TV Time
We watch a lot of TV around here. It’s how we unwind most evenings, and truth be told, we generally eat dinner in front of the TV as well. We used to have dinner like civilized people, at the dining room table, but when Ted was sent home to work in 2020, he used the table for reporting traffic for several radio stations, and he worked until 7:30ish. So we got into the habit of eating in front of the TV. After a year of that, he moved to Maya’s room to report traffic, but we still ate in front of the TV. And in 2022, he left that job entirely. But we still eat in front of the TV. Here are my TV thoughts right now.
I recently mentioned that we have cancelled our subscription to cable TV, and now only have streaming services for our content. My only concern with this is that we might feel the need to watch news in the event of a disaster of some sort, or perhaps on election night. Happily, it turns out that some of the streaming services we have include a bit of live TV. We subscribe to quite a few services, actually.
HBO/Max – Until recently, I had no idea that Max had so many options beyond HBO programming. I was looking at it recently, though, and I see that they have quite a bit of content that I like. For example, they have Food Network, which we haven’t had in quite awhile. I’m not really a fan of reality TV cooking shows (with the obvious exception of The Great British Baking Show), but I do like watching shows about cooking. Lately I have been watching episodes of Barefoot Contessa, Back to Basics while I do my strength training. It’s perfect for that, as I generally find strength training very boring. The HBO content is generally excellent, and we have watched a lot of series there. We now have a new season of House of the Dragon to watch. We prepped by re-watching season 1, which was helpful because I didn’t really understand all of the political maneuverings the first time around. We have always paid for Max/HBO via our cable/internet bill, so I expected it to go away once our service stopped, but it’s been a week now and we still have it. I have no idea why. Once it does go away, we will have to decide how to pay for it. There are plenty of options, I think, including through Amazon Prime, or directly on the Max/HBO website.
Amazon Prime – We don’t watch a lot on Amazon Prime. Mostly I have it because it gives me discounts on shipping from Amazon, and on sale items at Whole Foods. Occasionally I will find a movie that I want to watch there, and it turns out we can watch CNN live as well, so that is great news.
Netflix – We watch a lot of shows on Netflix, and sometimes movies too. This weekend we binged the most recent episodes of Bridgerton, Season 3, which we enjoyed (team Polin!). To be honest, this is one show I doubt I would watch on my own, but Maya loves it, and once I’m watching, I find that I love it too. Netflix is also where new episodes of The Great British Baking Show will come.
Hulu/Disney – We don’t watch a ton on Hulu, likely this is one service we could cancel when we’re not watching anything, but Maya pays for it and doesn’t really bother with that. I’m excited to watch season 3 of The Bear pretty soon. We’ve been watching Abbott Elementary sometimes while we have dinner. I look forward to The Handmaid’s Tale when that eventually returns.
Apple TV+ – I’m not sure we’re currently watching anything on Apple, though Ted watches some Sci-Fi shows that may or may not be here. We really enjoyed The Morning Show and Lessons in Chemistry.
PBS – I have been a monthly contributor to our local PBS station for ages, which is handy because it means I can still use our PBS app without a cable subscription. I’m pretty sure there is a news feature here as well.
Time for a new TV? – Lately, our TV has been indicating that it may be nearing the end of its lifespan. 3 times in the last couple of weeks, always when I’m doing my yoga in the morning, the screen goes black. The sound continues, just the screen is black. I thought we were going to have to run out last weekend and get a new TV, but I looked on The University of YouTube, and a guy there said that the first step in troubleshooting you can do is to unplug your TV from power, wait 1/2 hour to drain it completely of power, and plug it back in. Lo and Behold, that worked. Yay! Happily, the second time this happened, I just unplugged it and plugged it back in, without waiting 1/2 hour, and that worked just fine. So for now, we don’t need a new TV. I’m sure the day is coming, though. Thankfully they are pretty inexpensive these days. I will admit to being annoyed that I JUST bought a new replacement remote control for $35, which would not work with a new TV (Unless we buy the same brand, but that would come with a remote, so still, we won’t need it.) Oh well. As Adriene on Yoga with Adriene says, “Let go of that which no longer serves you.” So I will do my best to let that frustration go when the time comes.
Bake-Off Update
I’ve been loving watching the first two seasons of The Great British Baking Show, which never aired in the US. It’s confusing, because PBS started airing them, and they selected them out of order.
