There's Nothing Good To Watch Anymore.

15 years ago, I watched a lot of TV. Usually, not live, but instead downloading it on my computer for binge-watching purposes. This was before Netflix or any of the other streaming services really took off, so the only way to get shows was iTunes or similar services or buying actual DVDs. My point is, I watched a lot of content. I was big into NCIS (and several spinoffs), Bones, Castle, and so many more.

TV news was even something I paid attention to. Anything rumors that might point towards early knowledge of my favorite shows was something I was almost addicted to. I'd visit TV Line a few times a day just to see if there was any news on Castle or NCIS.

Since then, my TV watching has gone down the tube. I don't watch anything new. I thought it'd be interesting to talk about why.

Getting Older and Softer

Part of this whole thing is that I am in fact 40 years old now. And it is harder for me to get interested in new things. The old stuff that I enjoyed in my late 20s and early 30s is still much more appealing than any of the new stuff that is coming out.

Along with age, cynicism has also crept into my life. I'm firmly of the opinion that there is nothing new in the world of TV and Hollywood, and all we're getting these days is retreads of the stuff that came before.

Whether that is true or not, I don't know. I don't watch anything new, so how could I possibly know? But I still feel that way. Turns out, I've reached my Grumpy Old Man stage earlier than I should have.

Fanfiction

I've written about this before, but fanfiction has ruined canon shows for me. Even old content that I once loved is boring for me now. Things like The West Wing used to be bi-weekly re-watches for me. Nowadays, I can't watch it at all because the stories I've gotten from Ao3 and Fanfiction.net are much better than canon could ever be.

How can the real stuff compete when I can read a story online about the same characters that fit my way of doing things. Maybe this character or that sees the light and gets the girl when that never happened in canon. Or maybe the bad guy is defeated in a way that would have never happened in the real thing. The world of fanfiction means that all the outcomes I hoped would happen in canon are actually possible. And because there is so much content, anything I ever dreamed up has probably already been written.

This means that anything new is also going to suffer because of a lack of content about it online. Because you know if I'm going to watch something, I'll need some fanfiction to go along with it. Of course, I am.

Streaming Services

I subscribe to two streaming services. YouTube TV, which was forced on us because our cable company doesn't offer cable anymore (which is like KFC not offering chicken anymore, but I digress), and the Max/Disney/Hulu bundle. That's it.

And I know eventually that bundle will get more expensive or go away, and then those services will go away for me too. I don't mind paying for content, even if I think subscription services are horrible. But I hate how the prices constantly change. It makes it harder and harder to justify the cost when what used to cost $9.99 now costs $22.99 (we see you, Netflix).

Add onto that, if there were a show I wanted to watch, I'd probably have to subscribe to some other service I don't have. People tell me that the stuff on Apple TV+ is good, but I have already given Apple enough money in my life.

And if another show comes up? By the time I have all my shows, I'm going to end up paying more for streaming than I ever did for cable. And that's not okay.

What Do I Even Enjoy Anymore?

My tastes have obviously changed since my teenaged years. I wouldn't have looked at a romance book in my 20s. Nor would I have cared which of the characters on my favorite show got together. I was in it for other things.

Now, I care more about the characters and the interactions between them than the plot. And that isn't what most TV shows are about. Maybe this is the cynic in me, but it feels like everything is just a procedural these days, and none of those have any sense of what character development actually means. It's probably not true, but again, that's the way it feels. (Maybe I need to stop watching promos for network TV shows).

So, even if I were to want to get back into watching TV shows, where would I even start? What do I like to watch? What do I have the attention span for? I'll admit that I'm much quicker to abandon content I don't like these days. That's a consequence of fanfiction too, since it's so easy to DNF a fic that I don't like.

Those are all questions I don't have answers for. The old days of sitting in front of the TV and stumbling onto something and loving it are over. There is no channel surfing anymore. We just watch the same channels every day. That method of discovery just doesn't really exist, so there is no exposure to new content like there used to be.

I Want to Watch Something

Like with gaming, I would like to get back into watching TV. Mostly so that I can take part in the social aspect of watching whatever is good. I miss the community experience of waiting for the next season of Downton Abbey, or that of watching Burn Notice every week and then going online to see what everyone else thought of it.

Watching TV shows from 20 years ago is fine, but I feel like I'm getting left behind by everyone else. And that makes me feel bad, which leads to me wanting to explore what's out there. I just don't know where to start or how to get over the hang-ups I apparently have about all this. I guess I'll just have to figure that out.

What are you watching these days? Please let me know in the comments below or on Mastodon.