Once at a Narrative Magazine fund-raising event, I was seated at a table with Joyce Carol Oates(!), who opined that the best writing these days was for TV. This was a bit before Covid. She especially liked Millennium, which I've never seen...have you?
I highly recommend the streaming route (we view on a PC monitor, but there are ways to stream on a big TV if you have one). Yes, you pay for platforms individually, and it adds up, but I think our total is around $70/month for Passport, Apple+, Netflix, Paramount+, and Hulu. Oh, and YouTube, I pay to have no ads.
Recent suggestions: Widow's Bay (Apple+), The Agency, Elsbeth, new Matlock, Ghosts, Daily Show Mondays for Jon Stewart (Paramount+); The Man in the High Castle, Victoria, Doc (Netflix -- where also Hamnet just became available); The Good Doctor, Brilliant Minds (Hulu). We often discover an old series and have years' worth to watch.
And no commercials!! Even muted, the visuals are stressful. I recall the bank of giant monitors at the gym . . .
We do stream everything now, although I still consider it watching TV! ;-) Thanks for recs! We just watched some episodes of Widow's Bay but Rafael didn't want to finish it. But haven't seen those others. Right now we're watching a fun French show called Munch.
I was clued in to "Widow's Bay" by David Dean Bottrell, an actor whose book "Working Actor" I copyedited, and we've kept in touch. He had a role in episode 6. Fun connection!
I'll also leave you with a story ... when I was in 3rd grade we had a B&W set, which my Pop figured was "good enough". I went to private school so most of the kids there had color. One night the Wizard of Oz played and all the kids were talking about how everything turned color! I couldn't tell the difference...
I had a nightmare the first time I watched the Wizard of Oz, because we lived in tornado country. But I loved it and watched it every year when it came on — no on-demand viewing back then! I guess by then we had a color TV.
You raise a good question, Rosana - how much TV is too much?
My earliest memory of watching TV is Saturday morning cartoons; I remember seeing Felix the Cat running back and forth across the black and white screen - but no memory of any storyline.
When I was a little older, it was Lassie (I cried every week), and Sky King (about a rancher with a plane and his niece Penny); my sister loved Flicka (about a horse). My sister and I used to argue about what color things were - mind you it was all black and white.
And do you remember your father changing the tubes on the TV?
These days, I also relax in the evening with the TV on, and sometimes a book in hand at the same time if we're watching a ball game or a knitting project to keep my hands busy. ;-) But lately we've been watching foreign films with English subtitles, and I feel like I'm getting a little culture along with the show. Not such a bad way to pass the evening. ;-)
Oh yes, those tubes! And how could I have left out cartoons? We had Road Runner, Scooby Doo, and so many others.
We've been watching a French detective (well, lawyer) show set in Paris, so yes, culture! Actually, one I really liked was called "The Art of Crime," also French, about an art expert who helps the police solve crimes — as they do, lol.
For the rising generation, long-form tv requires a major commitment of intellectual energy and time: modern parents are happy when their kids can sit through an entire movie, just like our parents' were delighted when their kids were reading Dostoievski (another sensationalist mainstream entertainment, now considered undisputedly highbrow).
Once at a Narrative Magazine fund-raising event, I was seated at a table with Joyce Carol Oates(!), who opined that the best writing these days was for TV. This was a bit before Covid. She especially liked Millennium, which I've never seen...have you?
Oh yes, I forgot about that cool encounter you had! I had not even heard of that show, will have to check it out.
I highly recommend the streaming route (we view on a PC monitor, but there are ways to stream on a big TV if you have one). Yes, you pay for platforms individually, and it adds up, but I think our total is around $70/month for Passport, Apple+, Netflix, Paramount+, and Hulu. Oh, and YouTube, I pay to have no ads.
Recent suggestions: Widow's Bay (Apple+), The Agency, Elsbeth, new Matlock, Ghosts, Daily Show Mondays for Jon Stewart (Paramount+); The Man in the High Castle, Victoria, Doc (Netflix -- where also Hamnet just became available); The Good Doctor, Brilliant Minds (Hulu). We often discover an old series and have years' worth to watch.
And no commercials!! Even muted, the visuals are stressful. I recall the bank of giant monitors at the gym . . .
We do stream everything now, although I still consider it watching TV! ;-) Thanks for recs! We just watched some episodes of Widow's Bay but Rafael didn't want to finish it. But haven't seen those others. Right now we're watching a fun French show called Munch.
I was clued in to "Widow's Bay" by David Dean Bottrell, an actor whose book "Working Actor" I copyedited, and we've kept in touch. He had a role in episode 6. Fun connection!
Cool! I can't recall how far we made it, though I think we may have seen 6 episodes.
Remember Borgias?
I'll also leave you with a story ... when I was in 3rd grade we had a B&W set, which my Pop figured was "good enough". I went to private school so most of the kids there had color. One night the Wizard of Oz played and all the kids were talking about how everything turned color! I couldn't tell the difference...
We didn't get color until 1976 so we could watch the bicentennial
Ah yes, the Borgias! Now a distant memory lol.
I had a nightmare the first time I watched the Wizard of Oz, because we lived in tornado country. But I loved it and watched it every year when it came on — no on-demand viewing back then! I guess by then we had a color TV.
You raise a good question, Rosana - how much TV is too much?
My earliest memory of watching TV is Saturday morning cartoons; I remember seeing Felix the Cat running back and forth across the black and white screen - but no memory of any storyline.
When I was a little older, it was Lassie (I cried every week), and Sky King (about a rancher with a plane and his niece Penny); my sister loved Flicka (about a horse). My sister and I used to argue about what color things were - mind you it was all black and white.
And do you remember your father changing the tubes on the TV?
These days, I also relax in the evening with the TV on, and sometimes a book in hand at the same time if we're watching a ball game or a knitting project to keep my hands busy. ;-) But lately we've been watching foreign films with English subtitles, and I feel like I'm getting a little culture along with the show. Not such a bad way to pass the evening. ;-)
Oh yes, those tubes! And how could I have left out cartoons? We had Road Runner, Scooby Doo, and so many others.
We've been watching a French detective (well, lawyer) show set in Paris, so yes, culture! Actually, one I really liked was called "The Art of Crime," also French, about an art expert who helps the police solve crimes — as they do, lol.
For the rising generation, long-form tv requires a major commitment of intellectual energy and time: modern parents are happy when their kids can sit through an entire movie, just like our parents' were delighted when their kids were reading Dostoievski (another sensationalist mainstream entertainment, now considered undisputedly highbrow).
Yikes, that's cray cray!