# Not allowed to ever watch any new shows/movies beyond TODAY'S DATE: Would you be fine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2025, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011 "2025-06-23T07:49:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/1 "2025-06-23T07:49:45Z")
Let’s say a decree came down saying that you (you, personally as a test or law or punishment or rule or… SOME kind of magical reason) are not allowed to EVER watch any movie or tv show beyond THIS POINT, today’s date of June 23rd, 2025. Furthermore (work with me here, just humor me), let’s say you could not break this rule and had to resign yourself to be forever stuck watching anything made PRE-“this date”. Would you be fine? I mean, surely there are enough movies or shows you’ve not seen yet that you could/might watch that would last the rest of your life…and even if not, maybe there ARE enough movies/shows you’ve already seen that you would not mind rewatching a few times until the end of your life comes… What say you? Me? I’d be perfectly fine and happy as I have a list of about 70 shows ANYWAYS, ranging from the 90s to today that I have yet to start but always wanted to. And I literally have not seen one movie from the last five years. I couldn’t tell you any movies that even came out… I could easily spend the rest of my life catching up on all of those and rewatching favorite shows/movies in between. My point is…there is enough CONTENT now for me to happily never need any “new” content. Hell, this could even extend to music, games, and possibly books for me. I’m 45. You may arguing I’m at the middle of my life, but I’d argue if I had 20 more years, I’d be surprised. I think I could go 20 more years without ever needing any “new” content, but WITHOUT growing bored with what I had now. What about you? Would you be fine or no? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/2 "2025-06-23T08:39:43Z")
I would feel empoverished by that situation. Getting new ideas and new perspectives is a good and very important thing. ---
**Author:** ![MacDoc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/macdoc/32/18696_2.png) [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/3 "2025-06-23T08:50:51Z")
I think I’d be okay as long as I had unlimited streaming scrips. Also there is lots to rewatch …just rewatching Wednesday and realized I’d forgotten much. I’m 77 tho and a media hound with a voracious appetite…I might run out. Now with books I know I’d be fine. With music …is there anything new worth listening too past 1980s 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/4 "2025-06-23T09:16:06Z")
First of all, I hate, hate, _hate_ the popular use of the word “content” to describe audiovisual media like film and television. This is the terminology of corporate executives who have a pipeline to fill and who do not themselves have the taste or creative acumen to distinguish quality from trash. As long as there are movies in the cinemas and on the streaming services, as long as there are series being produced to fill the virtual airwaves, they are satisfied. It’s all “content.” And this has a tendency to infect our own perception of the media; as long as we can flip on the big-screen display and having moving pictures accompanied by sound, we can allow ourselves to feel satisfied that our demand for “content” is being filled, whether we’re consuming quality material or, again, utter trash. That being said. On the one hand, new creations and new voices are emerging all the time. It would feel tragic to me not to be able to take advantage of these. I would be “impoverished,” to borrow the word above. On the other hand, the mainstream media landscape is dying. Today’s creators are experimenting with AI, which is going to absolutely kill originality. It’s still on the fringe — notorious weirdo Harmony Korine, for example, is **[using](https://www.indiewire.com/news/trailers/baby-invasion-trailer-harmony-korine-1235104333/)** the toolkit, but it’s also being used by people like **[Natasha Lyonne](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/natasha-lyonne-ai-film-uncanny-valley-hybrid-film-project-1236206729/)** who really should know better, and Mel Gibson’s latest movie starts with an opening shot that’s almost certainly **[AI generated](https://www.thewrap.com/flight-risk-review-mel-gibson-mark-wahlberg/)** — but its forces are certainly massing at the gates. Not to mention the fact that a huge proportion of modern media is just recycling and regurgitating pre-existing material, whether or not AI is involved. We’ve got _two different_ Tomb Raider TV shows coming (one live-action, one animated). We’ve got that idiotic Harry Potter series in the pipeline which just remakes the stories we already got in movie form (“the same, but _more!_”). Amazon has recently confirmed they’re moving ahead with a series based on the _Mass Effect_ games. If you look at the movies currently in cinemas and scheduled for the next few months, we’ve got a John Wick spinoff and a movie based on Formula One racing, a fantastically wrong-headed live-action Lilo & Stitch, lots of sequels (Zootopia, Avatar, Tron, Jurassic World) and reboots (Naked Gun, The Running Man, new takes on Superman and Frankenstein), more paint-by-numbers bullshit biopics (Complete Unknown, Deliver Me from Nowhere), and on and on. Even the iconoclastic Robert Eggers has been roped into the game, having just been signed to make yet another version of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Absolutely none of this is of interest to me. This is not to say there isn’t quality work being done anywhere. The latest Star Wars series, Andor, is much, much better than it has any right to be, and especially stands out because it’s floating in the sea of garbage that is the rest of that now-terrible franchise. Also, the new adaptation of Stephen King’s Long Walk looks much better than expected. