I know it must seem a little strange to hear me say that now, in February – but the truth is that just today I felt the effects of christmas yet again, and I really hope it’s for the last time.
This year, anyway.
Now, you’re probably thinking I’m talking about the credit card bill, or something of that nature. But I’m not – we don’t waste money in that way. No, I’m talking about television.
Yep, television.
You see, before christmas I had the Sky box set up nicely to record all my telly programs. I had them on ‘series link’, so I didn’t have to remember what day, time, channel, etc. I just had to sit down in the morning and watch the previous days telly.
(That system works best for us, as my mornings usually consist of me waiting for my partner to wake up. Once they are awake, it’s cup of tea-breakfast-cup of tea, and a few other little chores. So watching pre-recorded telly while waiting – and in between chores – makes a lot of sense. Caring – it’s a whole different lifestyle….)
When a new series is starting, I set the system for it. I rely on the TV guide and advertising to make me aware of what’s coming up. Frankly, if I had to keep looking to see when the next episode of my program was going to be shown… I wouldn’t bother.
So… week before christmas. I have 2-3 hours of TV recordings to watch every day. Then they simply stop all the series – because it’s christmas.
Some stop for a week, some for two weeks, and some stop for longer.
Which brings us back to today – when I’ve just found out that the LAST episode of a series is on. The last episode – but I haven’t seen it since a week before christmas! When did it resume? How many have I missed? What is the point of watching the last episode when I’ve missed half the series?
I hope it ‘s the last time, this year, that this happens. But I’m sure it won’t be.
‘They’ just stop a series without telling us when it will restart; then they restart it without promoting the fact. The series in question, however, was promoted for a good six weeks before it started – I saw it on every channel, it was impossible to not know it was starting.
Telling us it’s going to continue, though? Why waste money on that.
If you like the program, you’ll know when it is on. Well, I didn’t know. I did spent the two or three weeks after christmas scouring the TV guide for programs that I used to watch – but failed to find any of them.
What really puzzles me about the whole business, however, is the question of why they didn’t just continue to show the series over christmas. It’s not as if they replaced them with anything worth watching! Christmas day itself, for instance, my partner and I watched at least three DVD’s together, because there was nothing on TV.
Yes, there were a few film ‘premieres’ on – but every film that was on telly that week is already sat on my shelf in DVD format. Or it wasn’t worth watching…
Christmas. The time of year when you need to find something to do with all that spare time, and they take all the good stuff off the telly.
What a waste.
