Catch the Latest Episode - Dangerously Easy

Forget iTV, I just discovered something way scarier. Something much more threatening to my productivity. Something nefariously free and therefore not even held in check by my tech-gadget budgetary concerns. Something that doesn't even require any configuration or physical set-up. Doesn't require $1.99 per episode.

ABC runs recent episodes of Grey's Anatomy directly from their website.

Thing is, I try not to let TV run my life. (OK, except for Project Runway, but that's more like a family ritual.) I have a cool job and a cool kid and I don't need the financial or the time-suck of television. I watch compelling shows like GA when I stumble across them during their regular airing on broadcast TV (a concept which may one day be as out-of-date as dial telephones), and sometimes I read the pithy recaps on Television Without Pity because snark is fun and it helps me keep up with who slept with whom during two or three episodes I missed due to haphazard viewing.

Only the most recent episodes are available, they are played with "limited commercials" (three blocks of 30 seconds each), and they play in a window that even on the BIG setting is only about 5"x 8" on my 15" screen. But the missing episodes are right there. One URL, one click. And I can do this from my desk.

I remember in the late-90's when I worked for another publisher. The head of IT used to be very strict about what apps we could put on our computers. (He was an ex-marine). Aside from obvious security issues, he was always commenting on "threats to productivity." One time, I somehow acquired this mysterious tic-tac-toe game that appeared on my Word toolbar and I called his attention to it. I remember him saying, "I'm sure we don't need that kind of distraction to mess with your productivity." We're talking about tic-tac-toe. If tic-tac-toe is a distraction, then what chance do I have against Meredith and McDreamy and the other compellingly attractive denizens of Seattle Grace Hospital?

Guess I'll just have to stay armed with my cool kid, cool job, and the fact that the viewer doesn't seem to want to load on my Mac. There's still the lure of the PC off to the side....Maybe there's a reason I discovered this on a Saturday morning.