“It's TV; It's Comfort”

During a random spurt of energy the other day, I calculated how much time I spent watching TV since the introduction of binge watching into society. I went through all of my watchlists, racked my brain to remember how many times I had watched each show and made a very thorough note documenting the calculation. After the dust settled, and all was said and done, and the fat lady sang, I realized I had spent 3,764 hours watching tv shows. In more relatable terms, that's 5 weeks, 5 days, 7 hours, and 43 minutes.

I used this website to create the image below, it is also an effective watch time tracker if you are unlike me and only watch TV shows once.

The immediate feeling I got after my calculation was regret. Almost 6 weeks of my life have been spent consuming TV, I could've learned a goddamn language in that time. However, upon further reflection, also known as upon watching more TV, I was reminded of something about the medium that ties a nice ribbon around all of the hours.

"There is skill to it. More importantly, it has to be joyful, effortless, fun. TV defeats its own purpose when it’s pushing an agenda, or trying to defeat other TV or being proud or ashamed of itself for existing. It’s TV; it’s comfort. It’s a friend you’ve known so well, and for so long you just let it be with you, and it needs to be okay for it to have a bad day or phone in a day, and it needs to be okay for it to get on a boat with Levar Burton and never come back. Because eventually, it all will." -Abed Nadir, Community.

The ending of that quote had more to do with the Community series finale but you get the idea. TV isn't just a waste of time, it's the meeting point of learning, entertainment, and comfort. Not only are viewers consistently experiencing how different voices tell different stories, shows like Community, Black Mirror, Rick & Morty, and Mad Men, force us to take a deeper and more introspective look at the world we live in.

What is a possible outcome of humanity's obsession with social media? Ask App Development & Condiments and Nosedive from Community and Black Mirror respectively. Community did it first by the way.

What does the "behind the scenes" of the tech industry reveal? Enjoy a few seasons of Silicon Valley making fun of the tech industry and its unrivaled ability to be the least personable yet one of the most important industries of our time.

How do evil dictators take control of politically unstable nations? Just watch the rise of Evil Morty as he takes control of the Citadel of Ricks in a few 20 minute episodes of Rick and Morty.

To tie it all up, TV is comfort. It is the ability to explore worlds from the comfort of your own couch. It is the teacher that shows you how NOT to end an epic story *cough* Game of Thrones *cough*. It allows you to experience industrial, gang-ridden Britain, a dessert island that *spoiler alert* turns out to be purgatory, the golden age of advertising, what five delinquents who own a bar in Philadelphia do for 14 seasons, and much, much more. I think Abed said it best, "It’s a friend you’ve known so well, and for so long you just let it be with you."

Until Next Time...

Quick PS If you haven't already, watch Community. It was created by Dan Harmon, possibly one of the greatest show runners of our time, and it is one of the most hilarious, creative, deep, and did I say creative shows of all time. Get ready to embark on a journey through countless homages, from a spaghetti western/Star Wars two episode season finale, to a Lord of the Rings Dungeons & Dragons episode, to a mafia episode where the group controls the cafeteria's fried chick, to an episode that explores 6 different timelines based on a dice roll. Also it's Dan Harmon, please.