on the cheap and sleazy side (www.cheapandsleazy.net)

By G.D. Warner

Cheap and Sleazy TV

Watch or Download TV Shows Using Your Internet Connection and a few Links

 

I don't know about you, but I enjoy watching the occasional TV show.

No, not sports, reality TV, or any of that junk (yuck!!)! I'm talking about regular old TV: Sitcoms. Dramas. Dramedies. Science Fiction -- you know, TV shows!

Even with cable, there are those occasional shows I can't watch ... for instance, where I am now, I have no way to watch the Sky Network out of the UK and which, for me, means I would have missed "Stan Lee's Lucky Man" (!!).

Can't have *THAT!!*

In this article, I will show you how to download and watch TV shows on your computer, using a few browser add-ons/extensions, a few websites, and a free program that is available for multiple platforms which will allow you to watch your TV show whether you're online or not, in full-screen mode!

... all for the cost of your monthly internet bill! Pretty cool, huh?

Well ... I think it's cool ... and soon, so will you!

-o0o-

 

Glen, the TV Critic

(I kinda miss the original version of BitStrips ...!)

 

"A Long Time Ago, In A Neighborhood Not Too Far Away ..."

Okay, so that was a bit on the cheesy side ... but my needing to watch TV on my computer actually did start a long time ago ... and it actually was in a neighborhood not too far away! :o)

Unfortunately, the way I was watching TV shows on my computer back then was a bit more complicated, and (of course) that method stopped working on Windows while I was working on the original version of this article ... which is one of the reasons I didn't release this article earlier.

The other reason was because the second method I came up with stopped working a few months years back on my Mac, which necessitated finding a different way to compensate for that loss! And you'll be pleased to know, I found one!

And, speaking of which ...

The Method

Essentially what I'm doing is locating a show I want to see on a few websites (linked herein), start it playing, pause it, then activate one of the browser extensions (also mentioned herein) which then downloads the video to my "Movies" folder, where I later watch it using the aforementioned *FREE* multiplatform program, VLC.

Your Ultimate Goal:

VLC Screenshot

VLC Screenshot

Note that the controls in that shot from "The Librarians" are only visible because I have my cursor where they would normally appear so that you can see them for the screenshot.

As for what that is is that video player I mentioned, playing an episode of "The Librarians" (now canceled, unfortunately, after a "new guy" was hired to run things over at the TNT network. Let's just say that cancellation wasn't a very popular decision with the fans of the show after four seasons!).

You have failed ...

"You have failed this network!"

... but now, let's move you a bit closer to that "ultimate goal."

What You Need

First, you're going to need a few add-ons/extensions for your web browser(s):

AdBlock Plus

uBlock Origin

... which you'll want to install through your web browser's Extensions or Add-ons window.

(Hopefully I will remember to tell you about the incident that occurred that led to my "discovering" adBlock Plus ...)

Those two extensions will help keep your web browser safe from unwanted pop-ups -- though sometimes one might sneak through, but most of the time before you can switch to it, one of the extensions will have killed it for you.

Gotta love that.

Even better, apparently adBlock Plus updates itself at least once a week; not sure how often uBlock Origin updates itself, though.

but wait there's more

But wait! There's -- aww, you know!

Yes, that's right ... if you should find yourself faced with an unwanted pop-up, you can use the "Report Issue" item at the bottom of the adBlock Plus window, which will appear when you click the extension:

adBlock Plus Report Issue Pane

adBlock Plus Report Issue Pane

You can see it down at the bottom of the window, in teeny-tiny print (which probably should be a bit larger).

Next you're going to need an add-on with which to download videos ... and for my fellow Mac users that are using Safari, as I write this, there are no extensions or add-ons for downloading videos available. Hopefully, though, that will change in the not-too-distant ... but that's why I have six web browsers on all of my Macs.

Video Downloaders

Those of you on the Windows version of Firefox or Internet Explorer Microsoft Edge can use Ant Video Downloader, which also comes with an app. Apparently they are working on a Mac version of said app, but it doesn't seem to be ready just yet.

On the plus side, it looks like they got their Firefox browser extension working.

If you're using Chrome or Opera, head over to the Google Chrome Store and search for "Video Downloader." You should find several choices.

Speaking of which, chances are good you'll find several that have similar names. Install one or two, and if you like them, keep them ... then add another one. Or two. Heck, I'm feeling generous. Make it three! That will give you more time to figure out which one(s) work best for you.

