Anybody that knows me well knows that when I die, there\u2019ll be a TV plugged in that crypt with all my favorite shows, so when the place is deserted night or day, I\u2019m not picky, my ghost can watch everything all over again. That is how much I love television.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I said that to say this; I don\u2019t just love TV in a mindless, uncontrollable way, but I actually get my lessons from there too.\u00a0 In the moment of suspending belief, it\u2019s easy to just assume that things we watch don\u2019t happen or it\u2019s just a story, but I\u2019ve never seen things that way.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I guess now that I am older with deep, stressful adult experiences, I can finally self-assess. I realise that I\u2019m not as useless as my aunts suggested when I constantly wanted to watch movies, I\u2019m just attracted to compelling narratives, stories that make you feel like you are more than meets eye. Stories that reach into the complexities of human nature and reveal the many layers to human beings.\u00a0 Stories that are so silly your laughter flies free and unhinged. I\u2019ve lived so vicariously through the screen that I know what I\u2019d like to watch when I\u2019d like to watch it. I deal with everything by watching. For instance:<\/p>\n
If I want to watch an entire series without one swear word, I\u2019ll watch a different world<\/p>\n
If I have a deadline that makes my brain want to explode, I\u2019m watching Parks and rec or the office<\/p>\n
When I miss my sister who lives away, anything with Doris Day will do<\/p>\n
If I\u2019m over-thinking things, and need to refocus my thoughts, I watch Black Mirror<\/p>\n
If I feel like cheering someone on, Grace and Frankie<\/p>\n
If I plan to spend the entire day horizontal, The God Father 1, 2 & 3<\/p>\n
If I don\u2019t feel like cooking, Hannibal<\/p>\n
If I just want to be amazed, Black Mirror<\/p>\n
If I feel like watching people fight, Living Single<\/p>\n
If I need a lesson in Forgiveness, Brothers and Sisters<\/p>\n
If I just want to feel good, there are a hundred here but let\u2019s start with Love Actually<\/p>\n
If I need a reminder that nothing\u2019s fair about fighting, Billions<\/p>\n
If I\u2019m going to laugh and still get an education, Grapevine TV<\/p>\n
If I need a reminder that silliness is requirement for a full life, Ally McBeal, Galavant<\/p>\n
When I\u2019m feeling nostalgic- give me old Nollywood with its cantankerous wonder<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I guess what I am trying to say, apart from obviously reveal what I do with all my free time, is this: Narratives matter. Not just for how they make us feel, but also how they teach us about the world. There are people who consider fiction as fiction. But fiction is a reflection of reality and it gives us the window to events and experiences that may be too serious if they were real.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know though, maybe all of this is fluff and I just like TV, after all it is my mind and my time. But it will be interesting to know what small wonder or lesson you discover the next time you watch a show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anybody that knows me well knows that when I die, there\u2019ll be a TV plugged in that crypt with all my favorite shows, so when the place is deserted night or day, I\u2019m not picky, my ghost can watch everything all over again. That is how much I love television. I said that to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4608,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions\/4608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}