Aside from my social media geekdom and love for being out and about in our great city of Boston — sometimes it’s nice to just be a couch potato and watch some “good” TV. Now I do not mean “reality” tv shows…(no offense to all my friends who love Jersey Shore and the Bachelor) — I prefer Mad Men, Grey’s Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother, True Blood, Friday Night Lights, and other “real” shows.

Like the social media world, the TV and Movie world has many many many options for our “viewing” pleasure. Got your hands full with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Yelp, Quora, and all the other myriad of sites? How do you view your favorite shows and movies? Sometimes I am not sure where to start – like with social media – there is so much to keep up with – every minute there’s a new site, app, option to chose from. For viewing, we have Netflix, Hulu, DVR, On Demand, iTunes, surfthechannel, Red Box, and even those dvd rental retail stores — remember those? Do you prefer free, or the paid options? Do you have one or two or three?

I weighed my options:

1. On Demand and/or DVR: holy expensive on Comcast. I pass.

2. Hulu – I stick to regular Hulu (over Hulu Plus) and watch for free. If I miss a show – I’ll watch it the next morning (unless it’s House and then I have to wait 8 days..ouch!). And as long as the buffering isn’t having issues, I can watch wherever there’s wifi. Perfect.

3. Netflix – monthly subscription — cheaper then retail renting and can watch however much I want online or via mail. Awesome. And I have the app on my iPad now too. Loyal subscriber.

4. iTunes – want a season sooner than it’s available? This was my savior when I wanted Mad Men Season 4. Downloaded – on my Mac, iTouch and iPad and ready to watch when and where I wanted. Kickass.

5. Surfthechannel — not the best quality and you can only watch for 72 minutes at a time — but you can get almost any season of almost any show. I caught up on multiple shows this way!

6. Purchase or rental — my suggestion is go to Best Buy when they have their kickass sales and buy them. On Black Friday I got Mad Men and Heroes for ridiculously cheap (10 bucks a season!) – it was like taking candy from a baby (imagine I said this in Robin William’s voice from his Live on Broadway skit).

7. Red Box – I have yet to try this option but I hear great things including cheap and convenient. Can’t beat that, right?

There is also: casttv.com, myeasytv.com, xfinity (for those who have a subscription) and others out there…

What do you prefer? Any other fun/cheap/free/easy ways to view shows/movies? I love the ease and flexibility of Netflix but like in social media – am always exploring new and kickass options.