Three traditional television programs you simply must watch

I canceled my cable about a month ago. I haven’t missed it. I’ve been watching a nice combination of movies, cherry-picked television shows and Web shows. Here are the three best television shows I’ve found so far:

Time — a BBC Four documentary with Michio Kaku about time. It’s one of the most fascinating things I’ve watched in a long time and makes for excellent plane watching.

How Buildings Learn — Another BBC documentary, this one with Stewart Brand. Watch this series. It’ll change the way you think about architecture. It’ll also change the way you think about design, about software, about your home. Just like Time, this series makes excellent plane watching.

Breaking Bad, AMC’s second foray into original TV dramas, is excellent. I’m midway through the second season. I wouldn’t recommend this show for plane viewing because there are sometimes violent or otherwise child-inapropriate scenes that could make your fellow travelers uncomfortable.

I’ve been watching all of these shows on my Samsung NC-10 netbook running Joli Cloud. It does an excellent job with video playback, has ample hard drive space for lots of choices, and only weighs a few pounds. The battery tends to last just a little less time than your typical cross-country flight when you turn the brightness way down. I’m now taking my NC10 with me instead of my MacBook on long trips. It’s infinitely more convenient and does (almost) everything I need well.