Two weeks ago, I happened to breeze by my television set long enough to see the Emmys, and they caught my eye for one reason: Schitt’s Creek had just won one, and there was Eugene Levy, Mr. Eyebrows himself, up there extolling everything from Coca Cola to Gosling’s dark rum.
I sat down, curious to see how all this would play out, and for the next hour, the show picked up seven little statuettes. Most impressive was the one it won for best comedy series, a first for a TV show created and produced in Canada.
What made this so interesting was that my wife and I had binge-watched the show the previous day. That’s a term I’d never really contemplated before. I’d hear or read all my friends talk about the shows they’d spent all day binge-watching and couldn’t relate.
We’d managed for years with cable, and even though certain stations run shows back-to-back-to-back (“Monk,” for example) they’re slotted into schedules. You cannot watch them at your convenience.
We got a taste of the “other side” on July 3 when our IT specialist (a/k/a our son, Andrew) hooked something up so we could see “Hamilton” on Disney-Plus. (Of course, we couldn’t hear any of it because the park behind our house became the new Lynn Beach.)
But last month, we upgraded from our 43-inch LCD to a 55-inch set with all the bells and whistles, and just the size of the TV alone makes it seem like every night is movie night. And since going to the movies is inadvisable in this COVID climate, seeing all your favorite shows appear on-screen larger than life is quite a treat. Who needs to spend $150 on a ticket to the Patriots game now? I have a better view where I am, and the refreshments and pretzels are free. If I can stomach Tony Romo and Cris Collinsworth, I’m good.
With new technology, however, comes new headaches. And if you’re like me, and have no appreciation for just how intricate it can be, then look out! You will have your share of frustration.
Since I’m barely able to plug anything into the wall anymore without having to be led, step-by-step, we had our IT guy come up and do it.
Easy enough. Andrew and Linda (my wife) got the thing situated and hooked up in no time, but the fun had just started. We tried to set up all those bells and whistles, only to find we couldn’t. Now, when all you’re supposed to have to do is punch in a few numbers and get instant streaming, it’s maddening when you can’t. And we couldn’t.
So we started the phone calls. The first was to the company that manufactured the TV. Gee, they said, they couldn’t figure out why. It’s supposed to work. Unplug your TV and then plug it in again.
Well, if I had even a nickel for every time I’ve heard that, I’d be retired already.
With no satisfaction from them, we called the cable company. Unplug your cable box and plug it in again. No? Unplug your router, wait five minutes, and plug it in again.
Do we detect a trend here? How much do these people get paid to say “unplug such-and-such?”
Our router and modem are on one side of the house while the TV is diagonally on the other side. Could that have something to do with it?
Could be, the cable person said. Our IT support staff/son said, “They have these router boosters that you can get. You plug them in halfway in between your main hookup and your TV and you’ll get a better signal.”
Alrighty then. Sixty dollars later, we had one, installed it, and service only improved marginally. This is to say it worked at all the times of the day you’d normally not be watching … and didn’t work during peak hours. Fat lot of good that did.
It wasn’t until we had a new circuit breaker system installed for reasons totally unrelated to TV viewing, and had the power shut down for an entire morning, that things changed. Once the power came back on, we got service — and it’s worked great since then. I guess we just had to unplug the whole house.
And, of course, it was by fumbling through Netflix that we found Schitt’s Creek, watched it, and were in front of our TVs to see it sweep the Emmys. I must admit I felt a surge of validation seeing it. Finally, for the first time in forever, I knew the name of a TV show that won an Emmy. Or seven of them.