On this end, I now have just two video downloaders in my main browser, Firefox -- Video Downloader Professional and Video Download Helper. Here they are on my laptop:

Last Downloaders Standing

The Last Two Video Downloaders I Have (not actual size)

 

Here's Video Downloader Professional in the act of downloading a video:

Video downloader Professional Downloading a Video

Video Downloader Professional in Action

The Video Player

... is the open source, multiplatform VLC ... and it even works on Mac OS 10.6.8, or Snow Leopard, which, for some odd reason, no longer has support from any of the web browsers, and even DropBox!! -- which is why I had to upgrade my MacBook Pro's operating system (fairly) recently.

Okay, so maybe not so "fairly." Or "recently" for that matter.

"Deceptive Site" Warnings

One rather annoying thing you might run into while you're downloading your TV show of choice would be the appearance of this scary-looking page:

Google Site Warning

Google Site Warning

I used to get this one pretty much every time I would go to the (now gone) iCouchTuner site. To get rid of it, click "Details," which should expand so you can see this part:

ignore that crap already

"Ignore That Crap Already!"

... where you should see that you can click the "Visit This Unsafe Site" link, where you may then be presented with a red warning at the top left of the address bar that reads "Deceptive Site!" ... like so:

dangerous address bar warning

Dangerous Address Bar Warning

... which you should be able to get rid of with a simple click in the appropriate spot.

Once you have everything installed and/or downloaded, you're ready to take a look at the links I use to feed my TV watching habits!

The Links

Unfortunately, most of the CouchTuners I had linked in this article have been taken down:

good-bye couchtuner

Good-bye, CouchTuner

... which is why there are a few less here than there were when I started working on this article some (*mumble-mumble*) years ago, when I was using a different method to watch TV shows that I couldn't replicate on Windows.

That said, these are this is The Last CouchTuner Standing:

https://www.couchtuner.show

... and worse, it has recently become infected with some kind of spammy behavior, which pretty much makes the site just barely usable. That is, when I click on an episode of a show that I want to see, the tab I'm in immediately gets replaced by an ad, while the tab I was on gets moved one tab forward.

Thanks to the folks at AdBlock Plus, all of the issues I had been experiencing are now a thing of the past, thanks in part to my incessant squawking multiple reports on what was going on with the site, so a big *THANK YOU* to the guys and gals at adBlock Plus for taking care of that for all of us.

That said ....

Sometimes Couchtuner might have to change their web address, and usually you can see potential new addresses at the top of the main page below the banner. Not so much these days:

CouchTuner New Address Notification

CouchTuner New Address Notification: Missing in Action

Instead, there is a link to the Couchtuner Telegram channel, where you can request an episode or a show that's not available at the moment.

For those of you who might have forgotten (or somehow managed to miss seeing that), that logo used to have a few addresses at the bottom, most recently in the form of .rocks, .cloud, and .video.

To save you some time, I checked, and those addresses will reroute you to the current site.

Oh, and speaking of which ....

Couchtuner has had a site redesign:

All Rise on the new CouchTuner

Couchtuner's New Site Redesign

I can't say I'm a fan of the new design.

One of the things I used to do when using Couchtuner before the redesign was I would do the Mac equivalent of the control-click keyboard command on a show I wanted to see, which would open it in another tab.

With the new design, when I try that, the new tab appears for a split second, then vanishes, leaving me with the home page ... so in order to watch anything on there, I would have to open them one at a time, download what I want to watch, then go back to the main page again ... and frankly ...

One does not have time for such affairs

"One doesn't have time for such affairs. Ain't nobody got time fo' dat!"

-o0o-

As a bit (quite a bit!) of an aside, my grandmother used to talk about this old show called "Maverick," which was a western that starred James "The Rockford Files" Garner, and was actually created by the same guy ... and while looking around on that (now-dead) site, I found all of the episodes ... but now, like the others, that site is gone as well ... but they have two of the five seasons of the show on this site ... and for the curious, I have finally made it up to season two, episode one ten fifteen.

However, a few weeks back, I discovered an issue with the files on the "Watch Series" site, where I would download what should have been a specific episode, only to find once I had actually downloaded it that it was one I had already watched -- one of those episodes being season one, episode three of "Maverick."

