Sure, those Geico commercials are funny, and yeah, the new Jetta ads are clever, but I still hate commercial breaks. And yet sometimes I really want to watch television. Well, I've found the answer: Rather than drop $80 a month to flip cable channels, I rent all those talked-about shows on DVD, which allows me to enjoy utterly satisfying television hypnosis for, like, seven blissful hours in a row.

• The L Word: Season One (2004)--This Showtime series is very controversial for me, because every time I watch it I desperately want to become a lesbian. The power of the show is, in fact, so strong, that once I get a few cocktails in me I'm trying to French any pretty girl in sight. And you will be, too, once you get a load of the show's hot, funny, and realistically flawed gang of Los Angeles lesbians.

• Dead Like Me: Season One (2003)--George (Ellen Muth) is an 18-year-old girl whose life is cut short when she gets clobbered by a flaming toilet seat that hurtles into Earth's atmosphere from a U.S. space station. As a result, she's "trapped between two worlds"--and is therefore forced to take a job as a grim reaper, killing off people right and left. This Showtime hit gets funnier and more compelling as the season goes on, so don't quit after the first DVD.

• Nip/Tuck: Season One (2003)--Probably my favorite television show of all time, Nip/Tuck deals with best friends running a plastic surgery practice in Miami. One partner, Sean (Dylan Walsh), is a good boy with a family, while the other, Christian (Julian McMahon), is a sexy fuck machine who lays every woman in sight. Trouble arises for these two boys who botch surgeries, accidentally get involved with the mob, and wrestle with their own senses of right and wrong. Beyond the plot twists and morality issues, the show has some awesomely nasty surgery scenes--including one in which everyone in the operating room gets sprayed in the face with human fat. Wicked nasty!