This Is Us
We haven't had cable TV since our newlywed days. Once kids came along, money was so tight, we cut out all unnecessary expenses, and cable was the first to go.
With only a "rabbit ear" antenna, we could pick up a couple of stations from Youngstown, Ohio, as long as the weather was decent. For the past 30 years, that has been the status of our TV viewing. I can't tell you how many times we had to balance our little indoor antenna on top of a lampshade to pick up a station...usually poorly. There was no such thing as television viewing during windstorms or other similar weather conditions.
A few years ago, we purchased a Roku, and got a subscription to Netflix and Amazon Prime. These relatively inexpensive splurges allowed us a much wider variety of programming.
Recently we discovered that Directv offers a streaming service on Roku called DirectvNow. It costs $35.00 a month, and it is very much like watching cable TV without a contract (you can stop the service anytime). The price is a substantially higher than Netflix or Prime, but we decided to give it a try.
I often hear about popular network and cable television shows that I have never had access to. I wonder if I'd like them, although there are plenty that I have seen and wish I hadn't! Many network shows are not well written, have shallow plots, and the episodes seem to always follow the same format. Boring! In addition to those things, I do not appreciate crude jokes, and the constant barrage of sexual innuendo.
I had heard something about a show called This Is Us. I didn't know if it was on Network TV or cable. I had no idea what it was about, and thought the name was generic and sounded too similar to a handful of other contemporary shows.
The night of the Super Bowl, I saw some Facebook friends post about this program, and was slightly curious, but not enough to find out anything more about it.
Shortly thereafter, my daughter was visiting, and told me about how she had watched an episode of This Is Us, out of curiosity, and thought it was pretty good.
I often like the things she likes, so I decided to give it a go. After a week or so, I am now on the third episode of Season 2! I'm hooked. (This Is Us airs on NBC, and past episodes are available on demand through DirectvNow.)
This show has wonderful character development, and overlapping interwoven stories. I value the intricate plot, and the way the show unfolds.
It is an easy show to watch, it reminds me of peering into someone's front window, and glimpsing a family's day to day happenings. Not everything that happens to this family is "easy" to watch. That is another aspect of the tv drama that is rewarding. The characters have flaws-- there is tragedy (as well as comedy), they deal with things such as death, obesity, insecurities, and family secrets.
With each episode I watch, I get closer to the current one, and when that happens I will be all caught up with the rest of the show's fans. I am fairly sure I will miss the little luxury of having multiple episodes available per my whim.
When that time comes, I can always fall back on watching reruns of The Office or murder mysteries on Investigation Discovery. Ahh, it's a good time to be alive.
With only a "rabbit ear" antenna, we could pick up a couple of stations from Youngstown, Ohio, as long as the weather was decent. For the past 30 years, that has been the status of our TV viewing. I can't tell you how many times we had to balance our little indoor antenna on top of a lampshade to pick up a station...usually poorly. There was no such thing as television viewing during windstorms or other similar weather conditions.
A few years ago, we purchased a Roku, and got a subscription to Netflix and Amazon Prime. These relatively inexpensive splurges allowed us a much wider variety of programming.
Recently we discovered that Directv offers a streaming service on Roku called DirectvNow. It costs $35.00 a month, and it is very much like watching cable TV without a contract (you can stop the service anytime). The price is a substantially higher than Netflix or Prime, but we decided to give it a try.
I often hear about popular network and cable television shows that I have never had access to. I wonder if I'd like them, although there are plenty that I have seen and wish I hadn't! Many network shows are not well written, have shallow plots, and the episodes seem to always follow the same format. Boring! In addition to those things, I do not appreciate crude jokes, and the constant barrage of sexual innuendo.
I had heard something about a show called This Is Us. I didn't know if it was on Network TV or cable. I had no idea what it was about, and thought the name was generic and sounded too similar to a handful of other contemporary shows.
The night of the Super Bowl, I saw some Facebook friends post about this program, and was slightly curious, but not enough to find out anything more about it.
Shortly thereafter, my daughter was visiting, and told me about how she had watched an episode of This Is Us, out of curiosity, and thought it was pretty good.
I often like the things she likes, so I decided to give it a go. After a week or so, I am now on the third episode of Season 2! I'm hooked. (This Is Us airs on NBC, and past episodes are available on demand through DirectvNow.)
This show has wonderful character development, and overlapping interwoven stories. I value the intricate plot, and the way the show unfolds.
It is an easy show to watch, it reminds me of peering into someone's front window, and glimpsing a family's day to day happenings. Not everything that happens to this family is "easy" to watch. That is another aspect of the tv drama that is rewarding. The characters have flaws-- there is tragedy (as well as comedy), they deal with things such as death, obesity, insecurities, and family secrets.
With each episode I watch, I get closer to the current one, and when that happens I will be all caught up with the rest of the show's fans. I am fairly sure I will miss the little luxury of having multiple episodes available per my whim.
When that time comes, I can always fall back on watching reruns of The Office or murder mysteries on Investigation Discovery. Ahh, it's a good time to be alive.
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