How do you decide what to watch on TV?

Cafe Society
1

I posted in the past asking for recommendations of specific TV shows. Instead of asking for recommendations here, I’m wondering how people choose what to watch on TV. Do you research TV shows/movies ahead of time? Or do you find viewing material from the streamers’ menus?

My wife and I generally watch an hour or so of TV before going to bed. We generally have a couple of streaming channels that we rotate - presently Prime, Apple, Disney, Peacock - and Kanopy thru our library. Most recently ended Hulu. I generally think we are not overly picky. We could watch any number of old movies that we haven’t seen for a while, or just about any old “Masterpiece Theater” type fare. And we’ve enjoyed any number of newer shows/movies. We aren’t looking for anything amazing. Just moderately engaging/entertaining is fine. As we are generally winding down for bed, we generally prefer avoiding anything overly suspenseful, or police procedurals involving horrible crimes.

But nearly every night, it turns out the same. Neither of us has any strong idea as to what we want to watch. So we open up one of the streaming services and try to fight our way through the menu - which really seems to NOT do a good job of predicting what we would like based on our past viewing.

So a standard night will involve 10 unenjoyable minutes working through a menu before deciding upon something that MIGHT be OK. Then, more often than not, we either watch one episode and decide we don’t care enough to watch more, or we reach that decision 10-20 minutes in. So instead of an hour of numbing our brains before sleep, we’ve had 20-30 minutes of unsatisfying frustration.

Alternatively, we research or hear about something that sounds good and is supposed to be on one of our services, but then it does not seem to be available on the services we have. Last night my wife had received an email from Kanopy about a movie she had previously enjoyed, but when we looked it up, it was not available on Kanopy and was only available to rent or buy.

I could list any number of shows and movies we have happily enjoyed - so I don’t think we are desirous of something that doesn’t exist. But when we try to find something, we are regularly impressed at how much is on TV that does not appeal to us.

I very much understand that we cannot debate taste. For example, we were excited to get Hulu to watch The Bear and Only Murders. We made it all the way through The Bear - didn’t love it. And after 1 season of Only Murders, we didn’t care to watch any more. Not seeing anything else jump out at us, we let our Hulu subscription lapse. Nothing other than our personal tastes. Our gold standards are shows like Psych, White Collar, The Good Wife… which have (in our opinions) well drawn characters and clever dialog - PLUS they lasted several seasons. So nice to find a show you like that you will be able to watch for the next several weeks.

Just wondering how other people might be more successful than we are in sifting through the TV offerings.

2

I watch a lot less than you, so i get along mostly by hearing recommendations from friends, and sometimes from my husband, who watches a lot more than i do.

Also, a decent series is good for several sessions. New season of “the great British bake off”? I’m in. I watched all of “the bear”, so only one decision. I rarely watch one-off shows.

I also watch YouTube, mostly on my phone, but sometimes on TV with a friend. I find its algorithm is decent. Also, i now subscribe to many creators, so i get regular content from them. That’s a different type of content, though, and probably not what you are looking for. YouTube is great if you like shows about stuff (cooking, history, Minecraft, smithing…) but it’s not a great source of scripted shows with stories and good characters and clever dialogue.

3

This is mostly the case, but since I usually watch Netflix or HBO Max for pleasure, as opposed to network TV, I let them suggest shows based on what I have watched previously, and usually they pick shows I want to watch. Besides the national and local news, I like to watch documentaries, especially true crime docs, and there are hundreds (thousands?) of them out there I haven’t seen yet.

4

I tend to add movies and TV shows to a list on whatever service I find it on when I decide it looks interesting , and then when it’s time to look for something to watch, I only look at the lists. I might decide it seems interesting from reading a review or because I saw an episode my husband was watching or because I would have watched it when it was first on X years ago but wasn’t able to for some reason .

5

My wife and I have different taste, and on top of that we have different relationships with media. I pay attention to awards, critical discussions, and similar fora that help guide one’s attention to quality shows. My wife is more about FOMO and the cultural zeitgeist. She’ll want to watch something solely because it’s getting a lot of social media chatter, for example, whereas that kind of stuff just isn’t on my radar.

So, she’ll come to the couch with a couple of suggestions, and I will come with my own. When they align, when there’s a show that lands in the very small Venn overlap between us, we prioritize it. (This doesn’t always work out. It was on this basis that we tried The Bear, for example, like you did. While we recognized it was a great show, the extreme stress levels in the storytelling were unpleasant for both of us, and we noped out after a couple of episodes.)

