They look very sad, wondering whether I love them any more. This was a fantastic series, although the baroque excess of violence occasionally freaked me out. But then other new passions squeezed it out and, as time passed, my time-shifted episodes of Dexter lost their appeal.
However, I found myself watching one episode from the planner last weekend and pondered why. The series has recently started a run on ITV1. I'd seen a trailer, a friend said he was watching it, and we talked about the wonderful Michael C Hall's performance. Evidently, Dexter has regained its magnetism, and I'm fairly certain the reason for this is its regained proximity to a broadcast.
You must all have experienced the same phenomenon. The further recorded TV gets from its original broadcast, the less likely we are to bother to watch. This is fascinating and key to projecting the future market for on-demand TV.
There's no doubt that all the technological devices we now have are an enormous advance: digital TV recorders, Sky Anytime, and on-demand web TV and IPTV services are greatly appreciated by viewers.
Sue Unerman wrote last month of her family's increasing use of broadcasters' web services and predicted that this form of on-demand online TV is the future.
Well, it is certainly one of the futures for TV, and an exciting one too. But I'm wondering how Sue's family choose what to view on-demand. I bet they use it mostly to catch up with recent broadcasts. Given that one of the motivations for watching TV is to share conversations, then knowing what is being broadcast on linear channels will still be the main influence on our choice of on-demand viewing.
The choice of linear and/or on-demand TV is of much greater interest to viewers than the technology that delivers the programmes, whether digital broadcasting, online or mobile. Cable viewers are already effectively receiving their linear TV via broadband pipes, but don't give it a second thought.
Giving people more choice and control has, in the past, resulted in viewers watching more TV.
On-demand TV might do that too, but until Barb has evolved its methodologies, measuring on-demand viewing will be a massive challenge.
Tess Alps is chief executive of Thinkbox ()
A view from Tess Alps
Broadcast boosts the magnetism of on-demand TV
There have been five episodes of Dexter, recorded from the FX channel, sitting on my Sky+ digital TV recorder for more than six months.