A Growing Indifference to Television

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BAYLOR

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I watch television but , I find myself watching less of it and watching more dvd of older tv shows. Do you find yourself not following favorite tv shows anymore and do you find the latest tv offerings to be less than appealing ?


Thoughts ?
 
Yes. I no longer have a tv or need one. I download the shows I want to see. Not the repetitious studio junk.
 
Oh yes, I haven't found most of the new shows (and even most of the new movies) appealing in a long time. We got rid of our cable years ago and, recently, got rid of Netflix also. We pretty much just use our Roku now (Tubi mostly) and watch a few things on Amazon Prime. We're also increasing out our DVD collection of older shows and movies that we know we liked and would actually want to rewatch.
 
I guess soon the only thing we'll be left with to entertain us, is reality...
 
Using an outdoor antenna, selective streaming with Roku, and dvds, I can automatically filter out most of the cable stuff, the new "network" stuff, and the new movies. It's like a time delay of from 1 to 90 years. With not the greatest home made antenna you can pull in 60 or 70 channels that are not guaranteed to show up everyday due to the weather. It doesn't even have to be raining, just the wind, too much heat, too cold, a channel, or channels don't show up, or are too pixelated to watch.
 
I watch TV for the News and likewise stuff. One or two quizzes that actually requires some intelligence from the attendees (not being celebrities.)
All in all less than 1 hour each day, if even that.
Mostly I watch streams from Netflix and CuriosityStream (documentaries), but even there it's increasingly hard to find something original and worthwhile watching.
But I have a similar problem with reading. It has become difficult to find something that invites me to turn the next page.
 
Over lockdown i bought a Fire TV cube and subscribed to Amazon Prime, Netflicks and more recently, Britbox. I have to confess that i'm not really interested now. It's on because it fills time and it's nice to have dinner in front to the telly.

I'm falling behind on a lot of shows at the moment. I wouldn't say that i was bored with TV, i think numb is a better way to describe my feeling toward telly at the moment.
  • There is just so much content these days, making it hard to choose what to watch. Channel hopping now is a nightmare. :)
  • Committing to a series of 5 seasons of 22 episodes each can be daunting. 10 episode seasons are making things a little easier.
  • Subscription TV is making the whole affair quite expensive. I subscribed to Netflicks for Doctor Who and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, i subscribed to Amazon for The Expanse, I subscribed to Britbox for Blake's 7 and THHGTTG. I want to watch the new Star Wars content, so i'll have to subscribe to Disney Plus. I also want to see the new Foundation series on HBO. Rounding up, i already pay £30 a month with potentially another £20. On top of a TV Licence. It's too much.
  • Too much dumbing down with TV now days. Mostly due to the rise of reality TV. I think that TV has a certain degree social responsibility. These guys we see on TV are potentially our heroes, (especially for children). When you have shows such as The Kardashians, Real Housewives of... and The Only Way is Essex i think it affects certain people poorly. I blame shows like this for the rise of entitled behaviour that appears to have crept into our culture over the last few years. (I apologies for such a sweeping statement, but i hope you know what i'm getting at.)
  • News is just as bad. Baised and sensationalist.I think we have it okay in the UK, but in the US it appears to be terrible.
Fun fact. News stands for "Notable Events, Weather and Sport".

I want to get back into reading instead of watching TV.
 
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I watch Hollyoaks (I know, I don't care) and that's about it. Nowadays I mostly watch YouTube (and the vast majority of that is about gardening!).
 