More often, we find ourselves considering the other’s suggestions. We’ll look at previews, episode guides (shows that run more than an hour per episode are a hard sell), cast lists, etc, and each of us renders an opinion as to whether the other’s choice would be acceptable, at least on a trial basis.

Then we compromise, and we watch what my wife chooses.

Ask me how I know so much about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders recruitment and selection process.

6

I read the gist of your post to my husband, who pronounced you a wise man.

He watches about 8 times as much Netflix as i, so it discussions are mostly him saying, “do you want me to wait to watch x so we can watch it together?”

Do you seek out reviews, awards, and critical discussions to guide your search?

7

Further adding to the “fun” is having 2 people trying to interact with the darned menus at the same time, both of whom are pretty clueless WRT the remote/interface (blasted AppleTV. Intuitive my ass!) So one clueless person is trying to fight through the menus, while the other person is tossing out “helpful” suggestions! :roll_eyes:

Not the peaceful descent towards bed we would hope for.

8

When i watch with my friend (who is in his way over) we mostly know what we plan to watch before we even get together. Today, we plan to finish “the residence”. If we want to spend more time together, we’ll probably toss in some Max Miller you tube videos.

We mostly discuss what to watch at other times. We’ll need to find a new show after today, for instance. But we’ll pick something in advance, not scroll through menus in front of the TV. It would have been Wednesday, but my husband wants to watch it with me, so he gets dibs.

9

I live alone, but there are many reasons TV is not part of my daily life, and especially not my pre-sleep routine. Fighting with the ever more complex and ever less “intuitive” UIs are one part of that.

10

That’s us. A recent and welcome feature on several of the streaming services is a “Coming Soon” category near the top where you can watch the teaser and set a reminder for when it’s available. But, yeah, we often end up doing the streaming version of channel surfing looking for something good. After 10 or 15 minutes we just pick anything that doesn’t look obviously terrible.

11

My husband and I go through this a lot. When I hear him ask, “What are we going to watch tonight?”, my jaw clenches. I’m a little easier to please than he is. Sometimes you have to give a series more than 10 minutes before you ditch it, but he’s not willing to do that. So I am endlessly looking through the different streaming channels. When I find something that looks promising, I go to IMDb to get more info and to look at the reviews. We have some network shows that we both like, so I’m looking forward to those starting up in a few weeks. Right now we’re watching the old series Emergency!. We’ve seen some of the episodes in the last 5 or 6 years, but not all of them. It’s on FETV, and I DVR it so we can watch it whenever. I think I might start recording Adam12 too. Emergency! is a great show.

12

There is one aspect of our viewing where we do properly compromise, I must stress. She picks the shows… but I set the cadence. My wife likes to binge and would happily watch, say, four straight episodes of Bridgerton, or whatever. I don’t, and won’t, any more than I could eat five straight bags of Cheetos. When I watch something, I like to digest it as I go. That means no binging.

My wife grumbles, but that’s how a compromise works. I have to watch a reality show about cheerleader tryouts, and she has to watch it one episode at a time.

13

I do pretty much what @doreen does. If a show is getting a lot of buzz or people I know are recommending it, and it seems like the type of show I like to watch, I add it to my watchlist on whatever service it’s on. So when I’m looking for a new show to watch, I pick from the shows on my watchlist. I hardly ever look at the algorithm’s recommendations, or otherwise scroll through the streaming services listings. In fact, when I finish watching a show, I start thinking about what I’m going to watch next out of the shows on my list. So the next time I sit down to watch TV I’ve already decided what I’m going to watch.

14

It looks like our situation is about the same. We are toward the end of The Good Wife and White Collar and Psych will be the next show will watch is Psych.

Streaming services usually have a “similar shows” thing. We try some of those. IMDB also has a similar shows.

And if I find someone with simlar tastes then I ask what they like. So, in addition to The Good Wife, White Collar, Psych we watch shows like

Monk, The Practice, Doc Martin, Agatha Raisin, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Mentalist, Lucifer, West Wing, Elementary, Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries, Body of Proof. Some new shows are Elsbeth, High Potential and Matlock (with Kathy Bates). Do these sound like your kind of shows? What other ones do you like?

15

idk a show I liked and have watched was murder drones on prime video

another one is Lazarus on HBO

(If it’s not really your thing that’s cool but I highly recommend it)

16

Generally, I’ll read a review of a show that sounds interesting and then watch an episode. If it holds my attention, I’ll add it to our watching list. We usually have one new (to us) show in rotation and then a couple of regulars like Last Week Tonight and Survivor when it’s running new episodes. Right now, we’re watching one episode a week of Reservation Dogs and watching Alien Earth, but that might not keep us engaged.