In this instance, when I got to season two, episode three, I immediately got the feeling that I had seen this episode before, so I headed over to the associated page on TV Maze and checked to see what the third episode of the second season was actually supposed to be ... and it sure wasn't "According to Hoyle."

I then tried to contact the folks at Watch Series to let them know what was going on, only to find that the Capcha you have to use to send them an e-mail wasn't working.

So if you find yourself getting into a series from days gone by, TV Maze is a good resource for checking for proper continuity of the episodes ... like, say, "Burn Notice" -- which, in case you missed it, was a pretty awesome show!

Sadly, my grandmother died a few years back, so I can't share those reruns of "Burn Notice" or "Maverick" with her ... but I'm sure she would have loved both of them. Heck, I might have even got her to learn to use a computer! Ha ha ha!

But Wait! What's *THIS*?!?

A few months back, I discovered another show starring James "Maveric" Garner called "Nichols," but try as I might, I was not able to find any actual episodes.

That is, until today, when I found this site.

Nichols on screen

Season One, Episode Four of Nichols on the website

I have to say, I've liked what I've seen so far from this one!

-o0o-

Speaking of my youth, while so afflicted, there used to be a soap opera on called "Dark Shadows."

Dark Shadows Collinwood

Dark Shadows' Collinwood

I didn't really get into it at the time, but I remember there was this one storyline that involved a new antique store opening in Collin's Port, where there was some kind of ... something growing in a back room. You never actually saw whatever it was, but you could hear its Darth Vader-like breathing.

Coincidentally, there was actually a new antique store that had opened not too far from my school, but thanks to that particular storyline, I was too afraid to go in! Ha ha ha!

As I said, I didn't get too deep into the show at the time, but I remember just enough to appreciate it now that I'm a few (okay, so dozen; shutty!) years older.

The CW was planning on coming out with a new version of the show, and apparently the kids of the creator of the original series would have been running things, so there's hope.

16OCT21 Update

Apparently that updated version of "Dark Shadows" was canceled, in favor of a reboot of "Babylon 5."

How to Watch "Babylon 5"

While I am a bit disappointed that the "Dark Shadows" reboot was canceled, both myself and my "Favorite Ex-Wife"-- and yes, I only have the one; I call her that because it makes her laugh -- will be looking forward to seeing what JMS comes up with using all this new technology that wasn't around back in the late 90s.

26MAR22 Update

Well. Turns out both of those have been put off for a while, because of the sale of the CW.

Anyway, for those of you who might want to see what "Dark Shadows" looked like back in the day, here's the first episode:

https://watchseriess.net/series/dark-shadows-1966-episode-1

When you want to watch the second episode, just change that one in the address bar to two, and hit the return key on your keyboard, and there you go!

17FEB22 Update

Somewhere along the way, the Search field on the WatchSeriess site stopped working.

Fortunately, I figured out a work-around, using something I mentioned in my Search article.

What you should do would be to open a new tab, then either use your browser's Search field or whatever you normally use to search Google, and search for something like this:

"Star Trek Discovery" site:watchseriess.net

That search gave me this:

searching for Star Trek Discovery

Searching for "Star Trek Discovery"

Unfortunately, I was looking for episode nine, which apparently hasn't made it to Watch Seriess at that time.

 

06JUL20 Update

I have been busy Googling to see if I could find a more ... familiar version of CouchTuner, and I found https://couchtuner.tv, which is a lot like the one that had those episodes of "Maverick" -- of which, it only has the first two seasons.

This one appears to have all five seasons, so that's good. Unfortunately, it also has the same crappy interface the other one had.

This one doesn't have "Dark Shadows" or "Maverick," but it does appear to have many of the current shows (use the Search field).

As yet another bit of an aside, I use a program called Notefile to track the TV shows I watch.

One good thing about that program is there is an iOS version, which would come in handy if you were to type up your grocery list in the Mac version of Notefile, and have the iOS version of Notefile on your phone when you discover you forgot something while you're at the store ... which I can neither confirm or deny having done, ever!

Here's a partial list of the TV shows I have in my copy of Notefile:

Glen's (partial) TV List in Notefile

A Quick Note ...

I'm pretty sure that I shouldn't need to remind you that you don't have to sign up for anything to use these sites ... and on some of them, if you have a Discus account, you can log in with that if you want to make a comment or two, but otherwise, don't sign up for anything.

