Useless

ABC's lack of online episodes makes me want to boycott their shows. Seriously.

When I was trying to catch up on some shows before, like Grey's or Ugly Betty or Life on Mars, I was able to do it. They had a few of the past episodes up, and I was able to catch up. I missed some of the other shows in December since things were so busy, and then between work and the holidays, I didn't have time to catch up until now.

And what do I find out?

The shows are no longer there!

Dirty Sexy Money, only the episodes on my DVR are there, not the others, so it's completely useless. Desperate Housewives does not have the episode I'm missing. Brothers and Sisters does not have the 2 episodes I missed. They only have the most recent episode, i.e., the one that was on yesterday.

If you're going to offer serialized shows, you should realize that people need to catch up and may go to your website where you advertise "free episodes." Only having the most recent DOES NOT HELP. This is why it took me months to catch up on Grey's. I had to wait until you put the rerun on TV since you didn't have it online, and even then, I got screwed because of college football and only got half the episode. And what happens if someone starts watching in the middle of the season and wants to see what happened before? They can't! If you have a serialized show, how does that help bring in a new viewer? What incentive is there for someone to start watching a new show if they are unable to find out and watch what happened before until the DVDs come out? Why bother?

I'm seriously annoyed. Should I just take the rest of the season off because I've missed too much and can't catch up (I hate reading recaps instead of watching episodes)? (I guess this doesn't apply to Dirty Sexy Money because they cancelled it already.) There's really no other way to watch other than the single episode online, which does not help since (a) I missed the ones inbetween and (b) I already have this ONE episode on my DVR! Lame.

I don't know what to do because these are shows I actually like. Either offer real online content or offer nothing. What good is one episode? At least 2 episodes would be useful. Especially considering the context. If your last episode was right before the holidays, you really think people don't have other things to worry about at the holidays and are primarily concerned with catching up on their shows? No, they catch up when they get back, i.e. now.

Enough ranting, I have work to do. I was just hoping to catch an episode I missed (instead of watching dietTribe) and now I am seriously frustrated. I'm almost sorry that I'm so addicted to Lost, because between this uselessness and the cancellation of Eli Stone, I'm not very happy with ABC right now.