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners was goddamn amazing. Flow, which just won the animated Oscar, was terrific. We’ve got a new original horror movie from Steven Soderbergh coming up. Wong Kar-Wai’s series Blossoms Shanghai, previously aired on Chinese television, is finally getting a Western release. Wes Anderson is continuing to do his thing. There’s good stuff out there, if you ignore the blaring foghorn of mainstream media promotion and seek out quality material. But the pickings, unfortunately, are increasingly slim. Which means the question, for me, is more interesting than it might seem at first glance. I don’t want to close the door on future media, because, again, there are still a few good movies and shows that manage to escape from the slop factory largely unmolested. They’re vastly in the minority, but they do exist, and I wouldn’t want to miss out. Nevertheless, I would say that north of 99% of future releases will be worthless, so if you forced me to make that choice, I wouldn’t miss _much._ The question becomes _really_ interesting if you make it a real tradeoff. You can watch only what exists now, with no possibility of watching anything released from tomorrow forward … _or_ you can watch only new stuff, say movies and series released from the beginning of 2025 onward, but never anything older. That, for me, is an easy no-brainer choice. But it might be an interesting dilemma for someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/5 "2025-06-23T09:42:14Z")
I’d be fine. I’m not terribly keen on today’s movies, which seem to consist mainly of superheroes destroying a city in order to save it. Those movies rely far too much on CGI and far too little on plot. I think the idea is to make the audience go “Oooh” every time a building, bridge, or villain’s lair blows up. Plot is an afterthought. Today’s TV shows seem to require you to have been watching from Episode 1 in order to understand what’s going on. But back in the day, and assuming you know the premise–“this show is about a major metropolitan newspaper,” “this show is about the doings on a cruise ship,” “this show is about a radio station” (_Lou Grant, Love Boat, WKRP in Cincinnati,_ respectively), you could miss a show, and not miss anything at all when you tuned in next week. Or, you might give it a chance when S2Ep5 came on, decide you liked it, and try to watch the rest. But these days? Nope, can’t do that. You’re lost if you haven’t watched since Episode 1. I’m finding that, between my huge library of DVDs (movies and TV series), and streaming services, I’m pretty entertained. Lately, I’ve been enjoying old 1960s sitcoms (e.g. _That Girl_) on streaming. I don’t think I need anything going forward—and especially not if it involves superheroes and CGI. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/6 "2025-06-23T09:48:28Z")
I’ve been doing that for years. ---
**Author:** ![MacDoc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/macdoc/32/18696_2.png) [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/7 "2025-06-23T10:14:15Z")
Wow [_Cervaise] Old-timer_ Glad I’m not you. What grim and cynical world you dwell in. 🤔 Sure there is lots of dreck out there but there is brilliant moving works as well. I’d far rather celebrate those than bemoan the dreck. 🎇 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/8 "2025-06-23T10:51:00Z")
Of all the genres that I enjoy, I have watched about 5% of what’s on offer from them, missing the other 95% mostly due to scheduling or being the wrong age for them or other randomness. So I’d just work my way through them. Many of them would be bad, but enough would be tolerably good I expect. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/9 "2025-06-23T11:45:37Z")
Last movie I went to was _The Martian_ in Sep 2015. Last time I watched TV was maybe a year or so before that. Not a problem. ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/10 "2025-06-23T12:15:17Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Getting new ideas and new perspectives is a good and very important thing. Although this is a good point, there are plenty of other excellent ways to get them than movies and TV shows. There is SO MUCH more to life. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/11 "2025-06-23T12:17:16Z")
The problem will arise when there is a huge new television show or movie that _everyone_ is talking about and you’re not able to participate in the conversation. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/12 "2025-06-23T12:27:55Z")
Exactly. I want to be able to watch the stuff my friends are watching. I don’t actually watch many movies. And the thing i mostly watch on TV is YouTube, which probably isn’t banned by this edict. So in some sense I’m not missing much. But in another… I’m going to finish the _murderbot_ series with my daughter tonight, and look forward to discussing it with friends, even though it’s not nearly as good as the books, so i wouldn’t have lost a lot artistically by skipping it. I sometimes watch shows with friends, and wouldn’t be able to do that, as they generally watch something newish. And yes, sometimes something really good comes out. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/13 "2025-06-23T12:47:36Z")
I would be OK if new live performances are allowed, but very unhappy if they’re not. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/14 "2025-06-23T13:03:18Z")
I have a hard time catching up to what I want to watch. As long as they don’t disappear what I haven’t looked at yet I will have a lot of things to watch. I would still hate not having anything new ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/15 "2025-06-23T13:15:20Z")
