Like many of us stressed out on COVID news, I retreat to two particular shows to soothe my nerves. Gardeners’ World and reruns of the original GBBO.
I’m not interested in reality programming as a rule. I don’t care about bachelors or bachelorettes or amateur singers or nasty judges or dancing priests or any of the other weird and unreal/surreal “reality” refuse that’s on offer. The ONLY exception for me is the original, The Great British Bake Off (renamed, for whatever licensing reason between the BBC and PBS, as the Great British Baking Show)—the one with Mel and Sue, sweet Mary Berry and severe and exacting Paul Hollywood. Why?
Because I learned something new and interesting about baking and cooking in every single program. Even though I am coeliac and cannot eat 90% of what is baked on the show!
I think that’s what draws me to Gardeners’ World as well. I’ve been hooked on gardening shows ever since our move to the U.S. in the ’70s when our local PBS station, WGBH, produced and aired Crockett’s Victory Garden. With four small children, my television viewing then was an accompaniment to folding baskets and baskets of clothes. On Sundays, I could sit for hours watching Masterpiece Theater and Mystery!
When we are under stress (and raising four children is pretty stressful—and rewarding) change is not a welcome thing. I was devastated when Jim Crockett died and was replaced by Bob Thompson. It took me YEARS to feel the same way about Victory Garden, although I remained a faithful viewer. When ‘GBH dropped Mystery! my Sunday evenings were destroyed, my TV viewing life in ruins. I felt betrayed. Apparently, I am a creature of habit—or I am an incredibly loyal and devoted fan of quality programming. I prefer to believe the latter.
In looking back over the programs that punctuated my life I find the following stand out:
- The original Star Trek and most of its offspring, especially Next Generation. (I’m sorry, Netflix, Picard is just another shoot’em up action flick entirely missing the intelligence, sophisticated allegory and empathy of STNG.)
- Anything written by Aaron Sorkin, especially The West Wing (a civics lesson in every episode) and The Newsroom.
- And a host of PBS programs: Nature, This Old House, anything with Bill Moyers, especially The Power of Myth, and Bill Moyers’ Journal.
So… why this sudden examination of television programming? We don’t even HAVE a television right now. We can find whatever we want to view on our computers or iPads. Up until last night. Here is the transcript of my “chat” with Netflix:
| Me |
| Two nights ago, I was watching The Great British Bake Off… last night it disappeared from My List and I am no longer able to see it…WHY? Things are bad enough without losing programs I find soothing — the other Bake Off spin offs and wannabes are simply not the same — they are inane. |
| Netflix Chat Person |
| Hi there! Thanks for waiting. My name is XXXX!. Let me help you with your query. Let’s start with the email address on file and your name? |
| Me |
| Let me check… I believe it is ***************** |
| Me |
| Name is Roxanne O’Connell |
| Netflix Chat Person |
| Okay just be online while i locate your account and check it for you. |
| Netflix Chat Person |
| All right so i checked and it seems that the show is no longer available in Netflix |
| Me |
| So… not your fault, I get that. I offer a friendly user experience tip for you — this will save customers hours of time trying to figure out why things go missing — Give us an EMAIL or a NOTICE on our account that lets us KNOW what’s happened. I spent an hour trying to find out what happened and I was pretty pissed off with Netflix as a result. And I’m a shareholder! Something like “Netflix license for this program has expired and we can no longer offer it.” We are stressed enough in lock-down without things we rely on arbitrarily disappearing. Thanks — I’ll have to find some other way to see the rest of the program. |
| Netflix Chat Person |
| I apologize for the inconvenience caused |
I think what blew me away was the word “inconvenience” — that falls WAY short of how I feel about it. I guess, I’m beginning to crack under the COVID pressure. I had better get out into the garden.