Long gone are the days when you missed an episode of your favorite show and would be forced to wait to catch up until the entire season came out on DVD months later.

Even the days when you would wait a couple of weeks and scrounge around YouTube looking for terrible quality versions of an episode are slowly coming to an end.

A trend that has been catching like wildfire is watching your favorite TV shows online.  What started as a great way to catch up on what you’ve missed this season has quickly turned into the main source for shows.

At first, it really only started with websites that you need a subscription for, such as Netflix, HBO GO and Hulu.

It was like you could see the prize in front of you, but it was just out of reach.

After getting a hint about the episode, you could no longer focus on anything else: you needed to watch that episode.  Google comes up on the screen and you frantically searched for some free site to watch snippets of that episode that was so dramatically advertised.

All to be found were sketchy sites that might give your computer a virus, but you decide it’s worth it.

Stations like NBC, ABC and Fox are now making it easier to follow the shows you love, even when they are on a night that you’re busy.

Which begs the question, why even bother watching a show in real time?

I can honestly say there are multiple shows that I follow that I have never actually watched on a television.

After all, online, I can watch them anywhere, anytime and there are way less commercials.  Not to mention the ability to pause, a gift I had taken for granted at home with my DVR when I had to take a potty break.

Now with online shows, it’s almost like I have my own little DVR in my laptop waiting to help me out when I’m watching a show and can’t pull my contacts out in the span of a commercial.

I can see how watching an important episode at its real time before or with other friends on Facebook could give you the upper hand.

But other than that, I think television is starting to look a little lackluster next to the easy availability of certain shows the day following their airings.

Side note: Fox needs to cut out this terrible idea of waiting eight days, after a show has aired before you can watch it, aka the next episode airs before you can see the previous one.

It’s like Fox is forcing people to continue catching up online, since they won’t want to watch the new episode before the previous one, so they’ll have to wait and watch THAT episode the following week.

While I relish the power I possess with a show posted online (allowing me to unhealthily go through entire seasons in one night), I will admit there is nothing like reclining on the couch to munch some popcorn and annoying your mom to no end by flipping through three shows at once.

That’s just something you can’t do online.