I have some friends who are great in every way except one, they have a habit of saying "I never watch TV" in a way that makes TV watching seem akin to saying "Gee that Donald Trump seems like a great guy"!
My reaction is always the same, "You don't know how to watch TV now".
I am a homebody and I work stupidly long days so I just want to chill out most nights. That doesn't mean I want to switch off my brain, I just want to work it in a different way.
I am in full agreement that free to air these days is pure shit (I was going to say execrable, but shit says it so much better in this case). I also resent how bloody expensive Foxtel is, so that has always been out of the question.
Imagine how happy I was to discover streaming services.
First they gave me the chance to see some of the stuff that was only ever available on Foxtel, or that I just missed completely when on free. I fell hard for Breaking Bad, The Wire and Deadwood. I watched The Sopranos partly because it seemed compulsory, being the first of the big ones on pay. I had already read the Ice and Fire series so Game of Thrones was a no brainer (although harder to get). Soon Zombies crept into my life with Walking Dead and thereafter so many quirky, smart shows.
After everything I have watched and enjoyed, it occurs to me that they all have one thing in common.
Cracking dialogue, even when it's not a logical fit.
It probably makes so sense that the pirates in Black Sails spend more time have wonderfully in depth discussions than they do sailing. It's a delight for my ears because they speak beautifully (also highly unlikely), and I don't care how unlikely it may be, it's all so worth listening to.
None of these shows find it necessary to explain each detail of the plot in detail, they just let you work out what the hell is going on. As a lover of thrillers and unexpected plot twists it is pure Teev heaven.
So to my good slightly deluded friends, you don't know what you are missing. There is no danger of my brain turning to mush watching this stuff. It's a feast for my imagination and to me that is the best way to wind down, without logging of my brain.
