What to do when you’re being deprived of the right to catch a bit of shut eye? May as well find something good to watch. Our house at the moment is an awake one, reluctantly for the adults, enthusiastically for our tiny tyrant. I get where he’s coming from; Mammy used to spend all day with him so he had all day with her and all night to sleep. Now Mammy goes away for the day so something has to go, and its not the time with Mammy that he is willing to forfeit. His little eyes have full-on suitcases under them, but he’s bouncing awake three hours after bedtime every night this week, and grumpy because he’s tired and we’re less enthusiastic about play with every hour that goes by.
We’ve found solace in shows. Netflix has been fantastic for this – no flicking of channels aimlessly to find something to watch, and the ability to “accidentally” wind up having a marathon watch because it just started playing of its own accord, that’s a feature I definitely approve of (though my energy levels probably don’t). The fact that theres no ads is great as well, with other streaming websites its something I’ve found really irritating – you just get into a scene and bam, another ad about a bloody pizza company, when I’ve got no pizza and need to stick to my diet. Grr. I’ve had an account for over a year, but since we got rid of the TV package when we moved house we’ve been using it constantly.
In particular, we’ve been watching The Good Wife (both of us) and strange documentaries about random things (just me, at awkward hours of the early morning). Scrolling through the menus has introduced us to a lot of stuff we’ve never seen before, which is great.
We started The Good Wife last week. I love Legal Dramas, and have a well attested addiction to things like Criminal Minds and Law and Order SVU, so it wasn’t too far off the normal radar. In this courtroom drama, attorney Alicia Florrick finds herself forced to return to work after a scandal lands her politician husband in prison. I’ve seen a few episodes before but in no particular order, so it is all appearing as new to me. I knew I liked it from what I’ve seen, but I’m totally into it now and it is something I look forward to watching after the long work day. We’re currently half way through the first season, and finding it fantastic.
Aside from that, I’ve found myself watching random documentaries while feeding the baby.
Supersize Me – I’d seen some of this before, and everyone has heard about it, but watching the effects of 30 days of nothing but MacDonalds on the health of Morgan Spurlock as he conducts his experiment was galling. This is ten years old, as he shot it in 2004, so thankfully (I hope) a lot has changed with the policies of fast food providers, but it definitely rehashed to me why walking past instead of going in for the six chicken nuggets is a good idea.
Hot Coffee – Again with the legal stuff. This documentary, about “frivolous” law suits in the USA, gets its name from the much publicized case of Stella Liebeck VS MacDonalds. You’ve likely heard of the woman who sued MacDonalds after she spilled coffee on herself and got burns, and received millions. I know I’d previously heard about the case and wondered how she had done it, surely common sense would dictate coffee is hot and therefore will burn you if you spill it. One look at her injuries was enough to shush me with that regard. The photos are pretty horrific, third degree burns – because the temperature MacDonalds required the coffee to be was about 20 degrees Celcius higher than what it should be. I found this to be a really interesting documentary, well worth a watch.
Terms and Conditions May Apply – from various jobs I’ve worked in, I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about data protection, namely how not to break the laws surrounding it, but very little on what the privacy policies about data surrounding the laws contain. I’ve definitely clicked Agree on multiple websites privacy policies without reading it. We all have – they’re not written in a way that advocates doing otherwise, but basically we are signing our souls away without knowing it. This documentary looked into Privacy Policies, in particular that of Google and gave a clearer picture of what we’re actually signing up for. I found it really interesting, and not just because its applicable to me on a day to day professional basis. Maybe not everyones cup of tea, but I found it really well put together and educational.
Over the next while I’ve added Orange is the New Black, The Blacklist and House of Cards to my to-do list, after everything else gets done. I’m way behind the game for most of these shows, I blame blatant rewatching of repeats of Grey’s Anatomy and Law and Order SVU, but I’ve come to the realisation that I have to join the masses; they can’t all be wrong about them being fantastic, right?
Anyone got any other suggestions for things to watch out for on Netflix to give me?
Disclosure: I am a member of the Netflix Stream Team and received a Netflix subscription and an Apple TV in return for posting Netflix updates and reviews, however, all opinions are my own, and I already had a personal subscription before joining the Stream Team.