DVRing the World Cup (if you excuse that verb) has been an interesting experience. Type in “World Cup” on the schedule and search the list, all the games are automatically programmed in. Perfect! Almost.

The DVR that comes with Dish Network is nice but it ain’t nearly as smart as TiVO. For instance, the Korean Broadcasting Network (KBN) started the games ten minutes earlier than either ESPN/ESPN2 that broadcast the same match simultaneously. The DVR would pick up the first instance of the game and skip the second as a duplicate event so I ended up watching about half the games of the first round in Korean. As it turns out, I enjoy watching games in Korean rather than English, where I have to suffer the idiotic announcers.

The other major problem is that the DVR doesn’t know when a show has run past the programming length. That means games that end in a draw get about one half of extra time recorded and then it shuts down. Any guesses as to where I’m going with this?

So I figured (correctly) that I could leave town and miss the Saturday games of England vs. Portugal and Brazil vs. France and watch them on Sunday, just as long as I made everyone know that I did not want to know any scores should they know them. That part of the plan worked fine.

Upon coming home last night, I watched England vs. Portugal with great interest. My interest grew greater and greater and greater still until about the 75th minute when I realized with utter certainty that the game was going into extra-time. Extra-time that I would miss. And sure enough, that’s what happened. No penalty drama for me. It was a good game and I got to see the turning point in Rooney’s mad stomp but still, I felt a bit let down.

But not as half as let down as when I pulled up Brazil vs. France (on the KBN no less) and saw…England vs. Portugal. Wait a minute, I wanted Brazil vs. France. When I checked the programming guide it said Brazil vs. France and, come to think of it, the program’s title that the DVR recorded? “Brazil vs. France” Yet there’s no mistaking that the game I was watching was indeed a replay of England vs. Portugal. Not sure how that happened but I do know I didn’t get to see the upset of the World Cup and that displeases me.

So, it’s Germany vs. Italy and France vs. Portugal. Ironic then that this World Cup touting fair play would feature two teams in the semis who have brought diving and whining to a whole new level in Italy and Portugal.

In a marathon of television viewing, I also caught last night’s episode of Deadwood. It’s tragic that the show wasn’t renewed for a fourth season because it makes HBO’s darling The Sopranos look silly. Silly, I tell you.

Sopranos nose-dived in season three and never recovered. Deadwood, on the other hand, just seems to be hitting stride. Whereas Sopranos introduced new characters only to kill them off, Deadwood introduces new characters that add a new dimension to the story. The addition of Gerald McRaney as George Hearst has been a stroke of genius. And once again I can’t wait to see what happens next Sunday.

Current Mood: Why Don’t They Just Give Us Monday Off? |
Currently Listening To – Wilco – “Summer Teeth”