Ally McBeal nights
It’s Wednesday night, David’s out with his running club, the kids are in bed, so the TV is mine!
I don’t watch a lot of TV, so I never really get into anything but when I do, I really do. I love the excitement of building up to that time of the week, the anticipation, reliving it with friends or even watching it with friends.
Food - check, drink - check - On went the box (that’s the TV for you youngens). I always go to the BBC channels first and tonight it was Holby City that got lucky. It was nice easy watching, but it was what came after that got me excited (simple things) - a new drama coming up called McMafia. “Oooo that looks good” I thought. There’s still a lot of really great stuff on TV, but are we missing it all to Netflix and YouTube?
At a recent book club meet up, which has now just become an excuse to catch up on life, a nice meal and/or a bottle of something we were talking about how, to so many people, the thought of having to sit down to watch something, at a specified time, seems ridiculous. Why do that when you can watch it when you want, and as many episodes as you like, which is definitely a selling feature.
As much as being able to watch 5 episodes of your favorite programmes in a row fuels our lust for more, it made me think about how we as a society have become more and more fragmented and isolated. You might start watching something with someone but because we’ve all become a little impatient, one person might watch 3 episodes of something and leave the other person behind to catch up on their own or miss the experience altogether. It seems people now retreat to consume media in private - I thought that was just reserved for naughty TV?
Picture this. Every Wednesday night back in the day, around 7.30pm, I’d get in from Uni and rush over to my best friends house to watch Ally McBeal. We loved this time, it was something ‘we’ did together, it bonded us, made memories and was really bloody funny! We’d watch it on her mum’s tiny TV in the kitchen dining room with Crystal the big fluffy white cat perched on top. Without fail every single day that cat was there swishing it’s bond like tail. It must have been the heat, but that cat was not giving up that spot for anyone!
I think of those times so fondly and think how times have changed. I know they’re not going back but I think as a society there are some things we really should try to hold on to - Ally McBeal nights, are one of them.
Enjoy, xx