Continuing ...

Beginnings

Chan131 used to be my "go-to" site for downloading TV shows back in the day, but it seems to be gone now ... and Googling for "Chan131" doesn't bring up very much, unfortunately. Just one day, they were gone, with no word or news at all. Here's how it looked back in the day:

Chan 131

The Late, Great Chan131

Olo Update Numba One:

At one point, this site had taken to using ... Captchas.

I don't know about you, but I hate Captchas with a passion ... but I found this one to be somewhat amusing:

star trek captcha

Star Trek Captcha

For those of you who are of the "S/He Who Laughs Last Didn't Get The Joke" persuasion, there was an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in which Captain Picard was captured by the Cardasians, and they were trying to break him by telling him there were five lights in the ceiling when there were clearly only four.

Okay, so you had to be there. Anyway ...

Apparently they received a lot of complaints, so no more Captchas.

01NOV20 Update

Unfortunately, it appears that nifty search engine is no more:

Good-bye OLO

Good-bye, OLO

And you can read the accompanying article here.

Watch Series (http://watchseries.to) used to be one of the sites I would go to when I had trouble finding what I was looking for on one of the CouchTuner sites, but of late, they have been presenting me with a gray screen where I can't click anything, with a suggestion about turning off Adblocker before it will allow access the site ... and the way around that -- if it should occur for you -- would be to simply refresh the page.

Hmm. It's been a few weeks since I wrote that update up there, but now when I try to use that site, I select a show I want to see, click on one of the links provided, and it instantly gets shut down. Might be best to avoid this one.

Okay, so now it's been quite a few more weeks months since I wrote the above, and clicking that (now unclickable) link on this end simply results in the site trying to appear and then quickly vanishing, so I have made the link unclickable.

Looks like that one went the way of the "123movies:"

Yeah, I STILL don't think so!

Fortunately, I found this new version:

Watch Seriess.net

... which appears to work much better so far.

Well. Except for that pesky search issue I mentioned somewhere in here.

09MAR22 Update

So I had a rather lengthy chunk of info in here about Primewire, where I explained how to use the site and everything ... and a few days ago, something unfortunate happened.

Apparently, Primewire is facing some legal trouble right now:

https://torrentfreak.com/primewire-hollywood-netflix-win-court-injunction-to-disable-site-domains-210110

... which basically means that none of the links to the shows are available anymore. Too bad ... I was using Primewire to download episodes of "Heroes."

While I'm pretty sure I've seen all of the episodes, I remember there was some kind of issue with the Writers Guild of America West at the time, so the second season only had eleven episodes, as opposed to the 24 in the first season, and the 26 in the third season.

As a bit of an aside, apparently the showrunners of "Heroes" were fans of the original "Star Trek," so they had a couple members of the cast make a few appearances ... and since "my favorite daughter" became a fan of the show (she sent me a picture of herself with Ms. Nichols at a convention, taken by her favorite daughter), I sent her a screenshot of her favorite actor's appearance:

 

Nichelle Nichols in Heroes

Nichelle Nichols in "Heroes"

So PrimeWire no longer has any links.

The forum there is still live though, and somebody in that forum recommended Best Series.

On the one hand, it gets the job done, but on the other hand, the Search feature could be better. For instance, to find "Heroes," I had to select something like "Shows Before 2010" before I could get to it, but I did, so there's that.

You can see the landing page below:

 

Best Series

Best Series' Landing Page

Finding a new episode is pretty easy here. All you'd have to do would be to click the "New Episodes" link, which should show you what's coming on that day:

Best Series New Episodes

Best Series' New Episodes

As I write this, Power: Book IV: Force should be airing on TV tomorrow ... but it's Saturday right now, so a quick check of Best Series gave me this one:

Best Series: Power Book IV

Best Series: Power Book IV: Force

Yes, that's right ... the new episode is available a few hours early (take a look at the top left episode in the bottom part of the picture)!

Needless to say, I downloaded it as soon as I saw it was available ... and for those of you who might be interested, you should probably start with the original show called "Power."

Fair warning: that one ran for five seasons before ending, but that's when "Power Book II: Ghost" started.

.... but I'm supposed to be showing you how to download stuff on this new site.

