Becoming Old and Cable Free

Something strange has happened to me. I used to love tv and movies. I could seriously chat movies like a film aficionado, I knew popular celebrity gossip, and I was an ace at tv water cooler talk. I knew what happened on last night’s episode of whatever and I looked forward to my tv fix. When it came to what was showing at the theatre over the weekend, I could tell you what I wanted to see.

Now? I rarely go to the movies or even know what’s playing.  When movies come out on dvd, they’ll often arrive in our mailbox and it will take a week at least for us to watch them because watching a full length movie is such a time commitment. I get impatient with movies as well, especially comedies. With free time so limited, I have trouble focusing on something that is just mediocre.

I still love tv, but now I’m that person who says “Have you seen Season 3 of Bones?” or “How about the first season of Modern Family?” I’m watching, but waiting for a show to come out on dvd, or more often, on Watch Instantly is just fine with me.

I remember the first time we eliminated cable to ease the burden on our budget. Tim and I were in our first year of marriage and Netflix was new and exciting. We’d already decided while dating that we would sign up for Netflix because we perpetually returned our videos to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video late (do those dinosaurs still exist?). Without cable to rely on for entertainment while  he studied, worked, or attended classes (I already had my degree and worked full-time), I ventured into tv on dvd for the first time. While I didn’t like waiting for dvds to arrive and I missed having constant entertainment at my fingertips, I also adored the instant gratification of having the next episode available right now. I mean, how thrilling when the next episode of the Prison Break Cliffhanger was right there! I was also still very much into movies at the time and loved catching up on the latest film.

Things have changed quite a bit over the past 7 years. Tim graduated, we moved, we had cable tv, a home phone, and a dvr for a year, and Netflix introduced watch instantly. I have to admit, having cable again felt like such a treat. You can lazily opt in to whatever is on, switch between shows during commercials, and indulge in guilty pleasure shows claiming “that’s all that was on.” With cable, you suddenly have an excuse to watch those old 90210 reruns from the beginning, catch The Bachelor simply because you had that time slot free, and sink into the couch for that Project Runway marathon because you didn’t see all the episodes in order the first time.

When the introductory cable offer expired and the company didn’t seem inclined to indulge us with another discount, we decided to let it go again. I didn’t really need the home phone like I thought, we figured out how to get internet without one, and Watch Instantly really added to our viewing options. So we cut the cable cord for the second time, opting to go with Netflix and cell phones. I felt some separation anxiety at first, but it lasted a surprisingly short time.

While I sometimes wish we had instant access to a few shows, I like the no-cable benefits. The biggest plus? My kids don’t watch commercials and there isn’t something to always switch on. The same is true for mom and dad as well. We have to opt into a show and the time commitment is right there before you push play. There’s something different about saying “I am going to choose to watch this” instead of “Oh, that’s on. I could watch that.” When the kids get older, we’ll run into lack of parental controls over shows on Netflix Watch Instantly (something I hope they address soon), but it works well for now.

I won’t lie. When I go to visit my mom in the summer Bravo has a Top Chef marathon, I’ll totally indulge and be there. But for my everyday, I’m surprisingly happy being old and cable free.