# How do you decide what to watch on TV? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 8, 2025, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846 "2025-09-08T12:52:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846/41 "2025-09-15T21:12:26Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > when movies first starting coming out on VHS and Betamax cassettes, circa 1977-78. The movie industry was still trying to figure out a price structure for the new media, and while I don’t remember what rentals cost then, if you wanted to buy a movie outright the cost was on the order of about $10 I remember that. A video store had to rent a title 20 or more times just to break even. The people who lost their shirts investing in mom and pop video stores must be legion even before Netflix came along. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846/42 "2025-09-15T21:28:04Z")
Pity you left out the last zero, which kind of defeats my point. The cost of buying a video cassette of a movie back then was on the order of $100 (not $10), or nearly $500 today! > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > A video store had to rent a title 20 or more times just to break even. The people who lost their shirts investing in mom and pop video stores must be legion even before Netflix came along. And yet, there was – and still is – a mom & pop video rental store in the urban area where I used to live. I think what made them successful and still viable is that the owners were real movie lovers, not just business people. When you walked in, the street level was a fairly conventional video store hawking new releases, the only difference from a typical video store being that it was dog-friendly and even had water bowls set out for thirsty canines. But the real cinema aficionados would go downstairs into the basement, where they would be greeted by the smell of fresh popcorn from a theatre-type popcorn machine, where you could load up with free popcorn. And then – wow! – you could browse an incredible wealth of old movies, many of which were rare and almost impossible to find anywhere else. The main floor was contemporary and ordinary, but the basement was a cinemaphile’s paradise! ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2025, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846/43 "2025-09-16T06:35:56Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Pity you left out the last zero, which kind of defeats my point. The cost of buying a video cassette of a movie back then was on the order of $100 (not $10), or nearly $500 today! Both true. IIRC the video market was split between the really expensive movies, meant for video stores, and the fairly cheap ones, meant for the wider consumer market. I don’t remember the exact price points since I never bought either. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2025, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846/44 "2025-09-16T08:49:55Z")
My wife and I always have a backlog of old shows that we watch if there’s nothing current to see. The whole point is not to think about it too much, just watch and relax. Right now, we’re watching _The Mentalist_ on Amazon Prime, _The Muppet Show_ on Disney+, and _Taskmaster_ on YouTube. When we finish one of them, we’ll probably start with _Bones_, which I’ve heard good things about. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2025, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846/45 "2025-09-16T10:51:00Z")
I would still only watch linear TV, weren’t it for my wife. I decide what to watch by turning on the TV and checking what’s on. I do use the digital TV guide in our Samsung Frame to see into the future, but often just watch what’s currently on. Usually there’s something of interest on some channel, often something I would never have found on my own; “Didn’t know to look for it”. I think this approach has benefited me tremendously through the decades (magazines & newspapers included). I can’t stand commercials, either. That’s what the Mute button (and competing screen devices) is for. There’s always something to check for the duration of the commercial break. For the shows I want to watch with my wife, we record the shows on an external drive and FF the commercials. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2025, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846/46 "2025-09-16T14:49:38Z")
This may be weird but… I have a spreadsheet with about 20 shows and the order. So, the next show will be Lucifer followed by West Wing. It could be a couple of years or more to complete a series. (Murdoch Mysteries took over 3 years). When one gets to the end there is a decision to watch again immediately or wait a while (Murdoch Mysteries may get a break for a couple of years or so) It just happened that a four shows are ending real soon. We are watching The Good Wife for the first time, so we will try The Good Fight. And watching Buffy for the first time. Based on someone’s suggestion will watch Angel once the current season ends. There are a couple shows that we watched before that we will watch again (Body of Proof and The Glades). And based on this thread will check out Warehouse 13. That makes five, so if Warehouse 13 is worth watching then one of the shows (probably The Glades) will have to wait until another show ends. And we are always watching for ideas, such as Warehouse 13 from this thread for the next time a show ends, ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846/47 "2025-09-16T16:09:37Z")
> [@Author\_Balk](#): > > I have a spreadsheet with about 20 shows and the order. My wife would hate doing that, and I have enough backed up to not need it. But this was one of the benefits of the old Netflix DVD service. Once in a while you went through their list and put stuff on the queue, and you were set for months. Up until everything on my queue was unavailable, that is. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846/48 "2025-09-16T16:18:12Z")
> [@Author\_Balk](#): > > This may be weird but… > > I have a spreadsheet with about 20 shows and the order. Doesn’t sound weird to me: > [@Misnomer](#): > > 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. 😁 (My spreadsheet currently has 1110 titles; both TV shows and movies.) ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846/49 "2025-09-16T17:00:58Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > When you walked in, the street level was a fairly conventional video store hawking new releases, the only difference from a typical video store being that it was dog-friendly and even had water bowls set out for thirsty canines. But the real cinema aficionados would go downstairs into the basement My local video store was kind of like that. They had a separate room, behind a curtain, that had…_Oops, that’s the doorbell, gotta run_… ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2025, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846/50 "2025-09-16T18:25:49Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I remember that. A video store had to rent a title 20 or more times just to break even. The people who lost their shirts investing in mom and pop video stores must be legion even before Netflix came along. I recall a lot of businesses that were primarily something else, that also rented videos, back in the 1980s and 90s. For example there was a local ice cream shop that added a few shelves of movies to rent. And in what may have been the weirdest, most random combination of businesses ever, there was a combination pet store / video rental store near where I grew up. They had a parrot in the store that would follow you around saying “hello” as you were browsing the movies. I’m guessing with places like that the other side of the business often propped up the video rental part. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2025, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846/51 "2025-09-16T21:49:13Z")
I watch TV shows mostly on Netflix nowadays, with some Amazon Prime. I hear about new shows from this forum (Cafe Society) or from the news (e.g. BBC News has a monthly “10 best shows to watch next month” article). I also watch a fair number of shows that the Netflix algorithm suggests, although I find it semi-useless at times (e.g. I would prefer shows that I’ve already watched to go near the bottom of the recommendation list, not the top). My wife likes to look at the “Top 10 shows in Canada this week” list, although I find that kind of hit-or-miss. If we’re watching Netflix together, we can usually agree on some sort of true crime documentary (of which Netflix has hundreds). I visited my parents this summer and they have a cable package with quite a few channels. My mother DVRs any kind of mystery show (even if it’s one she’s watched a hundred times like Columbo or Murder She Wrote) and my dad records documentaries. Their cable package also comes with some sort of on-demand option. It was slightly odd when we ran out of “Law & Order” reruns on the DVR so we started watching them on-demand instead (I’m pretty sure they could have cut out the DVR middleman in that case…). ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846/52 "2025-09-17T16:56:41Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > My local video store was kind of like that. They had a separate room, behind a curtain, that had…_Oops, that’s the doorbell, gotta run_… Heh. Pretty standard, back in the day. A big video store sent out a catalog, to allow you to order by mail. That section had somewhat snarky comments about each video. I wonder who had the job of writing them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-decide-what-to-watch-on-tv/1022846.md?page=2)