I didn't have a TV for 15 years. My real life expanded enormously as a result. Joining clubs, groups and classes.
I bought a license due to constant threats and intrusive visits from the licencing authority, I knew that one day I would 'lose it' with one.
So I got a little TV again and installed a freeview antenna. I watch 'The Repair Shop' and 'Landscape Artist of the Year' That's it really.
The adverts are just awful on so many fronts and run long enough to make tea.
(and did I mention that everything is politicised and biased now. It feels like a propaganda machine in the corner. )

I consider myself "Post TV'. Basically the internet with adblock is where I live now. :cool:
 
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Astro Pen said:
I didn't have a TV for 15 years. My real life expanded enormously as a result. Joining clubs, groups and classes.
I bought a license due to constant threats and intrusive visits from the licencing authority, I knew that one day I would 'lose it' with one.
So I got a little TV again and installed a freeview antenna. I watch 'The Repair Shop' and 'Landscape Artist of the Year' That's it really.
The adverts are just awful on so many fronts and run long enough to make tea.
(and did I mention that everything is politicised and biased now. It feels like a propaganda machine in the corner. )

I consider myself "Post TV'. Basically the internet with adblock is where I live now. :cool:
Click to expand...
When it comes to the tv licence we haven't had one in nearly ten years, we just ignore the monthly threat'o' grams and we have had two visits, in the first three years, the goon said tv licensing I replied no thanks and shut the door.
 
We do not have a tv license fee, we just have to watch/wade through commercials to pay for our viewing. Even sources that were commercial free are showing commercials. Commercial free public tv has sponsor spots that are exactly what tv commercials looked like 75 years ago.

I pay around $20 a month for acorn, britbox and amazon. The original roku cost around $40, should have been a one time cost (its still working) but amazon changed their signal so I had to get a newer roku which lasted a week before the output to tv socket broke off the circuit board. Bought another one and glued the cable in place. That's around $100. Good news is that the new remote works a lot better on the original roku than the original roku remote worked.

Don't use converter boxes (cheap ones don't last). I only use 27 inch flat screen tvs with built in digital tuners. They cost between $10 and $20 at yard sales.

The outdoor tv antenna is composed of several small antennas cobbled together for a cost of $100. I run the signal through a 30 year old tv signal amplifier that cost $20 when I got it and still costs $20. It is topped off by very old metal fm antenna that was originally horizontal to the ground but got clobbered by a large tree branch blowing by in the wind one night that knocked the fm antenna to a 45 degree angle pointing up into the sky. The mountings got bent so it is permanent. The good news is that brought in another dozen channels from another state 120 miles away. They only work in the daytime.
 
I've been watching Babylon 5 - missed it first time round. After a shaky first few episodes it's hitting its stride.

New series?

Better Call Saul is amongst the best TV ever made.
Severance - if you like PKD, Kubrick, Beckett or Black Mirror you'll also love this. Rate this highly.
Upload - A lighter, fluffier Black Mirror - I can't say it's unmissable, but it's an okay way to pass the time.
The Expanse - one of the better sci-fi series
Resident Alien - teeny sci-fi series - the first season is fun.
Maniac - interesting sci-fi serial.
Sweet Home - Highly imaginative Korean horror series
Squid Game - Takeshi's castle with a deadly twist
All of us are dead - effective zombie high school actioner
The White Lotus - dark satire set in a hotel
 
Outer Range - lovecraftian / bradburyesque horror western featuring Josh Brolin
 
I haven't had a TV in my home for years. Never missed it.
 
I last had a TV in 2003. I do not miss it at all. Very occasionally a friend will report seeing something that sounds exceptional and then I wish there were some way of buying streaming access to that one thing. I particularly love powerful plays and period dramas, being a veteran of their golden age: roughtly 1960 - 1980. Most modern period dramas are hopeless as the dialogue, body language, etiquette & eye contact all reek of the 21st cetury.* But the old ones are mostly superb, e.g. The Six Wives of Henry VIII (Keith Michell), Elizabeth R (Glenda Jackson), I, Claudius (Derek Jacobi). I would so love re-runs of any of the long-running and challenging series Play for Today, The Wednesday Play, Armchair Theatre.

* An exception is Wolf Hall, which I thought was beautifully crafted and performed.
 
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I saw a news feed on my phone that said today's movies mostly suck because children are writing them. :LOL:

We get free channels on our TV - most is rubbish, but I occasionally watch the news.
 
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