How do you watch shows?

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Achtung Englander
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How do you watch shows?

Post by Achtung Englander » Thu Jan 14, 2021 11:23 am

So this is a 1st world problem.

With the plethora of TV shows, books, games etc I have reached an age when I cannot sustain numerous stories in my head at any one time without getting confused or frustrated resulting with a diminished enjoyment of what I am experiencing.

To this end I usually enjoy one book at a time and at the most have 2 to 3 shows on the go. I cannot do more. At the time of writing we (+wife) have started Mandalorian season 2, half way on Young Pope (which is really good) and also started last night The Comely Rule (which is as zeitgeist as you can get). We were watching Handsmaid's Tale season 2 but we kind of left it after 3 episodes as it got just too depressing given what is actually happening in America right now.

Its like games. I am playing Plague An Innocence Tale and occasionally Far Cry 5. I cannot be arsed to play anything until I finished Plague (I put the Last of Us on the back burner)

With books - since the age of 10 I never have more than 2 books (for pleasure) on the go. I just cannot do it. It is like watching 2 films at the same time.
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Re: How do you watch shows?

Post by Wrathbone » Thu Jan 14, 2021 11:43 am

As a very loose rule of thumb, I tend to have at least a couple of TV shows on the go at any given time. This is usually a 20-30 min comedy or similar and a 40-60 min drama, to suit my mood and available time. One of them is often something I've watched before - i.e. something I can enjoy in the background but don't have to focus on too much. At the moment I'm watching Cobra Kai and am in-between dramas, but I'll probably start The Expanse soon. I'm also watching the odd episode of The West Wing, just because it's familiar, comfort-food viewing.

With films I try to make an effort to properly sit down and watch them, rather than having them on in the background. I've been re-watching the Bond films as a long-term project, with other films in between.

When it comes to books I am flaky as hell. I half-read a huge variety of books of both fiction and non-fiction, rarely finishing any of them. It's a stupid habit to have got into, as I could easily read half the number of books and finish all of them, but I guess my attention span has been wrecked by other forms of media. I'm like a moth flitting between lightbulbs that take my interest.

With games, I almost always have a long-form game on the go like an RPG or grand strategy, and I do tend to play them to completion. I also have a handful of go-to games that are good for playing with youtube in the background (Battle Brothers and the Grimrock games spring to mind).


Overall I do consume a huge and wide variety of media at any given time, although admittedly over the last year I've retreated more often into old, familiar things rather than delving into new things. I sometimes find myself torn between wanting to force myself to finish something I've not clicked with, versus abandoning it on the basis that life is short and there is no shortage of material for any form of media these days.

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Re: How do you watch shows?

Post by Sly Boots » Thu Jan 14, 2021 12:14 pm

I'm similar to you guys, with a few variations.

Basically, my wife is quite picky in what she'll watch, so there's quite a limited middle section of a Venn diagram of our interests. So we'll have a couple of shows on the go as a couple, in a similar arrangement to WB (at the moment we're working on The Serpent on iPlayer, and Friends as a bit of short comedy relief when required). Solo, I just finished the Mandalorian S2 and am currently working through SW Rebels. Things like Umbrella Academy I tend to watch solo as she doesn't like them.

Films, like WB I'm making more of an effort these days to put away phone, netbook etc and give it my undivided attention, and perhaps unsurprisingly am enjoying them a lot more. We don't have the leisure time to watch many, but generally on a Friday and/or Saturday night when the kids' bedtime is more flexible I'll try to find us a film that appeals to us both (easier said than done :lol:)

Book-wise, for the past couple of years I've been working through big, fat fantasy novels, ideally in a completed series. I'll work through each in order until completed, before moving onto anything else. If I've just finished a big series (which has likely taken me months), I'll go for a big of a comforting palette cleanser - my last couple of go-tos have been collections of Stephen King short stories.

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Re: How do you watch shows?

Post by Achtung Englander » Thu Jan 14, 2021 12:30 pm

With films I always give them my full attention unless its 11pm and I am flicking through channels before heading to bed, so if Ghost is on - I can happily watch 30 mins than go to sleep. If its a new film I like to see the whole thing but I found in the last 5 years I give most things 25% - 30% of my time and if it does not click - I move on. My old me would of hate that but given I have less time now than when I was in my 20s/30s, I have no option to drop something unless I am actually interested in it.

When I do find something that clicks I prefer to see it all the way to the end. I think the only show I have caught up and am eagerly waiting for its conclusion is Better Call Saul and maybe the next season of Gomorrah (which really should end with season 5). I like the idea of waiting until a show has had its run and I can watch it as one after another.

Everytime I see Game Of Thrones repeated on Sky, I shake my head in disappointment. After following that show for near on a decade, to be shat on at the end makes re-watching any of it, too painful and pointless
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Re: How do you watch shows?

Post by Wrathbone » Thu Jan 14, 2021 12:43 pm

Achtung Englander wrote: ↑
Thu Jan 14, 2021 12:30 pm
Everytime I see Game Of Thrones repeated on Sky, I shake my head in disappointment. After following that show for near on a decade, to be shat on at the end makes re-watching any of it, too painful and pointless
I’ve rewatched the entire series once since it finished. I enjoyed seasons 1 to 4 as much as ever - I don’t think the downward trajectory after that diminishes how good it was to that point. But yeah, when I got to S7 there was a definite sagging of the shoulders and renewed disbelief at how far it fell at the end.

