# Has Netflix ruined "regular" TV for anybody else?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-netflix-ruined-regular-tv-for-anybody-else/779290
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 8, 2017, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-netflix-ruined-regular-tv-for-anybody-else/779290 "2017-02-08T00:49:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-netflix-ruined-regular-tv-for-anybody-else/779290/21 "2017-02-08T20:10:03Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> My kids are 8 and 6. Never seen commercials other than what Grandma has shown them when she turns on “actual” TV.
Recently I noticed a documentary on owls was on, so I turned it on for my daughter. When the first commercial came on, she tried to construct a narrative to integrate it into the show. Apparently Matthew McConaughey and his Buick were going bird-watching :D. I realized that she’s probably never watched a real-time TV broadcast before.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-netflix-ruined-regular-tv-for-anybody-else/779290/22 "2017-02-08T22:01:00Z")
Actually, now that I remember, the “skip the commercials” thing goes waaay back in our household with VCRs. We watched a _lot_ of stuff on tape.
One time we were watching TV in real time and one of the kids said “Fast forward, Daddy.” The kid couldn’t understand why we were sitting thru the commercials.
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### Author:  [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-netflix-ruined-regular-tv-for-anybody-else/779290/23 "2017-02-09T00:43:52Z")
My kids call regular TV “hotel TV” and my daughter describes it as “you don’t get to pick what to watch”. But I’ve been trying to avoid all advertising for maybe 12 years or more ? Back in the day I had homebuilt mythTV boxes with automatic commercial skipping, but I went cord free like 7 years ago.
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### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-netflix-ruined-regular-tv-for-anybody-else/779290/24 "2017-02-09T00:51:25Z")
What has happened with me isn’t so much about broadcast TV commercials (I have a DVR), but it seems the “high quality”, talked-about shows are only showing up on Netflix (and Amazon, Hulu, etc.) Although there are a number of top-notch shows (especially on FX and AMC), I feel like I’m missing out by not having Netflix.
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### Author:  [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-netflix-ruined-regular-tv-for-anybody-else/779290/25 "2017-02-09T05:44:20Z")
I cut the cord 10 years ago and have watched whatever I want whenever I want, commercial free (But still not network TV, generally. It’s tripe.)
Whenever I go over to a friend’s house he’s pretty good about prerecording but once in a while he insists on watching something live and I get bombarded by commercials, and it’s shocking.
I can’t believe we exposed ourselves to that intellectual poison for so long: “Yeeeeessssss Maaaaassster…”
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### Author:  [@KatTP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KatTP)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-netflix-ruined-regular-tv-for-anybody-else/779290/26 "2017-02-09T08:29:41Z")
> [@DigitalC](#):
>
> Only shows like Game of Thrones or Walking Dead that I can’t wait a few months to watch because I know they will get spoiled for me eventually. Everything else just gets recorded until the season is done.
Same. Sometimes we’ll even wait a day and watch online to avoid the commercials. Those two shows and playing PS4 are the only time the TVs gets turned on.
Edited to add that we do watch Netflix on the tv.
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2017, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-netflix-ruined-regular-tv-for-anybody-else/779290/27 "2017-02-09T13:43:02Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#):
>
> I was thinking about this the other day, and I realized that one thing that has been lost through the concept of “binge” watching is the connection that you used to develop with TV show characters.
> …
> I binge watched _House of Cards_ after the third season. It was a very good show in many ways. But I found that I was missing an essential element of the television experience. I wasn’t attaching to any of the characters. It was more of a “what happens next?” fix I needed, not a “oh, my, how will Claire deal with this issue?” I stopped watching after a bit because I stopped caring what happened next, and didn’t care what happened to the characters.
I can kind of relate. I Tivo’d _Malcolm in the Middle_ back when it was on the air, and watched it every week (at my convenience). I recently binge-watch the entire series, and things that seemed menacing when watching on air time seemed much more transient now. Mr. Herkabe (Malcolm’s adversarial teacher) was only present in eight episodes. During a binge, that’s nothing. When it’s spread over 16 weeks, though, the hatred/delight toward this antagonist is diminished.
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### Author:  [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2017, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-netflix-ruined-regular-tv-for-anybody-else/779290/28 "2017-02-18T23:17:39Z")
Nope, not Netflix. DVR’s did it. Even easier to skip commercials than a VCR, so much so that I’ve stopped watching almost anything live on commercial TV, even live wrestling.
Besides the boring, annoying factor, there’s also the time factor. Without commercials you save a hell of a significant amount of time.
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