I’ve really slowed down on my movie watching the last few weeks. Working 6 or 7 hours a day just doesn’t leave many two-hour blocks of time to watch movies, especially if the kids are around. So my movie watching has been mainly confined to the nights where my wife is out. On nights where she is home, we prefer to watch only one or two TV shows, since by the time we get the kids to bed, and we get things cleaned up, it’s closer to 8:30, and a full movie would keep me up far too late.

I have, however, filled the time by watching a few other things: TED episodes on NetFlix Instant Watch, more TV series, and Detroit Tigers games on MLB.tv. Watching baseball is something I can do while the kids are around, and last night we let them come downstairs to see the end of the Tigers-Yankees game, after they had already gone to bed. They kept hollering downstairs to see what the score was, and I was secretly glad they did. Luckily, the Tigers won it in the bottom of the ninth, or they would have been disappointed not to see the extra innings.

I’m not going to list all the TED episodes I’ve watched, because there are 20+ categories, and each one has over a dozen episodes, ranging from 3 to 27 minutes in length. I haven’t watched them all yet, but I’m working on it. I liken watching these presentations to reading magazine articles from National Geographic. The topics are diverse, and the talks can be in-depth or just a quick introduction. Since I can’t actually do too much reading right now (and the NatGeo’s are stacking up beside the couch), it’s a good way to get caught up on things. There are some talks that sound interesting, and aren’t, and there are some that sound like they wouldn’t be interesting at all, and are fascinating. I highly recommend adding them to your queue if you can.

Below are the movies and TV series I’ve been watching since Part II of this series:

• [x] = Number of Episodes watched if TV show
• ( y ) = Rating out of 5.
• Items in bold = ones I highly recommend

Instant Watch

• Being Human: Series 1: [3] (3)
• Big River (5)
• Commander in Chief [18]  (3)
• Dirt! The Movie (3)
• Eureka: Ssn 4.5: [4] (5)
• Friday Night Lights: [1] (4)
• Frontline: Obama’s Deal (4)
• Frontline: Sick Around the World (4)
• Luther: [1]  (4)
• MI-5: [1] (3)
• Monroe: Class of ’76 (3)
• NOW on PBS: Fixing the Future (4)
• Outcasts: [4] (3)
• Star Trek: TNG: [3] (3)
• The Cosmos: [2] (3)
• The Future We Will Create (3)
• The Guild: Ssn 5 (3)
• The New Recruits   (3)
• The Planets: Different Worlds  (3)
• The X-Files: [1] (4)
• Weeds: [4] (3)

DVD

• Changeling (3)
• Contraband (3)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (3)
• Date Night (5)
• Doubt (4)
• East of Eden: Special Edition (2)
• Extraordinary Measures (3)
• For a Few Dollars More (3)
• Fracture (4)
• Hawaii Five-O: Season 1: [6] (4)
• Haywire (2)
• I Am Number Four (3)
• It’s Complicated (3)
• Knight and Day (2)
• Lifeboat (2)
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (4)
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (3)
• The Descendants (3)
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (US) (3)
• The Help (5)
• The Hoax (3)
• The Sand Pebbles (3)
• The Wire: Season 1: [3] (4)
• War Horse (3)