Originally, the seasons that aired in the U.S. did not coincide with the seasons as they were originally broadcast. When PBS first brought “The Great British Baking Show” to the U.S., it started with the fifth season, then the fourth, then the sixth and then the seventh, even though PBS (and later Netflix), numbered them 1, 2, 3 and 4. And then PBS picked up the third season and called it Season 5, while Netflix aired the eighth and ninth seasons, calling them Collections 5 and 6. (Netflix then added the third season under a new title: “The Great British Baking Show—The Beginnings.”)
This year, Netflix dropped series 3-7 (from “The Beginnings” through Collection 4), and they are no longer available on PBS. But thankfully, the Roku Channel app, which is free to download in the U.S., has picked up the first seven seasons, including series 1 and 2, which were never available in the U.S. (except for those internet sleuths who were able to access them surreptitiously). So now we in the U.S. can watch all the seasons in order (as long as we have a Netflix subscription)! ~ Source: Here’s the Dish
The first season was so interesting to me, because while the idea was the same, the execution was different. For example, in the first episode, during the Technical Challenge, each part of the instructions was timed, with Paul wandering around and telling people they had X number of minutes before they had to have their cakes in the oven, that kind of thing. Another difference is that while someone went home at the end of each episode (sometimes 2 bakers), there was no Star Baker. And in the finale, only 2 contestants competed in the final Showstopper Challenge. So the episode started with 3 contestants, and one was sent home after the Technical. This was huge, because Mary and Paul could not agree on who was going home. They argued about it for 5 hours. After I finished the first season, I googled the winner, and found an interesting post about the whole experience. (Clearly if you click over, you will find out who won. Consider yourself warned.) Tidbits of note:
- While Mary Berry was going to be a judge at the time of try outs, they did not yet have a second judge, so potential contestants worked with different male judges.
- During the first episode, one of the characters was overcome with emotion and left the tent to perhaps shed a tear in private. The cameras followed them out, and hosts Mel and Sue walked off the set in protest. They did not want an American cut throat show, they wanted something kinder. This is my favorite thing about Bake-Off, the gentleness of it all.
One miserable thing about watching via the link above is the commercials. There is no planning of when to insert a commercial, it just happens, sometimes in the middle of a sentence, sometimes in the middle of a word. It’s ridiculous. Also, it’s the same stupid commercials over and over again. Annoying. But worth it, and I am going to stick with it for sure. I’m about 1/2 way through the second season right now. The third season should be one that I have seen before on PBS, but I’ll give it a try anyway.
Do you watch much TV? Do you still have cable? Have you ever tried an antennae for local channels? (This didn’t work for us, sadly.) Are there any streaming services that I NEED TO ADD and if so, what shows make it worth the money?
26 Comments
nance
We just finished Bridgerton last night. And like you, we’re anxiously awaiting The Bear, for which we’ll add back Hulu. Now that it’s bundled with Disney, that means I can catch up with a few Beatles docs/films as well, I think.
We will finish up with Baby Reindeer tonight, also on Netflix, and then begin The Great Search for a new show to watch. I hate that.
Did you watch Regime with Kate Winslet on Max? Very quirky (directed by Stephen Frears), but Winslet is so good. I can’t recall how many episodes, but it’s worth a watch.
TGBBS is always wonderful, but it was especially so when Mary Berry was there.
J
I watched one episode of Regime, but forgot about it. I adore Kate Winslet, so thank you for the reminder, I’ll have to give it another go.
Baby Reindeer was pretty strange, and then of course there is all of the drama behind the scenes on that one as well. It was well done though.
I agree about GBBS. I love any iteration, but I especially love the episodes with Mary, Sue, and Mel. Sigh.
Elisabeth
You know how I feel about the Bake Off! Love, love, love! I have watched all the seasons (including the early ones; I recall one season they did a tent close to the ocean?)…but it has been years and I forgot about having timings on the technical. I enjoy watching the technical but feel like the judges NEVER factor it in to their final decision about who is star baker/who goes home. I am currently rewatching the 2019 season. I remember all the bakers and *think* I remember who wins, but I’m not 100% certain. My all-time favourite baker was Nancy, but Rahoul was hilarious. We still regularly quote some of the things he said.