17

I live alone, and watch a lot of TV. A lot. I ditched cable a little over two years ago: I have an OTA antenna, but 99% of what I watch is on streaming services (I subscribe to several, and it’s still $100/mo cheaper than cable).

Every August and December I Google “upcoming new shows” and go read an online TV Guide article or something. I also get the NYT’s “Watching” newsletter via email, and often learn about additional new shows via the Washington Post – and, sometimes, a daily news summary that I get via email. Every now and then I learn about new stuff here, too. :slight_smile:

When something sounds interesting, I add it to a massive spreadsheet I developed years ago that tracks everything I’ve either watched or want to watch, including where it’s available. It’s color-coded and fairly detailed, and is absolutely the geekiest thing about me…but in second place is the Google Keep note I use to keep track of shows that are currently airing/I’m in the process of watching. It’s how I remember that, for example, on Saturdays I want to watch the latest epsiode of The Rainmaker on Peacock – and that if there’s nothing new to watch, I’m currently binge-re-watching Franklin & Bash on Netflix. The big spreadsheet tracks movies in addition to TV shows, and is what I turn to when I feel like watching something but I’m not sure what.

Did I mention that I watch a lot of TV? :grin:

18

I don’t use a spreadsheet; I’m pretty much able to keep track of what I plan to watch in my head and in the various streamers watchlists (although it would be nice to have one master list rather than one list per streaming service). But I do have a “schedule” of what shows I watch each night. And usually a certain type of show I watch on certain nights, although that’s not a hard and fast rule.

My current schedule is thus:
Monday: Usually a documentary or unscripted show of some sort. Tonight will be part two of Pee Wee as Himself. Once I run out of standalone documentaries to watch I’ll probably watch the latest season of Clarkson’s Farm on Prime.
Tuesday: Usually some sort of silly comedy. I’m currently working my way through It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I’m currently on season 5 out of like 20 something, so that should keep me occupied for a while.
Wednesday: A bit of a wildcard, but often some sort of “dramady”. I just finished the latest season of The Bear. I’m thinking I’ll watch The Sticky on Prime next. Then maybe White House Plumbers on Max.
Thursday: Usually some sort of sci-fi or fantasy show. I’m currently watching Fallout on Prime. When I’m done I’ll probably sign up for Paramount+ to watch the latest season of Strange New Worlds
Friday: Some sort of drama. Currently one episode of The Handmaid’s Tale and one episode of The Boys.
Saturday: Some sort of drama again. Currently one episode of Game of Thrones and one episode of the latest season of The Last of Us.
Sunday: Some sort of animated program usually. I just finished the new season of King of the Hill. I see the latest season of Rick and Morty just dropped on streaming, so I’ll probably watch that next. When new episodes of The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, The Great North, and Family Guy come out I’ll watch those.

19

Kinda makes me feel like I’m missing out on something. Everyone talks about us being in a golden age of TV, yet I just go, “Nope, Nope, Nope, well - maybe…”

I guess I should spend my time doing that instead of hanging out here! :wink:

Bolded are shows we enjoyed very much. We’ll watch all manner of things. We like comedies - whether Brooklyn 99, Kim’s Convenience, or Corner Gas, or period pieces like Downton. We tend to like law shows like Good Wife, Good Fight, Boston Legal. Had high hopes for The Practice but it struck us as awfully dated, and for whatever reason we didn’t fall for any of the main characters. We tried some recent show - I forget the name, recent law grads, 1 gets fired from big firm and goes to work for an ambulance chased. Meanwhile, there is some O2 dependent crazed killer out there. Complete garbage.

We’ve tried to watch some older shows, but have been disappointed. Didn’t care for the main characters in Gilmore Girls. Thought Hill Street Blues had not aged well. Had high Hopes for “It’s Always Sunny…”, but it didn’t click with either of us. And we prefer to avoid the unnecessarily violent, like many crime shows or Game of Thrones.

I even tried to watch some “classic” movies. Recently started Seven Samurai, but both of us quickly decided we weren’t up for that.

Yeah - this DEFINITELY doesn’t sound like anything I would ever do. Even listing a few shows we have enjoyed recently in this post seemed a bit of effort! :wink:

20

That’s just humans being human. The more choices we are given, the pickier we get. It didn’t take long into the era of VHS rentals before people started complaining that out of the hundreds…thousands of titles available, there was nothing worth watching. This was just a few years after their only access to movies was a handful of one-auditorium movie theaters and five or six TV channels.