So I can’t watch the news anymore? That is a two edged sword. While it would be nice to not be force feed the latest thing Trump has said or done on a daily basis I would like to weather so that I would know if a storm is bearing down on me. Or would I be forced out of necesity to have to watch the news everyday? That to would kind of suck as they might be talking about movies and actors I have no idea about. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/16 "2025-06-23T13:18:02Z")
I asked a similar question in this 2013 thread: > [@New movies, TV shows, music, and plays are soon to be banned. You can save ONE. Which one?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-movies-tv-shows-music-and-plays-are-soon-to-be-banned-you-can-save-one-which-one/664760): > > Suppose that the new world government will prohibit anybody from filming new movies and TV shows. Composing, recording, or performing new music will also be banned. Nobody can create new plays or musicals either. All violators (artists AND consumers of these media) face the death penalty. Works that have already been created will still be permitted, but no new episodes of existing TV shows will be allowed. For example, you can still watch Simpsons reruns, but there will be no new Simpsons e… I created a poll where you could choose to save ONE of the following categories: new movies, TV shows, songs, or plays. I chose music, as I think I can get along fine without any new TV shows or movies. I hardly watch any of them anyway. A world where Kesha can no longer release new music, however, would be a very bleak world. (The poll results were lost when SDMB switched platforms a few years ago.) ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/17 "2025-06-23T13:27:43Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The problem will arise when there is a huge new television show or movie that _everyone_ is talking about and you’re not able to participate in the conversation I’ve been living in that situation already for most of my life. I can’t have a television, or I stare at it (and don’t get me going on how similar the computer, which I have to use for multiple reasons, has gotten); and I mostly haven’t seen movies. I don’t think I’d notice much of any difference in my life. There are lots of good movies which I’ve missed which I can watch if I ever get to them. (No new books would be a different matter; though considering the number in existence, I’ve undoubtedly missed a lot of good ones there as well. Nevertheless I want to be able to read new ones!) > [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > So I can’t watch the news anymore? Whoops, I didn’t think of that as being included. Can I get away with reading the news, which is usually what I do anyway? I don’t exactly want to read the news, but I need to read at least some news, to have some idea of what’s going on. > [@Ponch8](#): > > I created a poll where you could choose to save ONE of the following categories: new movies, TV shows, songs, or plays. I chose music, as I think I can get along fine without any new TV shows or movies. I hardly watch any of them anyway. A world where Kesha can no longer release new music, however, would be a very bleak world. (The poll results were lost when SDMB switched platforms a few years ago If you want to run it again: I’m voting music, hands down, no brainer. We’ve been making music as long as we’ve been human and maybe before. Banning that would likely do damage on a species-wide level. The other categories are all relatively recent; probably even plays are only a few thousand years old though it’s hard to tell for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/18 "2025-06-23T13:34:14Z")
I barely watch television or movies as it is so there’s a huge backlog of quality stuff I could still watch for the first time. There isn’t really many shows that fall under “everyone is talking about” in my circles – I guess a couple people mentioned Andor but generally the media scene is so broken up these days that mentions of a show get a “Yeah, been meaning to watch that” from the others. The last bit of “appointment television” for me was Mad Men just to date how little I keep up on things. So, given that I’m in my 50s and given how little I watch and given the backlog of stuff I haven’t watched – I’d be fine. Potential snag: I watch a bit of YouTube, often when eating meals. If no new videos were uploaded past today, I’d probably start reaching for content before too long. Sure, there’s a lot of stuff on YT but mostly stuff I don’t want to watch and it’s not like catching up on the eight season run of some Golden Age of TV prestige show. I think that would rock my boat more than losing new Hollywood productions would. As to Ponch8’s question, music is my easy answer. I may rarely watch something new but I’m regularly listening to just released music and adding to my playlists. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/19 "2025-06-23T13:36:07Z")
I would be fine, though wouldn’t prefer it. I am not concerned about not getting exposed to new experiences- there is an ocean of existing art and media that I have not seen or heard. I could have new experiences every day until the day I die and not exhaust the possibilities. The downside is that I would be limited in my ability to engage with the discourse about current culture ([old man]that said, there is already so much moving so quickly that there isn’t a lot of unified discourse going on. Blink and whatever that amazing important thing was last month is already over and forgotten[/old man]). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011/20 "2025-06-23T13:37:34Z")
The last time I watched a new or old movie or TV “show” except to humor my ex-wife before she was ex- was about 1995. I’ll be fine. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-ever-watch-any-new-shows-movies-beyond-todays-date-would-you-be-fine/1020011.md?page=2)