Telly Talk: The way we were

The other night, televisually speaking, our household found itself to be at a bit of an impasse. It was a Tuesday, and as suited to a Tuesday night I was preparing to tuck into the latest episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Gotta love me some silver fox Ted Danson. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me but busily getting fired up about it on Twitter, The Apprentice had swapped its regular Wednesday slot with fresh-faced Eve Myles’ medical drama Frankie, and was about to start another round of who-can-make-the-most-idiotic-mistake on BBC1. It’s a 9pm dilemma. What to do? Eek?

Well, clearly what we did was investigate if we could get Channel 5+1 on the Freeview box, and, duly reassured we tucked into The Apprentice, laughed at the inches to centimetres debacle and ever-reducing eyebrows, and then flipped over an hour later for some Vegas visitors arriving from Cuba. So here’s the thing – whatever happened to my childhood battles over the remote control?

“No one’s going to make their Facebook status who the killer is in any Channel 5 drama”

Alright, so I may be rose-tinting those heated fights for ‘the power’, but not only are we not watching television as a family or household anymore (according to umpteen reports), we don’t even have to all watch it at the same time. With +1 channels and the various on-demand websites, the only thing that may actually save appointment TV is the aforementioned social network, as Twitter and Facebook set the internet alight with our realtime sarcastic commentaries and plot/competition speculation. This was, in fact, the argument that pushed our good old CSI into second place, as playing catch up with The Apprentice is never an option with the number of spoilers immediately posted online, during and after its broadcast time. No one’s going to make their Facebook status read who the killer is in any Channel 5 crime drama, no matter how many award-winning ones they buy in from the States.

So we watched The Apprentice together, and then when I tuned in to my CSI fix my fellow-viewer slipped on his headphones and started watching something else – either from one of the on-demand sites or possibly from Netflix or LoveFilm. Watching television with friends and family is no longer a system of sharing and compromise. There are any number of programmes that I have thoroughly enjoyed but would never have normally watched were it not for the need of someone else in my house to watch it. From Dancing On Ice (thanks Dad) to He-Man And The Masters Of the Universe (care of my younger cousin who also had all of the action figures and a much coveted Castle Grayskull), I’m thankful for other people’s tastes. Apart from anything else, it can lead to some very guilty pleasures, with the blame firmly placed elsewhere when my too-cool-for-school pals question my detailed awareness of Rasta Mouse.

And yet perhaps the return to this sharing of tastes is coming back in, as more people seem to be posting links on their social networking statuses to hidden televisual gems. It’s not the forced diversity I’d like to bring back, with the black box in the corner of the room dictating all (and being the only one in the entire house) but it is a pooling of tastes – and I’m going to have to just be happy with that.
www.itv.com/itvplayer, www.channel4.com/programmes/4od, www.channel5.com/demand5