I work in television and i basically lack much resembling a social life of late so I am generally in front of the medium at home and at work. While I can say with certainty I find working in television engaging and highly rewarding I can’t say the same for what faces me when i watch it at home.
I have digital cable from Flow here which seems to offer about 200 channels most of which are so stultifying as to render me almost comatose. Firstly, I have to rule out the sport channels as they are of no interest to me. The sheer number of them amazes me though. I wonder what it is about most people that watching neanderthals running after a ball or plonking a ball back and forth on a court gets them excited? I sure don’t get it. I also have to ignore the swash of children’s channels, though I will admit watching Teletubbies immediately throws my brain into neutral. That programme seems to have been thought up by a seriously demented mind – I say bravo!
We now move on to the seemingly endless selection of “women’s” programming. I have no idea what this means as I always thought women had the same minds as the rest of the human race. According to my few glances at these channels , women are exclusively interested in choosing handbags, setting “tablescapes” ( don’t ask and I won’t tell), looking 5 years younger and finding the perfect dress for that upcoming cocktail party. Programming executives seem to be stuck in some 1950s movie mode. I write these channels off as well as I do any channel that features that dreary stater of the obvious Dr. Phil. The targeted ethnic programmes must also be ruled out for the obvious reason i don’t speak Punjabi, Arabic or German. There are also far too many hablo hablo ( Spanish) channels for my liking given that 99% of the population doesn’t speak much more than “no tengo dinero”.
So what do I watch? I have found a small selection of channels I tend to watch about 95% of the time. At the risk of boring you I shall do a quick list.
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1. The Food Network. I love cooking and once I ignore Ms RR, the Stepford Wife who does “Semi-Homemade” , and Emerill it is generally quite good.
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2.BBC World – I need say no more.
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3.CNN International – I find their morning hosts quite congenial and I like the mix of various international accents their hosts have.
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4.Discovery Travel and Living – for Bourdain and Globetrekker ( which I believe used to be Lonely Planet).
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5. The Discovery Channel – I am totally addicted to Mythbusters.
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6.CNN ( for which I pay extra only to see what Anderson Cooper has to say in 360).
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7. The movie channels namely Showtime, HBO, CineMax, TMC , TNT and Starz ( because I love film).
Welcome to my small but well chosen world. I can now relax for a few seconds and watch the rest of The Devil Wears Prada.
