Back in the World of Cable TV

The Brown Family cut our cable years ago in favor of streaming services. The content is better than cable television and there are no commercials.  Eighteen years ago Lisa got her first TIVO device allowing us to record and watch shows and speed through commercials.  Soon, TIVO was replaced with Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+.  Unfortunately, my circumstances this summer are forcing me to watch movies on cable TV and it is debilitatingly frustrating. 

I have not gotten into a lot of serial shows. I watched all of LOST. I enjoyed all of Game of Thrones. I watched Lost in Space. I loved all of Sherlock from the BBC (except for that last season), and, of course, The Mandalorian.  Beyond those few gems, I just cannot name a whole lot of television that I have gotten excited about.  Even most movies are unwatchable. I have watched a bunch of movies on Netflix and Amazon that I can’t even remember the main plot to.  What has happened? Has the quality of movies gone down, distilled across a dozen platforms, or is my attention just that bad?

No matter what my problem is, I am spending the summer (mostly) limited to commercial TV. I forgot about commercials and how monotonous they are.  Cable TV sells medicines I didn’t know I needed. It sells fastfood, cars, insurance, and a laundry (detergent) list of other crap. Fake families in fake situations selling fake stuff.  Each commercial is appropriately timed to break into the action at a point where my attention is fully engaged. Gah!

I realize that this is the definition of a First World Problem and I should be embarrassed.  However, I’ll share the real problem with it all; right after these words from this sponsor...