Thanks to DVR technology we now have no excuse for missing out on good TV (and watching bad TV doesn't make us feel as guilty because we can at least speed throught the commercials and boring parts so it doesn't take up as much of our day). Here's a couple of high quality, guilt-free shows on this week that are worth setting the TIVO for.

30 Days on FX (Wed 10pm), if you haven't caught it yet has been reality TV taken to an educational and less sensationalistic level. Hosted by Super Size Me's Morgan Spurlock, each episode puts a person in a situation they are not used to for the period of 30 days. Spurlock started the series off himself by attempting to live on minimum wage for the month. Past episodes have involved situations (ie, a conservative Christian sharing an apartment with a homosexual) that, handled by say a Fox or MTV reality show would have resulted in your typical irrational flare up and ratings-grabbing meltdown. On this show however, the "contestants" are pretty open-minded and the object of the show is to educate not titillate.

This week's episode has a mom going binge drinking for a month to show the effect it has to her teenage daughter.

Another interesting educational show this week is episode 2 of Guns, Germs and Steel (Mon 11pm) on PBS. Based on the excellent book by Jared Diamond, the author explores how civilizations evolved the way they did and why Europeans became more technologically advanced than, say Native Americans. This week shows how a couple of hundred Spanish Conquistadors could easily defeat an army of 80,000 Incans.