Vent about your significant other's viewing choices

The BBQ Pit
21

He watches outdoorsy crap, and shows me thousands of youtube videos of (some kind of truck) driving over (some kind of rock.) He swears they’re all different videos, but I see a truck driving over a rock. If I point out the obvious similarity of all of these videos and outdoorsy television shows, he starts telling me about suspensions and locking differentials and 4WD shit and the difference between sandstone rocks and shale, and my eyes glaze over, and we have an argument. So I just smile and nod and say “hmm, neat” and never really look. After watching outdoorsy crap and trucks driving over rocks, he then starts making plans for camping trips, and I start investigating divorce laws in Georgia, because I’m the least outdoorsy person in the history of ever.

I watch documentaries about ancient history, and Antiques Roadshow, and far too many cooking and home renovation shows (and I’m completely charmed by Rev Run’s wife Justine.) And anything where someone criticizes badly dressed people and makes them change clothes. I also yell at the TV when something purports to be “history” or “educational” when it’s patently stupid and wrong and ridiculous. All of this makes my husband roll his own eyes.

We can watch a few things together: Amazing Race, Chopped, Genealogy Roadshow. Fortunately, we have multiple TVs and laptops and don’t have to watch the same thing unless we want to.

22

Friday Night Tykes. I barely tolerate football because I think it’s too violent and I hate seeing players injured. Why would I want to watch little kids go through that. And the adults (parents and coaches) are just awful to each other and the kids.

23

Fuckin’ A. Of course, that’s when I started following it.

24

My wife loves that stuff to. If it’s spousal murder, she’ll watch it. I wonder if i should be worried?

25

Oh My God! How do I get this channel? :eek:

26

Yeah, F1 and MotoGP for my husband. I’ll watch sometimes if I have knitting to do. Ditto for Top Gear. He also enjoys watching movies in the Dumb and Dumber genre, which I really can’t stand.

He’d complain that I watch crap like American Horror Story and Hannibal.

Stuff we watch together: Shameless, Masters of Sex, GoT, Broadchurch

27

The hubby watches hunting shows 24/7. I have seen him sit for 7 hours watching 14 half hour hunting shows, that I would swear was just the same guys in camo baiting and shooting the same deer and elk on every show. For added fun he’s starting to lose his hearing so the TV is loud enough to be heard all over the house.

I do admit to turning the TV to true crime shows, always wife kills husband, and eying him evilly when it’s finally my turn with the remote.

28

L&O SVU - I have to leave the room when he’s watching that. The series sickens me, I can’t stand any of the characters, especially that woman who constantly looks like she’s sucking on lemons. ugh.

Parking Wars - seriously? A reality show about meter maids and getting cars out of impound? I’d have loved to be in the meeting when this idea was pitched.

Maury - Not so much any more, but when he was recovering from spinal surgery, he used to watch this train wreck: “You ARE the father…”

Nancy Grace - OK, to be fair, he doesn’t watch this psycho. He knows how much I despise her (I was forced to endure her some years back when assigned to a night shift.) Sometimes when channel surfing, he’ll stop long enough for me to realize what’s on, but he’ll continue surfing after being hit by the nearest spit-covered dog toy that I can lay hands on.

He’s also big on watching the various auto/motorcycle shop shows where they customize vehicles. He, like I, can’t stand all the fakey drama, but sometimes the actual process is interesting. And he used to watch some show where they covered up weird/ugly tattoos. Again, the process is interesting, but I personally think tattoos are dumb, so it took a lot for me not to snark my way thru the shows. Thankfully he doesn’t watch those any more - are they off the air?

29

Redneck shows, I call them, I don’t even know what they are. People making moonshine, people digging or swimming around looking for gold, people “prospecting” for gems I never have even heard of or whatever they are. These redneck shows need subtitles, I can’t understand them. Oh, and wait, there’s one where people are actually (wait for it) swimming and boating around swamps looking for logs. W.T.F.?

Either that or WWII stuff. There’s a lot of that, isn’t there. I’m not denying the importance of the war, but good god almighty, is there anything left to be learned actually? It seems all these shows run the same footage.

And of course, because of testosterone, I guess, the channel must be changed no less than every 5 minutes.

30

Are you my husband? :eek:

My husband, who is addicted to court shows a la Judge Judy :smack: “Your Honor, he moved out and owes me rent even though we never signed a lease. That’s not true, Your Honor, and anyway she owes me $10,000 for pain and suffering because she won’t give me back my X-Box!” Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh :mad:

31

It’s a long running joke at work I ask my friend how was:

Dancing at the fat camp with 19 kids while cooking in the wedding dress house hunting celebrity apprentice stars last night that his wife watched?

