After a hard and stressful day at work or school, TV offers a kind of refuge from reality. For a moment you can focus on someone else’s story and give your mind a break. As someone struggling with overthinking – I really need this. At least until I get caught in the series and start to think with the story and see upfront the problems or mistakes of logic.
Although it’s the holiday season and people have parties and gatherings and stuff to do. My holiday post will be different – for all of these people who need time off from people or don’t have parties to attend either by choice or life. Hope you find something from this list to retreat and recharge.
Once there lived …
Series and movies are like modern lazy people fairytales. They tend to start from afar like “Once there lived a girl ….” and most of them are finished with happy endings – in the very end. Or what authors consider happy. Although yeah in the last few years there has been a new trend to finish off the series leaving viewers with emotion and questions: “What the hell happened?!?!?!?“
I have stumbled on a few that ended without giving any answers at all. Or create a whole bunch more. In both cases leaving me yearning for more and I must admit – I already hate those limited miniseries! Really. I invest my time and emotions and …. after 6 or 8 episodes it’s all over. And those are so far the ones that actually don’t end! It makes me angry. I need an ending. If you can’t figure anything out – kill them all off! It’s better than – nothing.
Straight into future
I am old enough to depend on TV programs and watched TV without colors or a remote. I will take a break here until younger readers can get over the shock.
But I consider myself lucky. I belong to the generation that has lived through the massive technology development leap. And I actually doubt that that kind of innovation boost can ever be seen again because our technology is pretty advanced now and we can only improve them. But there isn’t much as dramatic to do then we have already.
From black and white TV with only 1-3 channels which could be caught with an analog TV antenna to today. Where over the internet we have access to almost every channel in the world and streaming services are popping up like mushrooms after rain. And we can have all of that in our tiny phones in the middle of nowhere! I can literally go to the woods and watch anything I like.
OK – I really do miss those hovering cars that according to “Back to the Future” we should have by now. Especially during winter. Can you imagine how much money “snow countries” would save, if they could skip clearing roads from the snow?
Streaming pros and cons
Streaming has its perks – a lot of them to be honest. It is liberating not to miss out on the next episode because life or not to wait a week to get one more episode and to know what happened. Or if life got in the way – accept someone else recap of what happened. But that’s not the same!
On the other hand – how many times have you discovered that you have finished 1-2-3 seasons in one sitting and where the hell does time disappear while binge-watching? Oops, another sleepless zombie day ahead. But seriously – it never feels like there has been so much time passed – it’s like POOF! It’s 4 AM – oh… did you plan to sleep? Too bad. Netflix should check in after some time – instead of “are you still watching” –> “Are you sure you should be watching still?”
So what do we have on the list this time?
- “Beverly Hills: 90210” – This was another teen series, super relatable as a young girl trying to figure out these changing dynamics between boys and girls. Looking back I think I was lucky, we only had boys and girls these days. I can’t imagine how much more complicated this period would be today.
- “X-Files” – This was different and one of the first of these kinds of series. It was catching to every age so we often watch it with the whole family. For some reason, it was shown only late at night. I loved Scully and Mulder’s relationship and how they made it work regarding how radically different beliefs they had.
- “Angel” – Oh how utterly disappointed I was with this one. Sure I watched and it was interesting to follow I did like that there wasn’t a massive storyline which made you clueless if you missed an episode. But I did expect to see Buffy. Since some of you might now have seen “Buffy the vampire slayer” I wrote about in my last TV-watching post – I will leave it to that.
- “Daria” – I was so sure I was too grown up for cartoons. Until I stumbled on Daria. There was something so familiar about her, so real – despite the fact she was drawn and I kept watching her candid honesty.
- “3rd Rock from the Sun” – another family time show, but this one was on the air earlier. Had some good laughs, although after seeing it as an adult I am not so sure that kids should see this, there are way too many 2-way jokes or just 1-way dirty ones.
- “The A-Team” – loved it, loved it, loved it. And once more – family time. There was humor, action, love, and above all – loyalty to the extremes. Whatever happens – always have a plan and you will never leave your own behind. Never. This show should get rerun because it seems that in the younger generation that last part has disappeared. Reading the news it feels like half of the young deaths and disappearing could have been avoided by simply staying together.
- “Roswell” – Teens! Is there anything else I could say about teen shows I haven’t already? Oh, some of them are aliens! Starts almost as a parody of Roswell town’s obsession with aliens and then …
- “Charmed” – Who can reject magic? And more – powerful witches that are sisters! Sisters coming together and living together. Battling with sharing living space, magic, and human desires.
- “Married … With Children” – There aren’t really words for this show. At times it is so absurd you can’t believe anyone would write and film it. At times it is so true to life that you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. But if you turn your critical mind off, there are good laughs.
- “Murder, She wrote” – This one is to blame my crime series love! I got addicted to really watching the show, trying to see the clues, analyze characters and predict – who and more: why?
- “Xena: Warrior Princess” – Woman power rules! A woman who can kick anybody’s ass while looking good. Looking back, not sure that it was a good impact to have on young girls (look part). But seeing strong and powerful women calling the shots was a nice change.
- “Home Improvement” – Building things!!! Tim made all buildings and repairs look super fun and easy. And fun. Maybe there’s a source why my first instinct is to make, build, and repair – not buy.
- “Will & Grace” – I have to admit I was disappointed once more when I realized they weren’t a couple. And why. These topics weren’t really talking points around here and among people I hung with. Loved them together – love, friendship, loyalty, and priorities.
- “Full house” – Can anyone say they haven’t seen it? It was a bittersweet comedy show that followed many aspects of family life and the length of sacrifices has to be made in the family. And they were all so true to life. And I thought I looked like DJ … and that it was cool. Sometimes I daydreamed while watching I was DJ 🤫
- “7th Heaven” – Biiiig family! And religion, the order, and the chaos that comes with 7 kids of different ages under one roof. Coming from a small family at the time there was only 3 of us – mom, sister, and me. So a family of 9 sounded surrealistic, fun, and terrifying.
But on we go
I know I promised a set of 5 next time, but its Christmas and I were feeling generous so consider this my Christmas gift. Also as I mentioned at the beginning, there are people who may need a watching list to pass the holiday season.
And something fresher to the bowl – my last finished series from Netflix are “Wednesday” and “1899”. Here are 2 because they were so short!!! I am seriously starting to believe it should be illegal to make less than 30 episodes.
“Wednesday” was a mix of teens and their normal struggles with loads of magic and supernatural kicks. Some may say too much, but I liked it and for me, it was a perfect blend of everything.
“1899” – What the hell was this?!?! Did anyone figure out what was going on? How? Who? I might rewatch it in hopes of cracking this case. If you figured it out – send me a message, the comment might spoil for others.
I hope you enjoyed reading this, maybe you found forgotten memories, or maybe you found something new to watch. Or maybe you think I just don’t have a life. You can let me know your thoughts to keep me writing more.
I do appreciate your reflections and thoughts, I love how people can watch or read the same thing and see completely differently. Just remember while commenting: No spoilers! I haven’t moderated any comments so far, but I will moderate or delete spoiler comments to keep this subject spoiler free.
