Appointment TV - can I get a rain check?

"Come over to my house Thursday," my friend says with a smile. "It's my birthday, and there will be wine and cake. Lots of cake."

"No can do," I reply. "Ugly Betty season three premiere."

MC wants to see Betty and Daniel get together in the end.
I'd rather see rocks fall and everybody die.

Obviously, we here at TV Sluts take a certain pride in our obsession with all thing televised. But what's a blogger to do when Real Life attempts to encroach on our precious Appointment Television? There are several ways of dealing with this - obviously, there's the frank rejection (demonstrated above). A bold move, but unlikely to help you make friends and influence people. Then there's the equivocation: "I've got ... something ... going on until 9pm. Is it OK if I come a little late?" Of course this can lead to awkward questions, like "where are you going?" and "can I come, too?" Thankfully, there's another solution for those of us without a TiVo/DVR - online episodes.

Personally, I can't handle but two or three Appointment Television shows - this season, it's Heroes, Pushing Daisies, and Ugly Betty. But I also want to watch House, M.D. and The Mentalist (see Simon Baker below .... *drool*). There may be any number of shows that pique my interest without fitting my schedule. And I would invest in a DVR, except then I would be watching too much TV (if such a thing can be imagined).

You may recognize him from The Guardian or Something New.

Luckily for me, shows are getting smarter about online content. It used to be you had to wait several days for a new episode to be posted - several anxious days spent with fingers in your ears, eyes shut tight, muttering "no spoilers, no spoilers, no spoilers." Now (for some shows) you can stream video online almost as soon as the televised broadcast ends. We live in a truly wondrous age.