As you can see in that above picture, I need to download episode 8, so when you click that, you should see something like this:

Power Book IV a

"Power Book IV: Force" List, Part One

Power Book IV b

"Power Book IV: Force" List, Part Two

Do you see the links labeled "Streamtape" in the second half of the list? Sure hope so, because I find those to be the easiest to download with the video downloaders I have installed, so that is one of the links I look for on this and other sites. Another would be the "Mixdrop" links.

Not to say that there is anything wrong with the other links you might find there; those two are just the ones I look for when I want to download one of these videos, no matter which site I'm on.

So. Unlike the other sites I use, when you click on a link to watch a video, you are rewarded with that video appearing in another tab, ready to be watched or downloaded (preferred).

-o0o-

I'm fairly sure I mentioned my grandmother's favorite show, Maverick at least once or twice in this article.

Naturally, I did a quick search to see if Best Series had it, and sure enough ...

Best Series Has "Maverick! "

Best Series Has "Maverick! "

... so right now I'm downloading season 2, episode 15.

Unfortunately, there appears to be a lot of pop-ups on this StreamTape site, so I just reported one to the folks at adBlock Plus.

Hopefully, they'll nuke those pop-ups soon!

Those pesky pop-ups were gone the very next day after I reported them! Gotta love that.

Another Distraction For You ...

Recently A couple few years back, I discovered a YouTube channel called "AfterBuzz TV." Basically, if there's a TV show you're interested in, there's probably an AfterBuzz show that talks about it ... and it's a good thing, too, because shows like the now-canceled "The Magicians" and the now-ended (but still excellent) "Orphan Black" could always use some expert commentary which should hopefully clear up some of the things that went by too quickly for you to notice ... which is a lot of the stuff in both "Orphan Black" and "The Magicians."

Interestingly enough, it appears there was a short-lived Japanese version of "Orphan Black" as well (only made it to eight episodes).

There was also an official after-show for "Orphan Black," called "After the Black," but it only ran concurrent with seasons three and four, while the AfterBuzz show started at the beginning of season two with a wrap-up of the first season.

But wait ... what's *THIS?!?*

While I was busily not watching, apparently "Orphan Black" star Tatiana Maslany has been doing some kind of podcast that might be worth a listen (ten bucks for all of the episodes), which apparently has the AfterBuzz TV crew following with their commentary about the podcast.

Oh, and speaking of "The Magicians" ...

One of The Magicians in Action

One of the Magicians in Action

Alas, fans of "Blindspot" only got two seasons before the after-show was canceled, but if you've never watched "Blindspot" before, you're in luck!

... at least, for the first two episodes.

... and if you want to check to see if your favorite show is available, all you have to do is go to YouTube.com -- and type in, say, "Counterpart" "AfterBuzz TV" in your web browser's Search field, and you should be able to find what you're looking for.

Hopefully.

Of course, if you don't want to watch those "AfterBuzz" shows online, you can simply download them with 4k Video Downloader, which works on both Macs and PCs (sorry, Linux folks ...! Of course, chances are good you already have something for that ...).

There Might Be a Shortage of Newer AfterBuzz Videos ...

... and that "shortage" is because of something many refer to as "The Sweet and Sour Sniffles," which you might recognize by another name ... namely "Covid-19."

Too bad ... because I was looking forward to the AfterBuzz episodes covering the final episodes of "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD" ...!

Sadly, I'm not sure if they're going to revive the AfterBuzz shows, but I sure hope they do.

Either way, hopefully said sniffles will go away soon, so they can get back to making those videos!

One More Not to Miss

One of the gems I've found during my travels of the sites mentioned herein include a show out of the UK which all the ladies most likely will be excited about called "Luther."

What's so exciting, you say?

Well, how about a guy by the name of Idris Alba?

Idris Alba as "Luther"

Idris Alba as "Luther"

"Okay, okay. Settle down, ladies!"

I don't know what's going on in the UK, but apparently a TV show can go off the air for a season or two, then come back as if nothing happened, without having been canceled.

And if that's not enough, I believe most of the seasons of "Luther" consisted of either four or five episodes.

They were good episodes, and almost a full hour, but ... four episodes?!?

This seems to be the case with both the aforementioned "Stan Lee's Lucky Man" and "Luther" as well.

At one point, "Luther" came back with another four episode season, and that was aired back in January of 2019. There was some talk of a movie instead of another season, but that was a couple years back, I believe. Hopefully they'll stick to the small screen.

