Being an American series fan living in Europe (currently in France, but I also lived in Germany), you don't have many solutions to see your favorite shows. There aren't thousand ways to watch quench your thirst. Either you decide to go with local TV or you become an Internet junkie for series downloads. I went the first way many years. I was lazy, it was convenient and well internet was not at that time an easy provider for TV programs. Your best friend quickly became your VCR, because there were always thousands of reasons why you wouldn't be able to sit in front of your TV when your favorite program aired. And logistics used to be hell. When you had to be away for some time, you either needed to chose which program could be recorded or have good friends or family members who would tape for you. And of course there was always the faulty programing which drove you to madness. Who hasn't been surprised to find another program on the tape than the one expected? The change came for me, when I started to travel a lot to the US. My job was very demanding and I had to be at least one week per month in Phoenix. Who can then resist the temptation to watch its favorite show? Well I couldn't. It was not always easy. Sometimes there was over a year hiatus, depending on the series you were enjoying back at home, you were confronted to deaths you hadn't known about or new characters you knew nothing about. Going back to French TV became increasingly difficult. I felt cheated because I had to wait so long for a new season to air. I also discovered that the French dubbed episodes sometimes really sucked. I was lucky to have been in contact with an actor on The Pretender and I was having the script of every single episode. Seeing what French TV had done to my much beloved series brought it finally home that original version was definitely the way to go. After all this was already my way of consuming movies, so why wasn't it as logical to do the same for TV? I started with good and faithful American friends who taped some series for me and send them to France. That was a lot to ask. And I'm still thankful they did it. Of course that could only last a certain time. Then came the discovery of IRC, where many series were early on distributed. But it often meant having the computer on for hours with no certainty that you would get what you wanted. Digital TV brought also a change in the mix. Their networks were usually more up-to-date (only 4 to 5 months difference with the US) and they gave the possibility to chose the language you wanted. No more French dubbing! That was progress! But then my career took me to Germany and I discovered there another reality. If the shows were usually (well at least for the one I liked) more up-to-date, it was impossible to see them in another language than German. Okay their dubbing was often better than the French one, but still not the real thing. The net was again the chosen solution. It didn't matter if you chose IRC, Torrent or Usenet, the most important thing was to get your greedy little fingers on your shows. It's still the way I'm going. But is it still watching TV? Well to be honest, yes and no. Of course your series are very much a TV program, but the way you consume has very little to do with the way TV was first meant to be. First you get rid of one of the most annoying characteristics of TV: commercials. This is where networks damn you. Second you can then decide when you will watch what. But on the other hand is your viewing of this series still counted in its ratings? Well no. In France it's still done by phone most of the time. When the nice lady asks you if you watched TV, she is only interested in what the different networks had to offer that night. What you watched was definitely not there. So are you still watching TV? It's like being in a no-man's-land. You defined your rules, but at the same time, you excluded yourself from the rest of your TV watching world. Try discuss your favorite shows with colleagues or friends who simply watch TV. It's almost impossible. You have to be careful not to spoil anything for them. They look at you suspiciously always afraid you might tell too much and finally asking you not to say anything. Being back in France I can still honestly say that I'm watching some series on TV (yeah for digital TV and its great private networks). But those are only the ones I am either totally obsessed about or only partially interested. Well I'm on American time as far as my TV is concerned and I don't regret it. I have weighted the advantages of both ways and found that this was what I wanted. It's frustrating at times, but then there are great places like this one, where you can discuss your shows with people equally obsessed and isn't that swell?