How retarded is TV?

cheesyboy said:
Personally, I watch very little TV (probably 5 ish hours a month, on average).

Rarely get time, to be honest. Get home from work at 6.30pm, play with the kids (age 4, 1) and help get them to bed, then re-heat dinner (wife will have had with the kids at about 5pm) and eat. By the time I've done that and cleared up the mess from the youngest eating it's about 8.30pm. Then there's usually some household jobs to do (making packed lunches, cooking for the freezer, vacuuming, or whatever), and that takes me until between 9pm and 11pm - wife will be doing something equivalent. Then, if it's not too late, it's time with wife, or an hour on the PC getting on top of bills, ordering the shopping, or playing games, before bed. And then up at 6am for breakfast with the kids.

I'm amazed people with families and jobs have the time to watch TV, really.
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Similar situation although I don't do most of the household stuff, entertaining little-un up until bed time usually sees me until 8pm, then I'll go on the x-box for an hour until the missus comes back down (she's reading upstairs while little-un gets off to sleep), then the coffee comes out and the TV goes on for a couple of hours.

We struggle to find something to watch most nights and usually resort to trawling through the catch-up services to see what we've missed from previous nights. If that comes up blank we'll put a DVD on.

She usually complains about why are we paying for this Virgin TV, but we aren't, its effectively free with the phone and broadband. There's no way i'm paying for sports and movies to watch one thing a week at best.
 
Columbo said:
Are you serious?
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Well someone must enjoy them or they wouldn't be making them.

But they aren't for me. I find all of those shows to be absolute trash.

I especially hate the fact that, knowing their subject matter is not going to appeal on its own merit, that they "dramatise" everything.

So in every episode they stage some accident or mishap, and film as the team narrowly avoids imminent disaster. We all know this stuff is staged, so why do these techniques keep attracting the ratings?

After all, they tell us these programmes have better ratings than the proper documentaries they replaced.
 
Lima said:
My biggest annoyance is the Discovery channels (Discovery, Animal Planet, History, Science etc.)

They used to have such amazing shows on them, now 90% of the programming is absolutely terrible.
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The Discovery Channel has always been ****. All that has happened is that you have got old enough to notice. I'll remind you that DC was (IIRC) the channel in the frame when the expression "weather porn" was invented. It was not praise. When Horizon started making programs in conjunction with DC - well over a decade ago now - the quality of the episodes fell off a cliff. DC is aimed at boys aged about 14-18, so if you are in that group you probably won't realise how bad their programs are. As you become an adult (this takes another decade for most people) you start to think DC has changed. But it hasn't; you have.
 
Glaucus said:
For those who don't watch a lot of TV, what do you do in the evenings. Or do you just mean you watch from other sources.
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:D

Have I ever mentioned I haven't got a TV? I really don't watch TV, I don't have one in the house and refuse to watch one.

I do however download from various sources like newsgroups and iPlayer etc and watch on a monitor because that isn't watching TV because I'm better than you cause I haven't got a TV.

Did I mention I haven't got a TV?
 
Very.

I stopped watching it when i was about 16. since then 15 years ago, i have had a few months or years where i had no internet or had nothing better to do than watch tv. I also watch it when I visit family or when i am in the fish shop. It is usually not 5-10 mins before i am shouting at the tv and complaining. I do watch specific tv series and sometimes i will watch sport and i will watch some news clips. My biggest problem with it was the advertising, i realy could not put up with it.
 
I ditched sky went freesat and have never looked back..paying for tv and sky is a mugs game...:p

I'll watch some i player on the iPad when on the treadmill....
 
anything I don't mind said:
I do watch specific tv series and sometimes i will watch sport and i will watch some news clips. My biggest problem with it was the advertising, i realy could not put up with it.
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Even sport is declining. So many has been turned into pay per view over and above what you already have. Or bought out by one company.
 
If it wasn't for TIVO I wouldn't watch tv. Gone are the days for me of waiting till 9pm to watch something. Just let the box work it's magic for a few days and come back to a marathon of stuff I like. With no adverts.
 
K1LLSW1TCH said:
The History Channel these days seems to be dedicated to anything other than historical documentaries but there are some decent programmes on there. Pawn Stars, Counting Cars and American Pickers are all good shows. Sky Atlantic was great from what I remember, always had decent stuff on there like Blue Bloods, Chicago Fire and they were re-running The Sopranos when I cancelled. Couldn't afford to have HD, multiroom and then the individual packages on top of that but if I could I wouldn't hesitate to re subscribe.

If you ignore all the "American BS" and go out of your way to avoid everything American then not only are you cutting out most of the content on Sky but you're also missing out on a lot of great TV. As has already been mentioned stuff like Justified is absolutely brilliant.

You sound like you'd be better off with Freesat and some streaming service like Amazon Prime or Netflix.
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Yes i agree, Pawn Stars and American Pickers are excellent, both entertaining and educational at the same time, can't see young people under liking American Pickers though.
 
Columbo said:
Muwahahaha....:D
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:D

Neil King said:
Yes i agree, Pawn Stars and American Pickers are excellent, both entertaining and educational at the same time, can't see young people under liking American Pickers though.
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I can see why people would dislike Pawn Stars, the Chumlee and Grandpa stuff is just retarded but scripted or not people do bring some interesting items into the shop. American Pickers is fantastic though, I could listen to Frank & Mike all day, both seem like genuinely nice guys.
 
I have the full Sky package, Fibre and Multiscreen yet I hardly watch anything on it. Sport, mainly Football and the F1 is about the most of it. Anything I do watch is recorded so I can fast forward the adverts. Sometimes the TV won't go on between Monday and Saturday if I'm working all week. By the time the big US shows come on I've already seen them. I am working my way through West Wing (again) and am up to season 4. I do watch the odd movie but anything I'm interested in I've usually seen at the cinema.
 
233 said:
utter utter dross,


seriously considering ditching sky and going tvless


only issue would be the kids love their cartoons. which may cause a few tantrums
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Done that in the early naughties. Circa 2002. I can honestly, hand on heart say, that it's been 10+ years that I turned on the television in the hope of something to watch. It doesn't mean I'm against it, I still watch a few (although ever decreasing) shows but only on the PC where I'm not pestered with ads aimed at people already brain damaged.

Don't know what it's like these days but 10 years ago it was absolutely terrible.
 
Columbo said:
Muwahahaha....:D
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Back in 1981 I rented my first video recorder and workmates starting verbally attacking me about 'Haven't you got enough tele to watch?' etc.
I bided my time until they were all in a conversation about a TV programm they had watched and then they asked if I'd watched it.
I said I'd recorded it so I could actually go out and then watch it in my own time :D
Every one of them joined the video revolution.
 
Sky always has been guilty, ever since its inception, of mostly broadcasting imported shows. Sky's viewer base has obviously always been established on subscription sports, so that was originally always the priority. They have been heavily criticised for it and its only really in recent years that they have started to produce more home grown shows and drama, usually found on Sky 1 or Sky Arts. It's still a long way off what the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 produce though.

I don't think things have fundamentally changed too much, other than there being hundreds more channels for every niche. Presumably there are people watching these, or they simply wouldn't exist. But obviously it comes back to why you are purchasing Sky in the first place, for most its sports, or maybe movies.
 
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