically becomes material I fastforward through on the DVR.

The only time I think the amount of content is really overwhelming are when the networks premiere many new shows at once, like in the Fall season.

No I have a lot of free time and there is a lot of stuff I just don't like.

This is my issue exactly. I have a lot of shows that I usually enjoy when I actually watch them, but I am never in the mood to actually want to watch. Some of these I just end up watching in mini-binges, but others I've had to learn to just drop. It's tough to delete that season pass sometimes, though... especially when the show isn't actually bad but just isn't enticing me for whatever reason.

The Americans is a great example of this. I love the concept, enjoy the actors, and think it's a well executed show. But I had like 8 episodes sitting on my DVR for months after the season ended, and prior to that I practically had to force myself to watch the show. Same thing with the latest American Horror Story.

Part of my problem is that I have two categories of shows to watch: Shows with the family (which requires schedule coordination) and shows to watch by myself (which requires alone time, usually late in the evenings). Both have their challenges, and I need to keep track of both.

The Americans is also just a tough show to watch. Well done, yes, but tough. And bingeing is out of the question.

I definitely get overwhelmed and am much quicker to pull the plug on a new series if it doesn't excite me right away, or an existing series if it gets boring. Last week it was "Once Upon a Time." Done! I almost pulled the plug on the latest American Horror Story too. It broke one of my rules -- Any series set in circus is bad. And the broadcast networks don't rerun episodes like the cable networks do, so if I'm already DVRing a couple of shows in a particular timeslot, it's harder to get me to try this new show. OnDemand makes me watch commercials and it may just not be worth it. I might have liked "Allegience" but it wasn't on when I could record it. Too bad.

Letting too many episodes pile up is a recipe for dropping a series. I've found if you get behind 4 or 5 episodes there is much less incentive to keep up with a show.

Yes, there is absolutely too much stuff for me to watch. I probably have around 10TB in hard drive space of unwatched shows. Plus a large collection of Blu-rays. I'm lucky if I watch one movie on Blu-ray a week and I probably have at least 400-500 that I haven't watched. And that's not even counting the many TV series I have on Blu-ray that still need to be watched.

Part of my problem is I watch too many shows that I probably shouldn't. Shows that I really don't find that interesting but I watch them out of a feeling of obligation or just to have something on in the background when I'm doing stuff on the internet. Shows like Revenge, Grey's Anatomy, Finding Bigfoot, The Blacklist. In the meantime, I'm skipping shows I really want to watch like Gotham and Sleepy Hollow because they would require more of my attention.

Plus, I probably watch too many sitcoms. I'll pretty much give every new sitcom a try and I end up watching most of them after that. They're only 22 minutes each, right?

I don't even have Netflix because I have so much stuff to watch already saved up, but there are several of their shows that I want to watch too.

Also, there are many classic series that I never watched and want to get around to watching, like The Wire, the new BSG, Six Feet Under, The Shield and Friday Night lights.

And summers are actually terrible for me due to Big Brother...3 hours a week plus the live feeds.

Honestly, unless I had the ability to not work anymore, I don't see me getting to watch most of the content I have in my lifetime.

I'm definitely overwhelmed. I wish summer would offer repeats so I could catch up with everything.

Absolutely. Luckily I work a 7-on 7-off job so I have plenty of time off to catch up. I usually don't get more than a week or so behind on anything. My wife is never caught up.
Having said that, I just realized that the DVR hasn't recorded the last 5 or 6 of Big Bang Theory. I had't noticed or even missed it. I'd have never gone so long without noticing something like that 10 years ago.

I have also found this to be the case. I dropped The Returned and Orphan without watching a single episode after both had full seasons on my DVR. Same thing with the Following but that was more to do with the quality of the show.

In March I am.

10 TB??? WTF???

Are you planning to watch your recordings of The Event, FlashForward and Bad Judge in your retirement? That's out of control man.

At the rate your going, you're great grand kids wouldn't have the time to watch your DVR recordings.

Stop being in denial. Dump the 10 TB hard drive. You're never ever going to watch any of those recordings.

Actually I was able to watch The Event and Flash Forward when they aired. And I only have 1 episode of Bad Judge left!