Technology killed the cliffhanger

Everyone already knows I love my TiVo. Bring up the topic in conversation with me and it's hard to get me to shut up. But here's a little benefit to TiVo I've never really talked about before--it's a cliffhanger killer.

Television show producers are famous for cliffhangers. They are what keep you coming back next week, right? Well, with TiVo cliffhangers are irrelevant to me since it's not at all uncommon for me to let my favorite shows queue up for 5, 10 or even 15 weeks. When the mood hits me, I start with the oldest episode and watch 2 or 3 shows back-to-back for several days in a row until I am completely caught up.

I recently did this with 14 episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. And I zipped right through all of the cliffhangers, even the super-duper fall season finale cliffhanger. As an added benefit, it was actually easier to keep the story line straight by watching all of the episodes so close in proximity. And believe me, when you are watching a show about cyborgs taking over the world and eliminating the human race by traveling back in time, keeping the story line straight is a huge bonus.

Of course, letting shows queue up for this long on your TiVo doesn't come without a few issues you have to deal with. Namely, I have to cover my ears with my hands and shout "la la la la la la" anytime someone starts talking about the show when I'm in the room. And I have to ignore Twitter, Facebook and other social networking web sites when people talk about how great last night's show was.

Oh, and let's not forget the biggest issue of all--when you finish watching 14 episodes of your favorite television show only to find out that Fox has canceled the show. Yeah, this really happened.