Up Yours, American Broadcasting Company

Grey's Season 4: With McDreamy, McSteamy, & McABCsucks

There are certain things about American life that I miss, mostly food related. But being in Barcelona also means a big, fat no to a lot of television. Not that this is a real problem, in most cases. My viewing habits pretty much consisted of the occasionally available Cardinals game, Fire away games, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, and whatever was on Discovery.

I can follow the Cards online (and am advocating for mlb.com's season pass for Christmas), same with the Fire. MythBusters, et al. are surreptitiously available on YouTube - the parts worth watching, at least. But I need my Grey's and I really need my Lost. In that heroin-addict-needs-his-fix sort of way. You can take away man points for liking Grey's if you want, but I need to know what happens, and so does Susie. They're showing it in Spanish (on Fox, no less), but Anatomia de Grey is 1) starting with season 1, which I've seen, and 2) is in Spanish, which I don't understand. Though the "penis in a cooler" episode would no doubt be funny in Spanish even if you don't speak the language, I'm not interested.

But I had a plan.

Remember how at the end of every episode of every ABC show they say something along the lines of, "watch the episode again on abc.com"? Even the bad ones like October Road or Six Degrees? I thought to myself, "I know! I'll watch the episode on abc.com."

So this morning, I went to abc.com to see how the whole endeavor works (knowing anything online not owned by Google has a reasonable chance of being overly complicated) and have the whole thing ready to go when Susie gets back. I was greeted by the following message:

Only viewers within the United States can watch these full-length episodes.

WHAT?! Why?! Who's idea was this? I can buy (read: choose to ignore) your damned Dove body wash and whatever other products are being pushed on the ads just as easily over here as back home. Unfortunately, ABC's Executive Vice-President of Online Suckitude has spoken, so I'm left with few options.

Basically, I see my options as this:
1) Wait for the Season 4 DVD for like $35, get high-def quality, watch at leisure, but wait until everyone else I know has been discussing the season ad nauseum. Face social ostracization. ABC gets a portion of my purchase price as a direct result of their sucking.
2) Sign up for the iTunes Season Pass for the same $35, get what has been described as VCR-ish resolution, get now, and watch at leisure. Then purchase DVD set for (inexplicably) the same amount. ABC gets a portion of my purchase price as a direct result of their sucking. Twice.
4) Move back to America at a price several hundred times the cost of the iTunes pass and the DVDs combined and give up everything good about life in Barcelona for a television show. Still miss season premiere and episodes up to his return. ABC gets nothing.
3) Download episodes from LimeWire for free, get varying quality, watch at leisure, keep reasonably up to date, possibly miss an episode here or there, face potential wraith of the man (or el joven). ABC again gets no money for their douchetude, though I'd likely purchase the DVD set later anyway. Extras and all.

So what to do? I'm initiating the first ever Jake and Susie in Spain blogpoll. I want your input. What should I do? I can't boycott a show I can't watch (that would show them), and I need to know what to do soon, as I'm already falling behind. Also, missing an episode of Lost is simply not an option.

You killed off my two favorite characters, but I need to know what happens.