My DVR...

Yes 60% of it is taken up by various cartoons but for the precious 40% that remains it is a constant battle to tape my share of fluff, trash TV, news, classic movies and movies I had never gotten around to watching. Currently taking up that space on any given day are the likes of LOST, America's Next Top Model, The View (I adore Whoopi Goldberg and will not apologize for it), Frontline, Charlie Rose, Meet the Press, The Biggest Loser, the pilot and series finale of Charmed and Sports Reporters. These come and go as I try to watch them and stay on top of things. Also there though are those movies I never seem to be in the mood to watch. Currently - Lilies of the Field, The recent remake of A Raisin in the Sun, From Here to Eternity, Citizen Kane, A Patch of Blue and the Illusionist. Save for A Patch of Blue, a Sydney Poitier film I adore, I haven't seen the other films yet. The other two mainstays on my DVR are the TV shows Friday Night Lights and Eli Stone.

Friday Night Lights -- An NBC series based off the film of the same name has teetered on extinction since it debuted two years ago. A show I never took to because it had the misfortune of landing at a time when I didn't record to VCR anymore and had a full load of series television that I watched. The strike freed up time to revisit this little engine that could in repeat and on HDTV. Like the movie before it, this film follows the lives of a small Texas town coach and the football team the town's lives revolve around. While football serves as the backdrop, the show looks squarely on the human frailty of when a life peeks at the age of 18. The football players are revered and they are treated like rock stars. All the while these young men have the perfect view of what life will hold for the mass majority of them when they don't go onto to play pro football. It is a show with flaws and great heart which is what keeps it compelling. I was happy to hear this past week that NBC picked it up for another season. It reminds me of another show NBC nurtured that never found a large audience, Homicide.

Eli Stone - I admit, my giving this show a chance has as much to do with the fact that it follows LOST as anything it's plot and actors offer. That said, I admit I was skeptical of this one. The trailers all played up the George Michael songs playing in the protagonist's head. The quick synopsis - Eli Stone is an attorney who is diagnosed with an inoperable aneurysm. The result is that he hallucinates scenes that aren't really there - often musical numbers (a la George Michael singing in his living room). The pilot felt like Ally McBeal (the dancing baby) meets LA Law (the first season). I have caught all five episodes (thanks to my DVR) and the jury is still out. Ricky Lee Jones who plays Eli makes this character likable and compassionate even when the material feels forced and trite. The show has a solid supporting cast with the likes of Victor Garber, but I don't know that it's "each case presents a moral message" theme can sustain interest and creativity. I have found the Eli hallucinations to be distracting since the first two episodes and often they feel like they are there for the sake of being there doing little to advance the plot in an interesting way. I mentioned my DVR because Eli Stone is a perfect example of a show I would likely bypass if not for the ability to record it. Proof in the pudding is, Eli Stone aired on Thursday, I just got around to watching it this evening. It had one of it's strongest episodes and it still is not close to the appointment television list.

What is on your DVR/TIVO? What has sat there waiting for you to watch it that you wonder why it is still on there?