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Re: How do you watch shows?

Post by Hatredsheart » Thu Jan 14, 2021 1:22 pm

2-3 shows on the go over Prime/Netflix/Sky. Add in the many series - Mandalorian etc. - that are available elsewhere if you know where to look that I literally don't have enough spare time to watch them all if I want to spend any time gaming.
And don't even start on the 100+ blurays...
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Re: How do you watch shows?

Post by Mantis » Thu Jan 14, 2021 2:18 pm

I tend to find it easier to stick with a single fiction at a time, whether I'm watching a show or reading a book. I just find it works better to only be thinking about a single story. Likewise with playing games, I move from story based games one at a time.

For non-fiction, I can spin as many plates at once as I like. I've usually got one or two Netflix documentaries on the go, and I currently have about 5 books that I dip in and out of when the mood takes me.

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Re: How do you watch shows?

Post by Raid » Thu Jan 14, 2021 4:46 pm

In recent months I've been starting a programme and then watching everything that's available for that programme on subsequent days. I watched all of The Crown (40 hours worth) over three weeks, I watched an entire season of Cobra Kai over three nights. I prefer to pick up a series after its had a few seasons, unless it's something that people are going to want to discuss in public and it'll not be easy to avoid spoilers.

I don't even have anything that receives regular TV signals anymore; every form of media I consume comes over the Internet these days. It actually makes watching the F1 quite problematic as Channel 4's streaming services are appalling - they don't even offer Live TV viewing on their entire app range; I have ten devices in the house that can access streaming content and it only works on one of them. Their replay programme is on so late on a sunday that if I don't watch it live, I have to wait until monday evening by which point I'll undoubtedly have had the result spoiled.

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Re: How do you watch shows?

Post by Sly Boots » Thu Jan 14, 2021 4:50 pm

Raid wrote: ↑
Thu Jan 14, 2021 4:46 pm
I don't even have anything that receives regular TV signals anymore; every form of media I consume comes over the Internet these days. It actually makes watching the F1 quite problematic as Channel 4's streaming services are appalling - they don't even offer Live TV viewing on their entire app range; I have ten devices in the house that can access streaming content and it only works on one of them. Their replay programme is on so late on a sunday that if I don't watch it live, I have to wait until monday evening by which point I'll undoubtedly have had the result spoiled.
We're the same, albeit accidentally. We have an aerial for Freesat, but it got jarred during a gale about a year ago, and we've not yet been bothered enough to have it fixed. When we watch BBC stuff it's on iplayer, same with ITV, C4 etc.

Thinking about it, it was at least 3 months before I even realised we weren't getting a TV signal any more :lol:

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Re: How do you watch shows?

Post by Achtung Englander » Thu Jan 14, 2021 6:04 pm

This is very much a case of when the internet goes down

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Re: How do you watch shows?

Post by Rusty » Fri Jan 15, 2021 7:43 am

As are some of you are the same age as me (or there abouts) I've grown up watching TV in weekly episodic format. That also means you have a plethora of those shows to keep up on and remember over a week. So I'm quite happy dipping in and out of a selection of ongoing shows on Netflix, Prime etc.

However, my viewing time is limited. I tend to have have series type things on in the background whilst I'm working as I know my girlfriend won't ever want to watch them. She also hates binging stuff so we have to pace it out, but she also gets confused with too many shows plot lines and doesn't like most of the stuff I like so when I'm round hers we tend to watch mainly things like dog rescuers or Ben Fogle talking to modern day recluses.

The weekends I have my son we watch at least 2 movies in the evening but usually ones I've seen before we're doing stuff from the 80s and 90s, as well as week evenings when I have him him for only a few hours we'll be watching Buffy and Angel (final season 7 nearly done on Buffy!).

What a weird world we live in, in that I don't have a TV but a TV that is used as a computer monitor. I have no terrestrial tv access at mine so everything is downloaded or streamed.
At my girlfriends it's 80% live TV.
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Re: How do you watch shows?

Post by Achtung Englander » Fri Jan 15, 2021 10:08 am

Its amazing how women need to be in the "mood" to watch most things. We were watching Breaking Bad and reached season 3 but she kept on wanting to watch something else - I just finished the show without her. I am now used to watching my own thing when she is busy with something else. I cannot be arsed to wait for her. Saying that we did bing The Crown together pretty well.
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Re: How do you watch shows?

Post by Wrathbone » Fri Jan 15, 2021 11:26 am

Achtung Englander wrote: ↑
Fri Jan 15, 2021 10:08 am
Its amazing how women need to be in the "mood" to watch most things.
It's amazing how men can be like that too. I'm one of them. Sometimes for instance I don't want to watch the grimdark series I'm halfway through because I'm already in a grim mood, so I'll watch something funny instead.

On the other hand, maybe your wife just doesn't enjoy some of the things you watch?

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Re: How do you watch shows?

Post by Achtung Englander » Fri Jan 15, 2021 4:32 pm

true
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