It Feels Like Cheating

From what I can tell, HBO must be having a hell of a time getting people to sign up for their channels. This assumption comes from the fact that just about every time we call Verizon Fios, they give us three free months of HBO. We just ended a three month promotional period and yet a couple weeks later we were deemed eligible for another three months free. While there is still nothing on HBO that would make me want to pay for it (I enjoy The Ricky Gervais Show, but not that much), it is nice to have. Anyway, I was flipping through the channels the other night, hoping to catch a movie that hadn't already been shown 100 times, when I stumbled upon a special summary show for the HBO series, True Blood. It was showing everything that happened last season in anticipation of a new season that is beginning shortly. I feel like these kinds of recap shows are very wrong.

Now, I refuse to be sucked into the vampire craze that continues to sweep the nation. I do not want to read the Twilight books and I don't care about True Blood. However, I feel like if I were to start watching the show I would feel compelled by the honor system to go back and watch full episodes from the very beginning. These shows that catch you up on what you have missed to this point are almost a slap in the face to the loyal people who have been watching the show from the beginning. "Hey, I know you sat through the first 26 hours of this show, but I like the new people better. I deem their time as more valuable than yours, so rather than have them sit through the first 26 hours, I'm summing it all up in one. Hope you don't mind." It's almost like a TV version of Cliff's Notes and I was always taught that Cliff's Notes were wrong. I get that they are trying to lure in new viewers, but I've got news for HBO - you've gotten all you're going to get. Everyone knows about True Blood at this point and if they don't, they aren't the kind of people who are going to start watching now. You'd be better off rewarding the fans with a preview show of what they might get to see next season instead of trying to bring everyone who was too lazy to do their homework up to speed.

-Yesterday it was announced that Celtic's assistant Tom Thibodeau will be named as the new coach of the Chicago Bulls as soon as the playoffs are over. While Thibodeau seems like a nice enough guy, I'm really happy that it's already known he's going to be coaching elsewhere next season. With Doc Rivers future up in the air, there was going to be a push from the national media to make Thibodeau the new head coach if Rivers walked. I just don't think he's head coach material. I remember being at a game in January when Doc Rivers got ejected and Thibodeau slid over to take the reigns for the rest of the game. He never made a substitution in the second half and the Celtics lost on tired legs. I'm sure he's a great defensive mind, but we've seen great defensive coordinators make bad head coaches before. I wish him the best and hope he's successful in every game that he doesn't play the Celtics. That being said, I'm just glad he won't be running my team next year.