novel fictional video input aversion + what to watch

[cimorene]

I should find something I can watch in binge chunks so that I can get my knitting done, but it's so hard for me to focus on watching video input right now. The last thing I managed was Schitt's Creek, and that was in January or February I think. Sometimes I go through periods where I find it hard to pay attention to new-to-me fictional content in video format, and the more serious or depressing it is the harder.

So if I could get a new season of a comedy I already follow (Brooklyn 99, The Good Place, BBC Ghosts, Derry Girls) I'd watch that, but I probably couldn't manage, say, a new sitcom that looked just as good or even binge-rewatching all of a drama I've seen before. In fact, somewhere in February I think I tried to rewatch Hustle from the beginning, and it's a light-hearted show I've seen all the way through at least twice over the years, more like three times for some of the episodes, but it was still too plotty (or too unfamiliar since I can't remember the twists) and kept exceeding my attention span so I had to stop it and go do something else in mid-episode. I don't have anything long enough to binge and familiar enough and good enough to keep watching except Poirot, and the need to keep switching the discs in and out upsets the rhythm and distracts me too much.

For some months the only things I've really managed to keep watching for a good chunk of time are eclectic assortments of YouTube videos, but I've watched everything from the channels I like a lot now and the algorithm is scraping the bottom of the barrel with its recommendations.

Generally audiobooks and podcasts are even worse, because the speed of talking is so much slower than the speed I can read. I did start to wonder lately if audio plays with sound effects would work better, but I don't have any experience with them to draw on and that makes the idea of searching for them rather intimidating. You'd think maybe just listening to music then, but unless the knitting is super-complicated (more complicated than anything I've got to do now), it isn't visually engaging enough.

I have no trouble finding reading and other things to fill the time instead, but at that rate my knitting's never going to get finished and I am rather impatient for at least four or five projects that I have to make for myself! Maybe if I combine the exactly right music with a muted slideshow of nature imagery or a muted playlist of like those videos where they just knock over elaborate dominos and play with magnetized colored ball bearings? Orrrrr like Planet Earth on mute? Maybe if I listened to an audiobook at triple speed? (I saw someone comment on a Twitter thread that they do that the other day and laughed out loud. At worst it would sound like chipmunks, which should make it more entertaining, right?)

Comments

[naraht]

Maybe if I combine the exactly right music with a muted slideshow of nature imagery or a muted playlist of like those videos where they just knock over elaborate dominos and play with magnetized colored ball bearings? Orrrrr like Planet Earth on mute?

Completely random suggestion but my favorite background music + imagery is the Sigur Ros "Route One" drive around Iceland, which also has the significant plus of lasting for twenty-four hours. I've linked to part one below, but the best scenery/weather is really in parts two and three.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G54tllj-SKI

[cimorene]

Hey thanks, that sounds really fun!

[viggorlijah]

Miss fishers murder mysteries hit the same gentle pace as Poirot. I can knit with them. I agree re mental bandwidth for a new show. I just want variations of my current ones. Preferably running a Coffeeshop as accidental roommates.

Non fiction history books on audio work. If I miss something it’s not as disorienting to go back or even skip it as with fiction.

I cannot say how many times this pandemic I have reread certain fandom epics as comfort food. At some point, it becomes embarrassing because I have but one kudo for so many rereads.

[cimorene]

I do love Miss Fisher, but the first season long plot with the stalker guy who murdered her sister wigs me out completely, I skip half eps and whole eps to avoid it - which makes it a hassle and is why I've rewatched season 2 more times.

Nonfiction history audio is a good idea... I have at least like 10 of those in my to-read list, conveniently.

I keep trying to reread DIFFERENT things, preferably ones I've read before but not in the past few months. I did some Highlander and now I'm doing Stargate Atlantis, Harry/Draco and The Hobbit shuffled together. I tried Georgette Heyer books but I only have them on paper and I keep dropping them and getting papercuts and stuff.

[aurumcalendula]

I'm been crocheting to Leverage lately, but I suspect that might have the same problems as Hustle w/r/t plot and twists.

[cimorene]

It's not quite the same but I can't stand to watch Leverage because I hate Nate so much that I become a ranting lunatic yelling at the screen and have to pause it too much to calm down.

[aurumcalendula]

Yeah Nate's the worst. I'm glad he's not returning in the follow up series.

[cimorene]

I was SO excited to hear that!

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Radio plays?

I mean, there you are going to get whammied with historical ambient 'isms, because that's how ambient racism, sexism, etc work.

[cimorene]

Yeah, I've heard a couple that I liked before but the whole... period-ness of them is a bit offputting. There are probably people making podcasts that are actually modern radio plays and I just need to find out what they're calling themselves.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Two things you might try that aren't exactly but might suit anyway.

There are Doctor Who installments that are audio only native. They should be less Period, though they aren't Super Recent so may still have Inappropriately Insensitive Phrasing (I've not heard them, since all of my non broadcast radio audiovisual is either on computer or comes via dvd.)

There are societies that 'stage' radio plays (think behind the scenes meets table read) so those are probably Less Objectional choices of a Rum Lot.

Even if neither suit, they may train you to search terms that will help.

While audiobooks don't appeal to you, would light nonfiction in that mode suit you? Because various Public Radio persons have wrote a book or two and have read them. Those may lean towards classical music.

How did people locate Nightvale before fandom latched onto it as a personal advertising account?

[phosfate]

I'm better at making stuff if it's a show I've seen a gazillion times, like the first 35 years of Law and Order, some old ITV action series, or original recipe Star Trek.

[cimorene]

I just don't really have enough tv shows that I've seen that many times. TNG and TOS probably qualify, but they're a little too silly for me to completely relax and detach from; I get involved in thinking about the plot holes! Poirot is the only thing I can think of that really works in that way for me, and I can't stream it all, I'd have to swap the discs around. National broadcaster has the rights and they only make them available a few at a time.