22OCT21 Update

Besides being what would have been my mom's (*mumble-mumbleth*) birthday, today is the day I can tell you that there has been movement on the "Luther" movie:

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/luther-movie-is-officially-happening-at-netflix-cynthia-erivo-and-andy-serkis-join-the-cast/1100-6496197

No word on whether or not Luther's crazy girlfriend will be appearing in the movie just yet, but then again, she's been a bit busy with "His Dark Materials" these days, which will be airing it's final season ... um ... not sure when (pesky Covid!).

"Stan Lee's Lucky Man" aired it's last episode back in September of 2018, but has still not been canceled or renewed that I can see.

The only thing I can do is "get on the Google" and see if there's been any news on either of those shows, and, of course, wait.

In the meantime, "Lucky Man" star James Nesbitt has been busy playing a detective in the UK series, "Bloodlands," which apparently only had the one season, again consisting of four episodes (*grumble*).

09MAR22 Update

Apparently, "Bloodlands" is getting a second season!

Sure hope it's longer than just four episodes this time out, though!

09APR22 Update

A couple days ago, I discovered a new show called "Tokyo Vice," which appeared to be about an American author's account of hanging out with an actual Tokyo vice cop in Tokyo, where he was working as a newspaper reporter.

Tokyo Vice Promo

Tokyo Vice Promo

Naturally, I downloaded the first episode, only to find that the a lot of it was in Japanese, which, of course, I can't speak -- despite my "Cheap and Sleazy Teriyaki Chicken" article, that is.

I gave up about a quarter of the way through and deleted the episode, along with the other eight gigs worth of crap junque I had in the trash.

That's when I had a Thought:

"Hey, Glen! What about subtitles?"

That thought -- and a quick Google search -- led me here:

https://www.ensubtitles.com/tokyo-vice-2022-season-1-english-subtitle, where I discovered that all I had to do was to download the appropriate file, rename it to match the file name of the episode I wanted to see (Tokyo_Vice_S01Ep01.srt), place the file in the same folder as the video, and VLC should automatically load and display the file without me having to do anything else.

Pretty cool, huh?

subtitles website

"Tokyo Vice" subtitles site

So. I watched the first three episodes, waited a couple days for the next three episodes to come out, downloaded the next pair, and (you guessed it ...) there were no subtitles to be seen!

Hopefully that situation will be fixed tomorrow!


"How do You Know What's Coming on and When?"

Good question!

I used to use an Apple Dashboard widget called TV Forecast, which, unfortunately, no longer works, because the website it was getting its data from has not been updated in quite a while now ... but here is what TV Forecast looked like when it worked:

TV Forecast widget

TV Forecast Widget

Pretty cool, huh?

Alas, like I said up there, it no longer functions, so I have to rely on two websites to track what I watch -- Share TV and TV Maze.


23JUN19 Update

TV Forecast: The Return

Good news ... looks like programmer Matt Comi is resurrecting TV Forecast, this time as an iOS app:

 

TV Forecast App

TV Forecast App

... and you can find the website here:

http://www.tvforecastapp.com

Sorry, Android users! TV Forecast is iOS only ... but you might find something that will work for you here!


In the meantime, you should create an account (free!!) on both Share TV and TV Maze, because one might get information on a new show before the other one does ... but more importantly, if you don't have an account, you will be shown all of the shows that are airing that day or month, as opposed to the shows you actually watch.

As an example, I found a show from the UK while goofing off -- er, looking around on TV Maze called "Doctor Foster," so I will use it to show you how to add stuff to your calendar for both websites.

Doc Foster on TV Maze

Doc Foster on TV Maze

To add this show to your list of shows you like all you have to do is click that green "Follow" button, which should make any new episodes appear on your calendar.

It's a bit more involved on Share TV, however ... but not too much. Here's the page for "Doc Foster" on Share TV:

Doc Foster on Share TV

Doc Foster on Share TV

See where it says "Add to My Shows" there to the right? When you click that, you get a drop-down menu:

Doc Foster Favorited on Share TV

Doc Foster Favorited on Share TV

... and from that menu, you make the appropriate choice. In this case, unless you've never watched the show before, you would select "Currently Watching."

... and that will make it appear on your calendar.

And, speaking of which ...

