“You watch a lot of tv,” my husband observed.
“It’s a distraction. I get things done while watching shows I missed as a child. My parents said we had more important things to do than watch TV.”
As a parent, I agreed. My children read the newspaper, news magazines and books. We bought a black and white TV to play a video game system we found at a yard sale. Eventually we did graduate to a color TV, but with no antenna or cable, we only had one local channel until the children graduated and moved out.
With years of missed television shows, we began catching up after I shattered my tibia. During five months of pain and exercises, I needed Perry Mason to distract me from leg lifts and crunches meant to get me walking again.
All that happened about the time I retired. Suddenly we became old folks sitting in the living room watching TV. As I exercised, I saw the Andy Griffith shows I missed, as well as Hogan’s Heroes and Matlock.
Exercising on the futon, I listened to Agatha Christie mysteries on Youtube. Sometimes I fell asleep during a rest period and had to rewind the rerun to understand the ending. We watched HGTV until the repetition and predictability of white and gray décor everywhere irritated me. Suddenly I didn’t want to watch from beginning to end. I had places to go and people to see.
A few years later, a mud puddle sent me back to the orthopedic surgeon and more exercises, and I discovered Colombo. While he bumbled through solving crimes, I bumbled through more exercises. To see all the shows, I ordered a set of DVDs of the complete series. My husband and I watched one or two episodes at a time until we had watched them all. Then I sold the DVDs.
Recently I discovered PlutoTV and Tubi. After watching scattered episodes of MidSomer Murders on YouTube, we now watch them sequentially. Even if we watch them twice, we still do not remember “who dun it?” As I watch, I fiddle with paperwork or needlework. My husband solves Sudoku, cleans, or fixes and packages items because we still have more important things to do. These just are not highly demanding activities.
When I discovered the British “Doc Martin” series, my husband began delaying his yard work to watch. We did not quit after two shows.
“You do realize we are binge watching this?” I said to him one evening after we finished four shows.
He grinned a bit guiltily, “I know. Let’s watch one more before we go to bed.”
The awkward doctor’s story ended after five seasons. Coming up for air, we looked around at our house and said, “do we really need all this?” We donated a couple van loads before I discovered “Monarch of the Glen” about a Scottish Highlander struggling to keep his mansion and thousands of acres.
One afternoon, as I worked on something, I fell asleep in the middle of The Monarch. That evening as I sewed, I decided to rerun the show to see what I had missed. I pinned, stitched and ironed while the Laird took charge of Glenbogle. Before I finished, the show rolled over to a new episode we had not watched together. I stood up, stretched and wandered out to the living room where hubby was watching that same episode.
“I just started watching. I can start over,” he mumbled.
“No problem. I have seen this much. I will join you.” He picked up a light that needed fixing and we watched the rest of the show together.
We still have more important things to do, but sometimes we do them together in front of the TV.