2016 TV Resolution: ‘Finally’ Clear Off the DVR

The TV Insider / TV Guide Magazine team sets their goals for small-screen viewing in the new year. See more 2016 TV Resolutions.

I admit it: I hold on to DVR’d shows way past their sell-by date. (Hey, I’m still mourning my favorite Oz episodes that were lost along with my TiVo.) So it’s no surprise that my TVs are chock full of recorded but never seen shows persistently reproaching me for disrespecting them.

Sorry, friends, it could have been fun, but it’s time to stop procrastinating and hit delete. When Pivot began running the entire Buffy the Vampire Slayer oeuvre, it was be still my heart. And I did indeed watch the first four or five. But then shows I needed to watch for work and others I love pushed my old crush aside. The same happened with a series I still believe is one of the best ever on TV—The Jewel in the Crown that ran on Masterpiece, and was recently rerun on a local PBS station.)

Then there are the episodes left from quickly cancelled shows that I found moderately intriguing  (Minority Report) or had an actor I enjoyed (that would be Don Johnson in Blood & Oil). There are the do-good shows I want to watch but I guess not enough—Oprah’s multipart doc Belief (and I minored in comparative religion for heaven’s sake); miniseries like The Dovekeepers (I really wanted to see how it measured up to a very good book);  and such fine series as The Fosters (I do like that family in all its multicultural, pansexual glory, but somehow I always pass the big-hearted series up for something unnaturally gory like Gotham and Teen Wolf.)

And I am finally accepting that I will never watch, unless I get a weird amnesiac condition that turns me into another person, that piece of cultural zeitgeist known as The Walking Dead. Truth be told, even the thought of zombies turns my stomach, no matter how brilliant the acting, writing and direction.  So begone, season whatever-I-have-stored.

There’s no excuse for this digital hoarding, my loved ones tell me. I know most shows still live in the On Demand universe and favorite eps can often be found online or streaming. So, it’s out with the old to make room for the new on my DVR. Until the new become old and the process begins again. But wait, there’s that insane Scandal episode that I love and really must have one more wallow… I promise I’ll erase it tomorrow.