Category: netflix

Spoilt

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

The internet has given the normal, average person so much opportunity. That may be applying for new jobs, which rather than popping your CV through letter boxes, has becoming emailing or filling in forms from the comfort of your own home. You can download computer games, movies and books at a touch of a button. Never have we had such information at our fingertips. It’s crazy.

It can be overwhelming. As much as I enjoy finding new things to watch and read, I am slow at ingesting such things. I take my time, as I can get bored doing the same thing for too long.

I am working my way through Pretty Little Liars, which is on Netflix. Other people I know, binge watched the series from their bed. I like to dip in and out, so I’ll maybe watch one or two episodes whenever I can be bothered. The final episode aired a few days ago, and spoilers popped up everywhere. Seeing as I am still early in the final season, I avoided everything. And was doing really well, till I saw a post on Tumblr that spoilt everything.

Back when I started getting into watching dramas and the like on TV, episodes were released weekly. And sometimes the channels, here in the U.K., would get programmes months if not years after its original release in America, or where ever. That was fine, with my short attention span. But, now? Series are released online either in the one go, or as they air in their country of origin.

This is good. But it also means that people get up to date, and post spoilers. I don’t mean, this character comes back, or something which is covered in the general synopsis. I am talking about people telling the world about what happens after major cliff hangers. Well, that happened today. I have been watching Pretty Little Liars for years, and have noticed people saying that the final episode was rubbish. But, I didn’t get any other information till today. And finding out the actual ending has kind of made me want to stop watching the rest of the show. I want to stay in the episodes where I am not disappointed, where I feel happy with the series. I feel like my experience of the show, as it ends, is now worse because of the ending.

It frustrates me that people don’t understand that. They are called spoilers for a reason, you can spoil a show for someone. Which sounds silly, but to watch a standard drama series, you have to invest hours of your life in the storylines and characters. And it kind of feels a bit crap, that you don’t get a ‘first reaction’ like other people. You have a pre-conceived idea before you reach that particular episode.

Truth be told, maybe I should just learn to watch things quicker.

TV Binge

~ Sue ~ Leave a comment

How annoying is normal TV? You have to work with a schedule which usually only allows you to watch one episode, once a week. There are very few programmes where I have the patience to do that with. The last show on TV that I actually watched with the schedules was Death In Paradise. Which is a bit like Midsummer Murders, on a Caribbean Island. It is something that I could easily watch after a day at work, something that would normally be dubbed as ‘Sunday Night TV’. But that is about it.

If I don’t watch the scheduled TV, then what do I watch? Mostly a mixture of things from Youtube, Netflix or Crunchyroll. I like watching stuff this way, because I can watch content that I like, that I find engaging. Which is a good thing, it is important to fill your time up with things that you find interesting. And there is usually enough content which could keep you entertained for hours. Just one episode after another.

The problem is, most of the animes on Crunchyroll, or vlogs on Youtube are short. At the most they are only 20 minutes long, which is a nice manageable size for a programme. It also means, it is very easy to watch through multiple episodes. Whereas, long programmes, like one on Netflix, can last about an hour. Now because the storyline is stretched out to cover that amount of time, it might not be as fast paced as the shorter programmes. This has lead me to have a bit of an attention problem with shows that have longer running times. I can maybe make it through a couple episodes, but then that’s it.Whereas I can watch anime for hours, like I re-watched Naruto and managed all 220 episodes in under a week.

When speaking to people, I understand that less and less people are watching what is scheduled on the standard channels. People now have the ability to watch what they want, and they are utilising that ability. It just makes me wonder, how much power do the TV networks actually have, now their audience share is going to other places to get content. It was bad enough when satelite TV came into play, with all these different channels. Like for years in the UK, we had 4 basic channels, and then it increased to 5, and with the digital switchover, every home had access to more and more channels. Which means the audience is split between all these channels, and that is not including the audience that streams their content online. Obviously this means that the networks (other than the BBC), make less money, so I would like to know how stuff is going to change. Are we actually going to see a bigger variety of programming?? Hopefully so.

Netflix Recommended :Series

~ Sue ~ 3 Comments

I am one of those people who can take or leave a Netflix binge. I like watching one or two episodes, but normally, any more than that and my attention starts to fade. So I thought I’d make a list of what I have been watching recently.

The Big Bang Theory – This program is repeated a lot on TV here in the U.K., but it is always the same episodes that I seem to catch. So it’s nice to flit back to the start, and have it on whilst doing housework.

Pretty Little Liars – I love this show, and I found it through Netflix. Alison DiLaurentis goes missing, suspected dead, and her friends are pulled into a mess. Some mystery, and a whole lot of drama.

Gary Tank Commander – Gary McLintoch is a Tank Commander in the British Army, in this funny comedy from BBC Scotland. Gary and his pals mess around, and seemingly make a mess of everything. I mean, a program that tries to reference cheesy pasta whilst talking about the war in Iraq is worthy of a look.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air– The role that brought Will Smith to the world. This program was something I watched nightly on BBC 2 after my dinner, it was shown after The Simpsons. The program is still really funny. Will is a teenager sent from Philadelphia to live with his uncle in the posh Bel-Air, and the comedy that comes from him being completely mis-matched with his new surroundings. A bit of 90s nostalgia is good for you.

The Gilmore Girls– another nostalgic turn. The story of the life and loves of Lorelai Gilmore, and her daughter Rory. The story starts with Lorelai getting Rory into a private school, so that she can achieve her dream of attending Harvard. The series was revived this year by Netflix, and continued where the original series left off. It’s a nice easy watch, and I suggest anyone to check into Stars Hollow.

It’s not very many, but as I said before, I am not a ‘watch a series in a day’ kind of girl. I am more, watch a few episodes and forget for a month. So I am ALWAYS behind.