TV

We watch TV in the evening, a couple, few hours. It's one of our little rituals. We just finished up the sixth season of the British police drama Line of Duty, most of which we watched on Hulu. But the final season? BritBox only. Okay: we wanted to know what happened—who the Fourth Man was. And now we know, because we signed up for a free week of BritBox. 

But... maybe they have other good shows, and we should just go ahead and subscribe, for $6.99 a month. Not so much! The Hulu subscription was slipped to us by a friend, along with HBO (shhhh). We already had Netflix and Amazon Prime. And when Hamilton came along, we subscribed to Disney+. Also something like $6.99 a month. Not so much.

But if you only watch them once every six months? $6.99 a month—or now, $13.98 a month... never mind the Netflix and Amazon costs. It all adds up.

I hate the nickel-and-diming. Granted, we do have choices. Maybe we even have free will. (But, probably not.) 

I can cancel BritBox tomorrow, and I'll have sneaked that whole sixth season of Line of Duty out from under their grasping fingers. 

Tonight, after having finally learned who the Fourth Man might be (seriously? him???), we wandered back to Netflix. And noticed a NEW EPISODE marker. On one of my favorite shows—precisely because it isn't about who the "bad guy" is or anything about plot or fiction or angst. It's the Great British Baking Show! Season 9! Episode 1: Cakes!

I don't know why this show makes me so happy. Maybe because it's about chance and misfortune and camaraderie and inventiveness and accomplishment and personalities. It's about life. Isn't that enough?

Though granted, I suppose you could say Line of Duty is also about those very same things. Maybe the thing that's missing from GBBS is... evil?