Week 1: What I watch when I have all my options.

I fall smack dab in the middle of the Millennial generation, and according to the research, I should be getting rid of cable – cutting the cord. And I agree with this. It’s far too expensive and I already have Apple TV. And the Internet.

But I just can’t. Without cable, I wouldn’t be able to DVR “The Soup” and watch it the next day. I wouldn’t know what all those headlines meant dissecting the latest episode of “Mad Men” or be able to discuss what make-believe character is going to show up next on “Once Upon a Time.” I am also just on the edge of the channel-surfing era – sure, I don’t want to pay for TV content, but I also remember taping, on an actual tape, episodes of “Gilmore Girls.” I don’t think I’m the only one – Millennial or no – who wants to mindlessly search through TV channels and settle on whatever catches my attention after a long day at work.

And yet, cable alone, costly as it is, isn’t enough. I can’t get rid of Apple TV or Netflix, either. What if I get bored on a long weekend and want to re-watch “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”? What if I miss out on a TV show and want to catch up before the second season starts? “Breaking Bad’s” last season just showed up on Netflix, and I only have so much time.

That said, when I heard that Google was selling its new TV stick, Chromecast, for just $35, it caught my eye. What would Chromecast offer me that cable + Apple TV + Netflix didn’t? More importantly, I wondered what each service offered that distinguished it from all of the others out there. Why would I, or any consumer, settle only on Chromecast or Apple TV or Roku or whatever service, to meet my TV needs?

In quite a sacrifice in service to TV watchers everywhere, I’ll eliminate all of my TV options except one for one week at a time, and report back my findings. This week, I’m tracking my typical viewing habits to create a baseline. From there I will spend a week with only cable, one with Apple TV, another with only Google Chromecast and another with only Roku.

Currently, I subscribe to Time Warner Cable, Netflix via Apple TV and I frequently check in to various sites across the web. The blackout of CBS didn’t affect me, as I don’t have Showtime and don’t watch CBS shows, but both sides’ attack ads sure are. They are everywhere.

I kicked off the week by finally watching “The Great Muppet Caper,” a movie I DVRed months ago but never got to. I watched the end (yes, only the end) of an old “Bones” episode on cable after work on Monday too. Broadcast primetime typically takes up a large amount on my DVR also, but during summer it’s a lot of movies on TV and USA summertime shows like “Royal Pains.”

On the web most mornings, I turn on “The Daily Show” and let it go in the background on my laptop to get my daily Jon Stewart (temporarily John Oliver) fix via its show site. I’m also hooked on Crackle’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” I re-watched my favorite episode on my laptop this week, where Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks explain they like to watch movies where someone says “Secure the perimeter!” I heartily agree with their movie choices.

For a middle-of-the-week break, I decided to get back into the Whedon-verse, streaming an episode of “Buffy” on Apple TV via Netflix and watching “Castle” on TNT. I also tweeted a bit in response to MTV’s “The Challenge,” the most unintentionally hilarious show on TV.

I’m not ashamed to say I then got stuck in the Whedon-verse, and continued watching a couple of “Buffy” episodes on Apple TV through the weekend. Then when I remembered I wouldn’t get to watch any next week (Week 2 is cable-only week), I watched a few more. I also rented my first movie through iTunes on Apple TV this weekend to watch “Galaxy Quest.” Worth the rental.

All in all, I realized I use more of these services than I thought I did. I stream episodes on my laptop via show or network sites, I idly watch cable, I stream via Apple TV using Netflix or YouTube and I can’t seem to stop DVRing everything “just in case.”

Sites and apps like these are what make me think that I could never get rid of cable, but I don’t think I could live on cable alone either. Cable is expensive, but it just isn’t enough anymore.

Next week, I’ll try to live on only cable – no Apple TV, no Netflix, no “Comedians in Cars” on Crackle. We’ll see what shows and services I end up availing myself of, and what I miss out on.

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