Jene Thomas – General Assignment Reporter
It’s finally fall, which mean that many of the shows we all love have either returned or just premiered.
ABC has taken over Thursday nights with Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and new hit series How to Get Away with Murder. Commission Gordon and Poison Ivy graced the Friday night line-up in series premiere of Gotham, aired on FOX, and Monday nights brought the return of the headless horsemen in Sleepy Hollow. Halloween is also approaching, bringing in the horror.
Speaking of horror, the fourth season of American Horror Story, this time set in a freak show setting, will premiere this week on Wednesday at 10 p.m. with an encore showing right after on FX Network. AMC’s The Walking Dead returns Sunday, Oct. 12 at 9 p.m. for its fifth season.
Fall is a great time for television. It allows us college students to preoccupy our minds after a full day of classes and work. Unfortunately for us, we are always busy. There just always seems to be homework to do or that one exam we are not ready for so we need more study time. With the way our schedules are set up, we aren’t always able to be in front of the television when our favorite shows are on.
It’s even worse for those of us who live on campus. We can’t even record the shows we like on a DVR like we could at home. Luckily, the cable and media companies understand the struggles and made a way for us to watch.
Most of the major networks upload recent full episodes for viewers who missed an episode or want to play catch up. Depending on the website, the episode may appear the day after it was originally aired or as late as a week after.
Missed the first couple of episodes of Gotham? Forget that Hell’s Kitchen returned for another season? Fox.com will allow you to catch up, but don’t expect to be up -to- date on the latest episode. You won’t be able to see the newest episode for another eight days.
For those of you that are Comcast Xfinity users, you won’t have that issue. Xfinitytv.comcast.net offers on demand viewing online. By logging in with your Comcast account, you can access all of the shows that your television’s On Demand would have. Networks are usually pretty good with putting up the latest episodes within a day.
CBS, ABC, the CW and many more will often put their shows on the site within a day as well. I missed the CW’s Vampire Diaries on Thursday night, but I was able to watch it online. The best part was that it was legal and free.
Unfortunately, freedom came with a price. You’re able to watch your shows at your own convenience on your laptop, tablet or smartphone without paying for anything. However, you’re still stuck with commercials. Networks still need to find a way to fund the unlimited streaming and so advertisements make their way over to their websites.
Very few websites let you get away with skipping the commercials, if you’re lucky. Sometimes when I watch shows on MTV.com, the site just skips through the commercials and I can watch my shows without interruption. However it isn’t always guaranteed.
Want to completely avoid commercials? There’s always Netflix.
Netflix offers hundreds of television shows and movies for viewers, completely commercial free. However, it isn’t free. In order to use Netflix, you need to pay $7.99 a month. There is also the issue of not being up- to- date.
Don’t expect to be tweeting about the latest episodes of your shows because you won’t be able to view them. Netflix shows usually end with the season before the current one.
You can watch the latest online with commercials, watch commercial free episodes of last season or make time to sit in front of the television. Choice is yours.
Photo Credit: SamsungTomorrow
