Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Sunday’s Super Bowl Means Lena Dunham Today

Attention, fans of Colin Kaepernick and Lena Dunham!*

Now you don’t have to fret on Sunday, when the Super Bowl and the newest episode of “Girls” were set to collide: A clever stunt from HBO will let you watch Dunham’s sitcom in advance, starting today.

HBO is letting subscribers watch the next episode of “Girls” right now, via its on-demand cable service and its HBO Go online service. And if negotiating either of those options is too much for you, the pay network will air the new episode Saturday night, a day before the show would normally run. The same goes for “Enlightened,” the Laura Dern sort-of-sitcom.

That’s a smart promotional move, which primarily highlights the benefits of HBO’s watch-when-you-like features. And it gives people like me a chance to write about “Girls,” which is a win-win-win.

But what about the plight of “Downton Abbey” fans, who face the same scheduling dilemma? Slightly less good news for them: They’ll also be able to watch Sunday’s show in advance, if they’ve paid up for an iTunes season pass.

*And yes, we’re assuming there’s someone who falls into that Venn diagram.

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— David Pogue on why he’s joining Yahoo