Because it's never too early to TiVo

You might think that "24" fans are the only people that have unreasonable demands placed on them ... and now you'll also have to include any critic unlucky enough to have to review the first four hours of the new season of "24," which arrived in our mailbox today with the helpful admonition:

Please, when you write about the premiere, do not divulge to your readers the events of the first 10 minutes in the first hour...

In other words, write about the show but don't write about the show. Got it.

However, there's another network making a greedy grab for viewers' attention. It's PBS, which has another David Sutherland monstrosity on its hands in "Country Boys," a six-hour exploration into the lives of two Appalachian teenagers as they try to figure out how to become men -- in grinding poverty and without many close male role models to look up to.

It's worth every minute.

Link: Kansas City Star | 01/08/2006 | In some ways, we’re all ‘Country Boys’.

I used to complain that PBS was doing a poor job scheduling these longform documentaries. After all, if it's so compelling, why not ask the viewers to come back every week to watch it, instead of forcing them to take the whole film in one huge gulp?

I still think it's dumb scheduling, but I'm tired of complaining about it. And more to the point, many of you now possess the means to record and watch these epics at your own speed. Just don't miss a minute of "Country Boys."

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And speaking of Appalachia, I've received a very thoughtful comment from an eyewitness at the Sago Mine tragedy who was dismayed to see the special treatment afforded Anderson Cooper and CNN.