We have Disney+ and that is it (no cable and no longer Netflix). I am not a TV person. My husband loves movies (and comedies like Parks and Rec, the IT Crowd, and more bizarre things like Black Mirror), but we tend to compromise and mostly watch docuseries (which we both enjoy). When he travels for work, I generally don’t watch anything! My husband and the kids have watched all the Star Wars shows on Disney+, so we have to keep that since they love to re-watch the episodes, too. A new episode of the Acolyte comes out this week which means I get an hour to myself since I have zero desire to watch that show!
I did enjoy watching the newest season of All Creatures Great and Small last week.
J
Elisabeth, yes, that first season they went all over the place, and I believe from then on the tent was stationary. Where do you watch? Where do you watch All Creatures Great and Small without cable? Is it online somewhere? Or is it on Disney?
simone
Hi Julie,
All Creatures Great and Small is available here https://www.channel5.com/show/all-creatures-great-and-small
you may need a free VPN if the link doesn’t work
J
Simone, that is so kind of you! The link doesn’t work outside of the UK, but I can watch on my PBS app. I was curious how Margaret watches. Perhaps she has a PBS app as well.
Also, so nice to see you here, it’s been awhile! I don’t see a link to a blog for me to visit. Thank you for coming by!
NGS
Our TV is older than our marriage and is smaller than the monitors I use at work. I fear for its usable life and all of the TVs I see for sale are GINORMOUS and who the hell needs a TV that big? Where would we put it?! Our living room is not that big.
We have Amazon Prime and Netlfix and I watching nothing on either one, to be honest. If we unsubscribed from either, my life would continue on in the normal fashion. I just don’t have time to watch tv if I’m going to read all the books. LOL.
J
You do read a LOT, NGS, so I think your priorities are clear. I have seen some smaller flat screen TVs, though perhaps not as small as your current TV.
Margaret
I would love to watch those older seasons. I still have cable but would like to dump it for streaming. It’s intimidating though. I don’t want to try to save money then be nickel and dimed. However, I would love to have Britbox and Acorn as well as a few other services. I don’t watch much TV but I have specific shows/types of shows that I enjoy and of course, they’re all on different streaming services. Argghhh!
J
Margaret, I feel your frustration around there being so many different platforms, and having to pay separately for each one. UGH. I hope you do end up watching the early seasons of GBBS. You said you watched a South African version, right? Where did you find that? YouTube?
Birchie
Oh man, having a puppy has put quite a damper on my TV watching. She’s most active at night, and when she wants to play it’s really hard to concentrate on anything else. But anyway, our strategy is mostly to rotate these services and cancel them after 1-2 months once we’ve caught up with the shows that we wanted to see. The reason that we’re so stingy is that we’ll pay the extra couple of dollars not to see adds, which makes all of this stuff pricy. We also watch a lot of YouTube – not the paid service, just regular videos that people post. The first time that we got HBO the service stayed on for a long time after my husband cancelled it, and once I got a really good price for three months after I cancelled it another time. And then I splurged and got an annual subscription and once I’d done that it was like there was a curse and there was nothing that we wanted to see there. Oh well.
J
Birchie, we kid ourselves that we cycle our subscriptions, but really we just pay for them all. AND we pay for the no ads versions, which makes it even more expensive. Thankfully we are saving a lot now by not having cable anymore!
Nicole MacPherson
I hardly watch any TV, but we do have cable because my husband loves to watch sports, as do the boys when they are here. We have Prime, Netflix, Disney Plus…I don’t know if we have anything else though. My husband likes to unwind with a show; I did watch both seasons of the Bear and enjoyed it, if you can call watching the Bear enjoyable. The only time I really watch TV is if I get really invested in a show and that hasn’t happened since Ted Lasso!
J
Nicole, we really enjoyed TheBear, and I’m looking forward to season 3 coming soon!
Ally Bean
Do you watch much TV? I watch about an hour a day. Is that much, I don’t know?
Do you still have cable? No. Have you ever tried an antennae for local channels? Yes, didn’t work.
Are there any streaming services that I NEED TO ADD and if so, what shows make it worth the money? Acorn is one we like, lots of cosy mysteries from which to choose.
J
Hmm…I’m not big into the mystery genre. Maybe I’ll poke around Acorn and BritBox and see what I can find!
coco
we only have netflix and no TV. We don’t watch during the week, mostly on weekends, girls have their quota 1-1.5 hrs on sat and sun after dinner, their favorite time of the week for sure with their chosen snacks.
i need a good movie/documentary to feel I used my time well. I often quick movies after 20 min not into it, so quite picky. Please share your favorites shows/movies in netflix.
