By: Mark Fitzgerald Chicago Tribune television writer Maureen Ryan, who has been described by Variety as one of the "favorite (or most feared)" critics of the television industry, is the first, and so far only, newspaper critic TiVo features on its "Guru Guide Recommendations."
"It's a little different from the column," Ryan says. "It's a distillation, with 30 or 40 shows that I recommend all the time, and I'm doing video segments every month where I take a few shows and talk about why I like them."
Those exclusive, recurring video commentaries can be downloaded by TiVo users. For those who subscribe to Ryan's recommendations, TiVo will automatically record her picks when they air ? literally a "thumbs up" on the save button.
If only Ryan herself had such a feature when she first subscribed to TiVo years ago. The "TiVo Suggestions" feature that records programs the system thinks a subscriber might like ? based on past viewing ? never quite connected with Ryan. On any given night, it was not recording the same shows that she was recommending in "The Watcher," her print and online television column. "I disabled it after a few days," she says.
So, what shows are among Ryan's current favorites in her 12th season at the Tribune? The AMC hit "Mad Men," "Lost," "Burn Notice," and "Damages."
"I'm not shilling for TiVo, honestly," she jokes. "I've had it for years."
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