One of my favorite things about the "first world problems" phenomenon here in the 21st century is that there seems to be an endless supply of them. Technology is advancing at such a rapid rate that we constantly have new things to be frustrated about. Sure, they're things that we probably would have fantasized about only 15 or 20 years ago.
If convenience is involved, Americans are quick to complain. As I am fond of saying, as a proud American, I will never apologize for paying for convenience. In the last six years that I lived in Los Angeles, there was a 7-11 a block away from me, and I wondered how I'd survived so long in that city without one that close.
Which brings me to the goofy conversation I had with my friend and colleague Chris Queen about streaming services, remote controls, and patience.
There has been a lot going on with my family over the last several days, and everything has just been heavy. I was talking to Chris and telling him that I'd spent a lot of time just staring at the television, binge-watching a couple of things. One of them was "The Day of the Jackal" series on Peacock.
That immediately got me going with complaints about how clunky the Peacock streaming platform is, especially compared to Amazon Prime Video. Chris and I then started talking about how much we loved Prime's 10-second rewind feature. Next up was bagging on how bad the Hulu platform was before it got folded into Disney+. When we seamlessly moved on to wishing that Netflix had a 10-second rewind, I said, "Jeez, this has to be one of the most 'first world problems' conversations either of us has ever had."
Chris knew I was looking for something lighthearted to write about and suggested that the conversation would be good fodder for a quick VIP column.
I would like to add that the television adaptation of "The Day of the Jackal" is excellent. I read the book when I was in my twenties and enjoyed the movie version, probably on VHS from Blockbuster. I got a lot of extra binge time out of it because of the arduous rewind nonsense on Peacock. Any time I tried to go back a few seconds to catch something I'd missed, Peacock would either crash or zip back 20 minutes.
HOW ARE DECENT PEOPLE SUPPOSED TO LIVE LIKE THIS?!?!?
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