J
That’s hard, because taste is so subjective! I love watching The Great British Baking Show, which has some seasons on Netflix. I really liked The Queen’s Gambit a lot. My sister loved Lupin, though I haven’t watched it yet. We really liked Beef (which is about having a beef with someone, like holding a grudge or wanting revenge, not about meat.)
Lisa's Yarns
Phil hasn’t had cable since he bought a house in 2014 and moved out of his bachelor pad where they had cable. I had cable when I lived in condo since it’s often included in HOA dues but I do not miss it although now there are so many streaming services that the subscriptions can really add up fast and exceed/be similar to the cost of cable! We have prime, Netflix, and Hulu. We’ve temporarily had Apple+ but only when I wanted to watch Ted Lasso.
We used to eat in front of the tv before having kids. Now we all eat together around 5:30 and it’s not the most pleasant part of our day really… The boys eat at the kitchen island wher we have 2 stools (that’s all there is room for) so Phil and I stand and monitor them and then we’ll often eat after they are done since it’s hard to really focus on enjoying a meal when they are eating…
We watch about 30 minutes of a show after the boys are in bed and then I go up to read. Right now we are watching Welcome to Wrexham which is entertaining but not something we absolutely love. On my own, I borrow a friend’s paramount+ account to watch Top Chef which is neck-and-neck w/ GBBO for my favorite cooking/baking show.
J
Lisa, you’re absolutely right about the cost of streaming services. We had cable for so many years because it was bundled with our Internet, and it would have cost us more somehow to only have internet. They change the options pretty often I think, but they don’t tell you. So the last time I checked, it would have cost more. Anyway, we were paying for cable that we didn’t watch, PLUS all of the streaming services, so this has helped us quite a bit.
We ate in front of the TV until our daughter was old enough to sit at the table with us. Then we wanted to eat together as a family, which we did for about 22 or 23 years. Then COVID and the table situation, and now we eat dinner in front of the TV about 90% of the time.
San
We still pay for cable (ugh) but it’s because we mostly watch News, sport events, the music channel (and the occasional Friends re-runs LOL)
We also subscribe to Netflix and Amazon Prime but I only watch shows occasionally. I am not a great resource for series/movies to watch these days.
J
We recently re-watched all of Friends. We didn’t watch it when it was on, at least not at first, and then have seen most episodes on re-runs on TV. This was the first time we had watched the entire series in order. FUN!
If you decide to get rid of cable, I believe it is getting easier and easier to get news and sports through streaming platforms. Of course that only helps if they are cheaper than the cable! I was surprised that we can watch CNN news through Amazon prime. Local news, not so much.
Stephany
I don’t have cable and haven’t since 2016! I have lots of streaming apps, though. My mom and I tend to share accounts – she has Peacock and Hulu, I have Netflix and Paramount+. We both have Prime.
I tried using an antenna, too, to watch sports, but it didn’t work. At least now I can stream most sports through Peacock or Paramount+!
J
Stephany, it sounds like you have it all figured out, and sharing accounts with your mom works well!
Ernie
I so wish that we could pay one amount and see all.the.shows. I feel like I am TV challenged. There are shows I want to watch, but I don’t always know where they are – or I forget, or I give up because I can’t remember what I wanted to watch. I suppose I could keep a list. With college kids home, I stay up late with them to watch movies when I can – but I’m constantly falling asleep and they stay up to finish the movie and I don’t end up going back to watch it. Or I kick myself the next day for staying up too late to finish a movie. For the most part, I don’t watch much on TV. Sometimes I can sneak in a bit of writing late at night. Mini and Curly have been binge watching Gilmore Girls. I watched that show a bit way back and I’d love to sit and watch it with them, but I usually don’t.
I hope your TV holds up longer than expected.
J
Ernie, yes, having to pay for all of these streaming services separately is a pain in the butt. I feel better about it now that we aren’t paying for cable as well.
My step-mom is watching Gilmore Girls too, I don’t think she’s ever seen it before. I’ve watched the entire series several times. I pink puffy heart Emily and her viper tongue, but Lorelie always messes things up in her relationships and thus gets on my nerves.