Sometimes I thank Og I live alone and the cats don’t understand the remote.

32

The flip side: My wife probably doesn’t object to any specific show that I watch, but she doesn’t like that I’m a serial rewatcher. I’m more than happy to throw on a season of Good Eats or No Reservations that I’ve already seen a dozen times, just as background noise.

33

Eh, it used to bother me that she watches COPS, etc, but not any longer. The only thing that bothers me is the (relatively new) insistence that the TV be on, even if it’s not being watched. Now that bothers me. Especially at 5:45 in the morning. Who needs the goddamned TV on at 5:45am?

Last Saturday I was lying on the couch, reading a novel. Sophia (daughter) was in her room listening to music and texting her friends. My wife said to me “The silence in this house is spooky. Isn’t there a game on or something?” “I like the silence… I find it relaxing.” “Ugh. I don’t.”

34

My husband is addicted to conspiracy shows about UFOs, aliens, yetis, Bigfoots, Loch Ness monsters, etc. He doesn’t take them seriously, but I can’t even handle watching them as a joke.

35

Good lord, there’s not enough bits and character space to list all of VWife’s viewing sins, but I’ll try for the most egregious:

[ul]
[li]Anything food porn;[/li][li]Anything fashion related;[/li][li]Anything reality crime/prison life related;[/li][li]King of the Nerds;[/li][li]Survivor;[/li][li]Face Off;[/li][li]*Ghost Hunters *and it’s rip-offs.[/li][/ul]

Of these, the fashion shows annoy me the most. There is more to life than having to watch some drag queen with induced PMS complain about what someone else is wearing.

36

Fox. Yeah, that channel. We have agreed to disagree on politics. My husband is also hard of hearing and often doesn’t realize that the TV is turned up so far that it’s too loud two rooms away. I really didn’t want to listen even once to the stories of the guy being burned alive or the chances that Iran or North Korea is going to nuke us soon. I really, REALLY don’t want to hear them over and over again.

37

I’ve mentioned this before, but my daughter’s ex-in-laws were *PROUD *of never having turned off their TV. Ever. The damned thing ran constantly - even during Christmas dinner (we were there, so it’s not just speculation.) Even when their grandson was sitting right next to it playing his video games on another TV (something else we witnessed.)

I just don’t get it…

38

No one else is subjected to Storage Wars in all of it’s random locales?

Luckily he usually watches it on his PC as apparently my snarky comments impact his enjoyment.

39

I thought I would win this thread, but we’re tied. You may have an edge because of the volume. He will start spewing some BS, and when I counter, I “watch too much liberal news media”. :rolleyes: The good news is he’s a lot more moderate than when I met him, and I continue my work.

40

My wife has a TV in our bedroom and the only 2 channels it’s ever on are HGTV or E!

But that’s okay, b/c my TV is in the man-cave basement, and about the only channels it’s ever on are within the ESPN family or other sports programming. I don’t think either of us have actually watched an actual “TV show” in 10 years. I do Netflix through somewhat recent TV shows that have gotten good word of mouth (The Wire, Breaking Bad, etc.)

However, I do love to watch movies. I’ve got over 800 DVDs and a constant stream of Netflix DVDs coming to the house. I would love to have a shared movie-night with my wife. But these are the types of movies she won’t watch:
–horror
–sci-fi
–action
–adventure
–crime
–drama
–anything “edgy”
–anything that, as she says, “makes her heart go pounding”
–anything complex (taking her to see Inception resulted in me sleeping on the couch for days she was so mad)

These are the types of movies she *will *watch:
–romantic comedy

So, let’s say I pick a comedy. Here’s how our conversation typically goes.

Me: Let’s watch (name of innocuous movie; say, Sleepless in Seattle)
Wife: Is it a new movie?
Me: Well, not really, but it’s supposed to be pretty good.
Wife: I only like new movie.
Me: But if you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you.
Wife: But I don’t like old movie. The hairstyles and clothes styles aren’t new. Plus, the house decorations are outdated.
Me: What does that matter? That’s not what the movie is about!
Wife: Well, I’m not watching it if it’s not a new movie.

I swear, the few times we watch something together, we’ll be halfway through and she’ll start commenting on the house decorations or some such. “What about the guy losing his girlfriend to the co-worker?” “Oh, I don’t care about that. Did you see the way she decorated her living room? Let’s go to Lowe’s tomorrow and look for paint, and then to the furniture store.”

So I don’t bother to even try anymore. Unless its a Korean TV drama. THOSE she’ll watch with me. (Which is fine, b/c I love them too).