Someone tell me why, exactly, we continue to pay for cable television? Even basic cable runs you $50-60 a month now, and the sheer amount of commercials is getting ridiculous. Commercials are supposed to bring costs down, not up!

Faced with my rising anger over these prices, a few friends recommended that I check out Hulu.

Hulu’s a service wherein you can watching streaming TV and movies for free, anywhere you’ve got an Internet connection and browser (with the Flash plugin installed, which most browsers have by default). New shows appear on Hulu the day after they’re broadcast. So you have to wait a day; big deal! There’s still commercials within TV programs (during the regular breaks), but there’s less of them.

My current roster of shows includes Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Eureka, Lost, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. All of those series are available on Hulu. I did some further checking, and shows my roommate enjoys (like Monk and Psych) are also available there, so we’d be covered on all fronts. There’s even a long backlog of shows; for example, all four seasons of Lost are on Hulu, so it’s great for newcomers who want to play catch-up.

Hulu’s not perfect; it’s streaming video, so there’s occasionally some artifacting and other quality issues, especially during times when my home network’s under heavy usage from downloading or whatever. But, for a free service, the pros far outweigh the cons. I’ll have to give it some thought and some more test runs. For example, I’m no longer going to tape shows if I’m not home; I’ll just check ‘em out on Hulu the next day. I may be ready to kick cable to the curb for good!