I've had an angry problem with TV for most of my adult life. It's likely to do with my childhood with limited TV and my realization that the less I watched tv the more I understood, and that other people didn't understand me. My grandfather told me "gee those people on television told me about things I never knew I needed" in the most sarcastic, intense way I've never forgotten it. After spending a childhood with my grandparents, I reacted the total opposite of my mother. One of her most disgusting habits is probably that of putting television on as soon as she wakes up in the morning like a loser. It made me angry every day I lived at her house briefly in my 20s. I hated the sound of it, the noise, the propaganda. My grandparents surrounded me either in silence or nothing but radio music/record player. Even after being ALLOWED to watch tv I kind of...got over it.-But then it made everything I remember about television so much more meaningful. The irony of my hatred of television that is that 80s-90s music came alive for me finally on MTV in a way that permanently shaped my person as an adult. Music videos still make up about 90% of my musical consumption on YouTube. My ex was similar. When he wasn't watching Italian art films, he was showing some new music video channel. Early 80s re-runs are home for me. "Alice" and "Facts of Life" retrieve irreplaceable memories, and my grandparents instilled in me a lifelong love of public television. I mean if that's the thing you were only allowed to watch until you were 5, you also would only like PBS documentaries and Nat Geo.
AND THAT IS WHO I AM. It's shocking. I am almost 40 years old and if I stay in a hotel that actually has cable I'm so drained and disappointed by television. It seems sinister and dark to me. I hate television. The only channels I can stand to watch are things like PBS and The Nature Channel.
In fact when I see what is on the television on this rare occasions, I realize why I can not and will never get across to most Americans. What is on television IS DISTURBING. It's mostly advertising and propaganda. It's truly scary. It's annoying and upsetting. Like that song from the 80s, 57 Channels and Nothing On.
That being said, the pandemic and all its cloistering brought me closer again to television for the first time in almost 30 years. Amazon Prime became a favorite of mine due to their reduced cost for students and people with EBT. I discovered The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel which is the most guilty pleasure show I've watched in years. I watched all three seasons. Before that, the only shows I'll watch on TV aren't actually on television but streaming without commercials, and are American Horror Story (some seasons better than others), anything on nature/science documentary, and Penny Dreadful. I also fell in love with City of Angels during the pandemic. Partly because of my departure from my beloved LA 3 years ago. It was cancelled after one season, Twin Peaks was cancelled after two, I've never believed that multiple seasons made a great tv show. Look at the 1970s cult classic Fawlty Towers.
I decided to subscribe to sling until after the holidays since we don’t have cable tv. I get Hallmark and HGTV, a few news stations that I can stream live and a host of other channels. I’ve watched Friends, Golden Girls and I think the Walking Dead finale is on tonight. But I really did it for Hallmark. 
I’m so happy lol.
