I will never forget this evening. The installers from SKY television came to set up the satellite dish out on the terrace. No more argumentative talk shows with no resolution, no more slap-stick comedy on variety shows that last entire afternoons, no more 70's and 80's American TV series (like Murder She Wrote and MacGyver), and no more watching Italian soap operas because they're the only programs with subtitles.
We got a good taste of SKY television at Debora's house when we went for dinner there last week. I was so motivated that I called that night. Surprisingly, they set up an installation date for the following week. Debora said she waited almost a month!
On SKY, there are more recent TV shows, like Ally McBeal, CSI, Sex & the City, and many others, as well as recent movies like Lord of the Rings and 21 Grams. Not only are they all in either English or Italian, but we can also have Italian subtitles! And of course, the real deciding factor was that we can now see "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" the day after it is broadcast in the US. It's in English, but with Italian subtitles. If only I could see Dr. Phil, I'd be ecstatic!
Watching TV in Italian is great if you want to learn more of the language. However, without TiVO, you can't go back to hear what you might not have heard correctly, and without subtitles, you can't see the words you might not have understood.
We don't have much time to watch TV, but when we do at least we have more choices (hundreds of channels instead of a handful) with better options, like Italian subtitles.
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