I enjoy listening to "media people" talking about television.  Those are my favorite segments on radio shows.  Two of the shows that have been generating the most buzz on these shows are HBO's "Curb your enthusiasm", and "Da Ali G Show".

Now we don't subscribe to any of the premium channels at our house, so I had never been able to watch these shows.  (I am waiting until I have access to the DVDs.)  This weekend however, we were treated to one of those "preview weekends" on Dish Network.  I set up the VCR to record these shows whenever they were on.

So far I have watched one episode of Larry David's show, and about five minutes of Ali G.  They seem to be okay.  I wasn't blown away, but I would like to reserve judgement until I see more episodes.

One thing that I did notice is that both of these shows shoot with a single camera.  I know that single cameras, four-sided sets, and no laugh tracks are trendy things to have/ not have in situation comedies, but I certainly prefer the traditional TV studio sets.  (The one show that I think did pull off the single-camera was "The Larry Sanders Show.")  I suppose that the single camera saves money on editing, lighting, continuity, and other staff.