I never missed Six Feet Under. It’s my favorite show of all time. I thought so much of it, in fact, that ten minutes after the finale ended I canceled HBO. I had gotten way too involved. I never wanted to be beholden to serial television again.
Despite the post title, I have watched TV, of course. Probably two-thirds of my viewing is sports, and most all of that is either college football or IndyCar racing. The other third is movies, documentaries, concerts, and miscellaneous like classic car auctions. With 95-point vehicles and high definition, that’s riveting viewing.
(My most tawdry confession is an occasional Alaska State Troopers. I never seek it out, but it will halt my surfing once in a while. That’s a well-done show in an endlessly fascinating environment.)
But I’ve stayed away from “have to get home; x is coming on.” I’ve had no serial television habits since that night in 2005, because I have actively refused even the possibility of such developing.
Thing is, viewing paradigms have changed radically since then. High-quality programming comes to us in a lot more ways, and we have a lot more control over how we watch.
I’ve received recommendations for at least a dozen different shows over the past eight or ten years. “Oh, Bo, you’ll love it,” I hear. These recommendations generally come from people who would, indeed, be rather informed about what I’d love. Dear friends, I have believed you. I just haven’t wanted the constraint.
Look at it this way. I have a form of red-green colorblindness. I see in full color (as far as I know!), and there are only a very few shades, generally between green and brown, with which I have trouble. But I can’t pass those find-the-number-in-the-colored-dots tests. I had it confirmed at an eye exam a couple of years ago. Thing is, I see how I’ve always seen, right? I’m absent something that a lot of you aren’t, but there’s no way to explain what that is to me, and I don’t pine for it because I’ve never had it. It’s not part of my reality.
As with that, so with currently-running serial television. I’m sure x is great, but I have no experience with it at present, and I’m happy. So why would I willfully introduce a “dependency” of consumption?
Ah, but see, now there are full runs of shows available on streaming services. There are shows that have started and ended, that I could binge-watch in one sitting if I wanted to.
So that’s control that I have. So that means I could pick a show without the drawbacks that have kept me from picking a show for most of the past decade.
It must be on Netflix or Amazon Prime. It must have ended. It must be witty and dark.
That’s Breaking Bad or Dexter. I’ll watch both pilots and make a call.
Except the first pilot I watched has me.
It’s Breaking Bad. I’m having a blast with a very well done show. I’ll probably wipe it out in a week or ten days.
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Great post. Binge watching is a blast. I grew up with a father and brother who absolutely loved television. I never really caught the full-blown version of that bug, but TV has a special place in my heart. I guess that sounds a tad weird in a way, kinda like saying I like to smoke cigarettes…
Anyway, my tastes run to coming-of-age stories and science-fiction-ish series. As I tweeted the overwhelming attraction for me is character and dialog. A good example of the former, although it’s a sitcom, is “Modern Family.” Up until this season the overlapping dialog, culturally relevant themes and character development have been superb. For the latter I need look no further than “LOST.” The rich back stories of the characters coupled with time travel made it an incomparable drama.
I’ve never seen “Six Feet Under”; I may have to change that. Based on my taste preferences Netflix has never recommended it, but I enjoy confounding their algorithms anyway. Great post. Thanks for sharing!
I too try to avoid being chained to the television at certain days/times. Life is scheduled enough without adding in T.V. programming. Subscribing to Netflix and Hulu have really changed my outlook though. It was nice to have so much to watch during this years unusually cold winter. Once warm weather arrives we will live outside again!
Regarding the choice between “Breaking Bad” and “Dexter”…….that will only get you a blank stare from me. There is no way I could choose. You better check out both!
Dad got us hooked on Weeds. We watch 5 or 6 shows at a time. We are in season 4 and have 8 seasons. We plan to go to Breaking Bad next. (And then, House of Cards). Ahhhh, I love technology.
I don’t think it’s done (yet) but Justified is absolutely worth checking out. I greatly enjoy Breaking Bad, but I prefer Justified. It’s not quite as dark in some ways, but it has fantastically dry humor and a thoroughly likeable prickly protagonist.
I’m loving House of Cards. The series isn’t finished, but it’s definitely dark, the writing is fantastic, and the acting is top notch. If you decide to jump in, go into it knowing that you’ll have to overlook the whole “Republicans are evil” undercurrent. If you can, then it’s well worth it.
I decided some time back that Len and I were the only people left that had not watched The Walking Dead or Breaking Bad. So, over Christmas, we caught up on 3 seasons of Walking Dead. Unfortunately, by the time we finished, the current season had started. So, I have to wait until it’s over to catch up on it. Two weeks ago, I picked up Season 1 of Breaking Bad. LOVE IT! I can’t find Season 2 anywhere local, so I have to get it ordered. Awesome show.
Thank you all for so many wonderful additions to my queue, and for sharing your respective monkeys! 🙂
“The Wire” /thread
oooh goody. we can watch outlander and downton abbey when they wrap up!