As an adult, I’ve never been much of a TV watcher. Sure, I like to find something to entertain myself while I’m eating lunch, but in general I feel like watching TV is too unproductive. When I did watch a program, I usually found myself on the edge of my seat, but not because the show was suspenseful. No, I was waiting for the next commercial, when I would hop up and commence a hyper-speed cleaning session in the living room. Why? Because watching commercials is such a big fat waste of time, even worse than watching the shows themselves. If I wasn’t doing commercial cleaning, I was busy in some other way. I would cross-stitch during comedies, paint my nails during the news, or blog during ball games.
This makes me sound like I’ve got adult ADHD, doesn’t it?
No, the truth is just that I hadn’t found much that made me feel it was worth wasting my time for. Even during all those DVR’d episodes of Once Upon a Time, I held my finger on the fast forward button in anticipation of the ads.
Then we decided to suspend our satellite service for the summer. (There’s a tongue twister for you!). The kids were mostly watching Netflix and the satellite channels were only showing reruns for the billionth time, so why pay the $100+ per month?
Even though we’d had Netflix for forever, I never bothered clicking over to it and using it. Why? Well, because I’m not much of a TV person, right? But that is swiftly changing. My next book is going to involve time travel, so I decided I needed to watch shows and movies that revolved around that theme as well. First up was Continuum. I’d never even heard of the show, but it turns out that a story about a policewoman who accidentally travels back in time and has to use her knowledge of history to prevent crimes makes for a darn good story. There were a few good movies, some other series that I tried out and got bored with.
Then. Came. Doctor Who.
I know, I know. How on earth could I not have watched this show before? How did I not check into this fantastic series earlier in my life? How can I not have been a Whovian all this time?
Well, I don’t know. Perhaps it’s because I spent my childhood as a Trekkie (not convention-level Trekkie, just enjoyed the show and had a huge crush on Will Wheaton) and thought I was done with sci-fi for awhile. Perhaps I figured I could never love any time travel story that didn’t start with the words “Back to the Future” (still huge on those movies, by the way). Perhaps I should just claim ignorance.
But it’s all changed now. I’m only in the second season, but I’m completely hooked. My latest fish is named The Doctor. I have a huge crush on a TARDIS teapot I found at Barnes and Noble. I have a feeling this is only the beginning…
And it’s all your fault Netflix!
(Oh, crap. Now I found Sherlock. And Torchwood.)
What’s your favorite thing to watch on Netflix?
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Ashley O'Melia, Author 