Share TV gives me two calendar views -- one on my profile page:

Share TV's Small Calendar

Share TV's Small Calendar

There's a larger view, available when you click the "View Complete Schedule" link. I don't use that very often, though (mostly because I've never noticed it before), but here's what that looks like for me:

Share TV's Full Calendar

Share TV's Full Calendar

TV Maze seems to have only one calendar view -- the full one:

TV Maze's Calendar

TV Maze's Calendar

... but it usually adjusts the page so I can see the current day at the top of the screen, highlighted:

TV Maze Calendar For 14OCT17

TV Maze Calendar For 14OCT17

... and that, ladies and germs, is how I keep track of what's on and when.

-o0o-

03DEC22 Update

Sadly, today, this notice recently appeared on Share TV:

Share TV Says Goodbye

Share TV Says Good-bye

31DEC22 Update

... and just like that, Share TV was gone:

share tv says good-bye for good

Share TV Says a Final Good-bye

 

-o0o-

File Naming Convention

Sometimes I might not get to a given TV series until ... well. Quite a while after I have downloaded it, so I find that it is important to have a naming system which will keep all of the episodes in the proper order.

As I write this, I just downloaded the current episode of "Zapped," which I named like so:

Zapped_S03Ep05

... where you have the name of the show, the appropriate season, and the episode number.

Unfortunately, none of the sites I have linked here saves them that way ... which is where the aforementioned Dashboard widget comes in handy -- June Cloud's Notefile:

JuneCloud's Notefile Dashboard Widget

JuneCloud's Notefile Dashboard Widget

One of the things I like about this one is that I can have it installed on multiple computers -- not to mention my iPhone -- and as long as I am logged into either the Junecloud or iCloud servers on both computers, any change I make in one computer's Notefile widget will be reflected in the one on the other computer -- and, of course, my iPhone.

Alas, Apple's Dashboard is quickly has gone away almost completely ... but Junecloud made some of their widgets into Mac programs, so my fellow Mac users with a newer version of the Mac OS than 10.10.5 can use the Notefile program instead, and for those of you with iPhones, there's this one.

"Power and Responsibility"

Of course, as they said over and over (and over!) again in the original "Spiderman" movie, "With great power comes great responsibility."

spiderman hanging around at the library

Spiderman Hanging Around the Library

In this article, you have -- hopefully -- learned how to watch pretty much anything you want to see, at any time you want to see it ... but there's something you should be aware of, and that's ...

The hazards of "binge watching."

If you're not familiar with the term, that's when someone decides to watch a TV series, one episode after another ... and that's when this could happen:

The Hazards of Binge Watching

The Hazards of Binge Watching

So just be careful, okay?

... and a big thanks to Ms. Hedger for coming up with that cartoon!

Why I Use AdBlock Plus

Here it is, the story you've been waiting for! :o)

A few months years ago, I was trying to download an episode of "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." ... and just as I was about to rename the downloaded file (I used a different method at that time), it vanished, because the page that the video was on had been replaced by a frelling ad!

As you can probably imagine, I was less than pleased, and complained in the Couch Tuner discussion forum about it.

That's when somebody recommended that I install AdBlock Plus. I was dubious, but I gave it a try, and wow, what a difference!

Before I installed AdBlock Plus, watching a video was almost like playing a game of Whack-a-Mole, where the moles were pop-up ads. I remember one rather nasty incident, where I got a pop-up telling me that my Mac had a virus -- with an actual voice, mind you -- and the ad was accompanied by an error message which contained the text that the voice was reading.

Each time I clicked "Okay" to get rid of that message, another tab with the same ad would appear, and I just wasn't fast enough to kill the message before another tab opened up!

I had to restart the browser to get rid of it.

After installing AdBlock Plus, all I have to do now is click "Play" on a video I want to see, and it starts playing.

No ads (well, mostly), no messages telling me that I simply *MUST* install this Flash update -- despite the fact that I had just updated it the day before ... oh, and hey, that's not Adobe.com that link's pointing to ...!

So that's why I am a big fan of AdBlock/AdBlock Plus.

adblock rocks

AdBlock Rocks!

Want To See What CouchTuner Looks Like Without AdBlock Plus?

Of course you do! Check it out:

CouchTuner Sans AdBlock Plus

CouchTuner Sans AdBlock Plus

And that's how I watch TV on my Mac. Good luck! I hope this works for you.

-o0o-

I hope you know what show this little guy is from ...

-o0o-