For the longest time I couldn’t fathom watching TV or videos on a 2-inch screen. It’s so tiny. What can you actually see? Why would anyone do that?

Today I did it. I downloaded an episode of “Firefly” from iTunes, and I watched it on my new Nano. Nevermind that we own the DVD of season one. And we own “Serenity” (the Firefly movie, for you non-browncoats out there). And, Universal HD is showing the series Saturday nights. Now I can watch it on a 2-inch screen, wherever I go.

And I was watching it today. The picture looks incredibly good on such a small screen. I was impressed. Even outside in the sun, the glare was not terribly bothersome. My mind has been changed.

This weekend, I watched a television episode of “Drive” online. Fox on Demand’s service was impressive. I was able to skip through the boring parts, and find the scenes I wanted to watch. The resolution was sharp (available in small, medium and large screen sizes). Buffering time was negligible. Advertisements not terribly offensive (a 15-second AT&T clip probably every 10 or so minutes). My only complaint was the rather poor user interface. There were two episodes of “Drive” that I hadn’t seen. Because the navigation wasn’t actually pointed out to me (i.e. verbiage somewhere that says, more or less, ‘this is a link that will show you all of the episodes of this show’), I watched the last episode before watching the penultimate episode. Which was a shame, because the last episode ended GREAT, and I was looking forward to seeing what was going to happen in the final episode, only to be disappointed that I had just watched the final episode.

By the way, what is UP with Fox giving up on shows so early? Drive got something like four episodes before getting the axe. Yeah, it started slow but there was some potential. I wonder what their online traffic is for shows that get cut. I wonder if any of it is like a “d’oh!” moment for them (a la “Firefly”).

I’ll be curious to see what the future holds for online episodes. How the advertising will pan out. How networks will win over YouTube (and if they should bother). How have they determined royalties? Will any network take a television show straight to online (have they already?). What shows perform well online and why? I may have to spend a little more time figuring this one out.

And, if you haven’t already seen the pattern of shows I’m downloading and watching online …, these are shows that star the flavor of the month, Nathan Fillion (Month? the husband would say. Try flavor of the year. Yum). I am getting my fill on Fillion. Nice.

Speaking of which, I also watched online a ‘sneak preview’ of “Desperate Housewives,” the show that Fillion will be joining this fall. I’m a little bummed, because, well, based on this 2-minute preview, the show is sorta, well, sucky. The writing, ugh. The comic timing, missing. Chemistry among actors, nonexistent. The two minutes I watched was just. plain. flat.

Oh, I’ll still be watching, because of the aforementioned Fillion (who appeared in the sneak preview for all of three seconds). Just thank goodness for the 30-second skip on my DVR.