How to Chose Which TV Shows to Watch

First, jot down a list of all the shows you love. Include shows that have been off the air for years as well as ones you've recently discovered. If you watch a show, but don't absolutely love it, add a question mark beside it on your list.

Next, determine when and where you'll be watching TV. Do you have cable or satellite TV, or do you make do with rabbit ears? Do you plan to watch shows live, DVR them, or watch them online later? Here's a quick guide for the 2011 fall season if you plan to watch broadcast TV live.

Then, start to consider your personal preferences. Do you need to stay caught up with the latest episodes? Can you live with the disappointment if a new show you watch is canceled? Do you want to be tied to a show where you have to watch every episode in order for it to make sense?

If you hate shows getting canceled, maybe instead of watching a brand new show you can catch up on a long-running series that you missed. If you can only watch shows live, make sure you don't have scheduling conflicts. If you don't mind watching certain shows out of order, plan to DVR the reruns.

The most important thing - if you don't love a show, don't watch it! With dozens of excellent programs out there, why waste your time on something you don't enjoy?

When I'm trying to find a new show to watch (and with broadcast TV alone axing 28 shows in early 2011, it's likely you are too), the first thing I look for is availability. I don't have cable, satellite, or DVR. So I'm either watching broadcast shows live, or watching episodes online.

Netflix, Hulu Plus, and network sites give a good variety of options for watching online, though Netflix primarily doesn't host currently airing seasons anymore. NBC, ABC, and Fox publish content on Hulu, while CBS and the CW host episodes on their own sites. Since I prefer watching on Hulu to watching on CBS (site doesn't always work very well) and the CW (which has about as many commercials as TV), CBS and CW shows get my priority for watching live.

Consider genre when choosing shows to watch. I tend to watch a lot of crime drama, so for the 2010-2011 season, I was very particular about adding in new crime dramas, and instead sought out shows in other genres I enjoyed (comedy and speculative) but were underrepresented.

Think ahead. If you've wanted to try a show for a while, spend your summer months catching up with previous seasons so you'll be all ready to go in the fall.

If you're still having trouble deciding what shows to watch, here are a few aspects you should consider when choosing to watch a show. (Note: these are focused toward scripted shows - adjust accordingly if you prefer reality or competition shows.)

• Premise
• Actors
• Plot
• Dialogue
• Effects

Premise: A show's premise should at least mildly interest you, though many don't give a good picture of the show they're meant to portray. But if the first thought that comes to your mind is, "How stupid," this probably isn't the show for you.

Actors: One of my favorite things about discovering a show (whether it's new or just new to me) is when I find out it stars an actor I've loved in a previous show or movie. I decided to give Buffy the Vampire Slayer another try because it starred Alyson Hannigan from How I Met Your Mother (which I started watching because it had Neil Patrick Harris from Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog) and Anthony Stewart Head from Merlin. I began watching Bones because it had David Boreanaz from Angel.

Plot: This is more difficult to determine unless you've watched several episodes of the show, and encompasses both individual episodes and season- and series-long arcs. A new show coming in fall 2011, Ringer, had an interesting premise and a great lineup of actors (I was most excited about Sarah Michelle Gellar from Buffy and Ioan Gruffudd from Fantastic Four and Amazing Grace), but I was worried that the show couldn't sustain the premise longterm. Then I found out the writers had twists and turns planned out through season three! I tend to enjoy longer story arcs, but you mind prefer shows that are a little more self-contained.

Dialogue: Unless things get extremely cheesy, you might not notice at first that dialogue doesn't sparkle, but humdrum conversations definitely weaken a show, especially comedies. It may be a bit obsessive, but check out the writers working on a show, and see if they've written for other shows you love.

Effects: This mainly applies to action and speculative shows. Do you want to see big explosions? Do you care if the dragon on a fantasy show looks fake?

Go through your list of shows and highlight the ones that are coming back and don't have a question mark by them. Do you have room to add in other shows? Which genres are a little lean?

Look at the shows you'd not sure about. Have you missed them while they've been off? Did they used to be great and now are repetitive?

Look at the shows that are over. Are any of those actors going to be in new shows? You can even search online for suggestions of similar shows - Netflix and other sites have that feature built right in. And don't worry if suggested shows aren't current either - some of the best shows are gems that were canceled before their time.

One final tip: Give a show you're on the fence about at least three episodes to prove itself. I've passed on shows that didn't seem quite good enough after an episode or two, only to come back months later and fall in love. Some shows just take a bit to find themselves.