(Kruiser’s Permanote Description: This column is intended to be a lighthearted, short-form way to frequently connect with our cherished VIP readers. Sometimes it will be serious. Sometimes it will be fun. Sometimes it will be a cornucopia of intellectual curiosities and fascinations. OK, maybe not so much the last one. Anyway, as this is a departure for me, I’m including this explanation at the top of each post for a while. Also, non-subscribers can see the first couple of paragraphs so I am in desperate need of filler until we get to the private stuff (subscribe here). Please remember that there is a standing invitation to ask me anything in the comments. Once a week, I’ll answer.)
The First Step Is Admitting…
This is something that came up during our most recent VIP Gold live chat. Every Thursday my friends Stephen Green, Bryan Preston, and I get together for a live video Q&A with our VIP Gold members. We talk about EVERYTHING. One of the things I’ve enjoyed most in the ten or eleven months that we’ve been doing them is that the chats are a constant inspiration. I can’t count how many columns and podcasts I’ve done that were based on something we talked about.
We almost always share our recent fave streaming binge-watch shows. I shared something this week that’s been happening a lot lately: I’ve binged so many shows in the last year that I quickly forget whether I’ve watched them or not. On more than one occasion recently, I have begun watching a show only to realize halfway through the first episode that I’ve already seen it.
Oops.
I do watch most of these shows while I’m working on the Morning Briefing late at night. In fact, I hardly watch any non-sports television when I’m not working. So these shows aren’t really getting my full attention.
There is also the fact that I watch a lot of detective shows on BritBox and they pretty much all follow the same formula: the head honcho is a complete d-bag and the main character detective has a host of personal flaws and always has something bad going on at home.
Murder, rinse, repeat.
I love ’em, though. I first gravitated to BritBox when I realized I’d be spared the wokeness that American scriptwriters insist on inflicting upon viewers. True, there are occasionally woke moments on BritBox, but nothing like the plague of them we experience with American television.
I’m addicted to the formula now, but I’ve watched them so quickly that they’re all running together in my head.
The ones I tend to forget about are a lot of the Netflix and Amazon Prime originals. It’s a double-edged sword now: there’s an overwhelming amount of content to choose from but a lot of it is pure awfulness.
I told Bryan and Stephen that I’m going to start keeping a “Binge Log” in Evernote. I’ll record the series, the dates watched, and a few notes to remind me about the show. I can use those for future columns. I love it when I write about books, television, or movies for you magnificent VIP subscribers. I’ve gotten a lot of great recommendations for things to read and watch.
I just subscribed to Starz again so I could watch the latest season of American Gods. If anyone who’s had Starz for a while has some good movie or documentary recommendations, I would love them. I just spent a month with HBO Max and was really disappointed in the HBO originals. Maybe I’m too contrarian and out of step, but Westworld was awful. I couldn’t get through one episode. Maybe it takes a few episodes to get good but, as I wrote last month, I’m not a fan of that.
Anyway, I’m off to feed my habit. I need to find a new show tonight.
Memory, don’t fail me now.
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PJ Media Senior Columnist and Associate Editor Stephen Kruiser is the author of “Don’t Let the Hippies Shower” and “Straight Outta Feelings: Political Zen in the Age of Outrage,” both of which address serious subjects in a humorous way. Monday through Friday he edits PJ Media’s “Morning Briefing.” His columns appear twice a week.
