All Series Must Die

Television plays a relatively small part in my life. I do have a television in my room, but the only thing plugged into it is DVD player, live television is a rare treat for me. Apart from watching my treasured collection of Friends DVDs this only leaves me with the internet.

Real life takes precedence over televisual entertainment every time. I happened to be in America when the final ever episode of Friends was aired. This would have been an opportunity to watch the conclusion of my favourite sitcom a whole week earlier than usual. Did I watch it? No. Can I remember what I did instead? Also no. Ultimately it doesn't matter to me. Watching something (even the end of something) isn't essential. If you miss something you can be sure that someone will tell you about it, or, failing that you can make up your own ending.

This brings us to spoilers. For series such as Game of Thrones they are pretty hard to avoid (especially for Facebook users). There is always someone who has to blurt out something along the lines of "Oh my god! They killed XXXX. You bastards!" Some people are annoyed by this. Maybe they consider it akin to finding out the result of a football match before they've had a chance to watch it. I'm not so bothered. I want know how they died, how that game-winning goal was scored (although in reality I find football barely tolerable).

Recently I watched the entire five seasons of Breaking Bad in the course of a few weeks. We are probably talking about forty hours of compulsive viewing here, but even then I couldn't help myself but self-spoiler by reading the episode guide (in its entirety) on Wikipedia before watching the actual episodes. Did it ruin it for me? Not really. Sure it may have taken away some of the shock value of the series. But, it's only television. Damn good television, but still television nonetheless.

At the same time as finishing watching Breaking Bad I had also got completely up to date with Game of Thrones and watch the finale of Friends. What to watch next? I'll be watching Friends again, but this time with French subtitles. Breaking Bad and GoT I'll watch again, but only with Polish subtitles. At least that way it has some educational value. So, at the moment I'm not looking for the next big thing in TV drama, I'm back in a reality where meth labs and dragons are a rarity. (Actually here in Kraków there is a Parade of Dragons, but fortunately meth labs are hidden away from public view).