Can TV be mindful?
One Thing: One day, One Subscription. I have many rules for life, and how I watch TV is one of them
Hello Tough Love readers!
Every other week, I share one thing that’s captured my attention. Expect a carefully curated recommendation from books, TV, my favourite chickpea recipes, the best garlic press in all the land and all the other ingredients of a good life. Fancy some shopping? Then try my gift guide for the brokenhearted.
One Day, One Subscription
I loved Netflix’s One Day. It’s better than the film (not hard), made me nostalgic for the book, nostalgic for summer days on Primrose Hill, nostalgic for my twenties and I felt that storyline deeply. My living room floor is still wet from the tears. However, this isn’t just about what to watch on TV, but how to watch TV. Because the thing is, to watch One Day, I had to get a subscription to Netflix, and that’s a rule I have: one show, one subscription.
I love TV and always have. Four years ago, I wrote about how watching TV keeps me productive and it still rings true. I’m an ambivert who gets jacked up on energy from people (some introverted friends were horrified recently when I was doing three social occasions back to back), but I also need a lot of time at home with my television.
However, we must be careful with TV. I don’t think it’s necessarily about the volume of TV we consume, but how we consume it. The key to good, wholesome and fulfilling TV watching is, like with everything in life, to be mindful and intentional about it. Many times in my life, my TV watching has been the opposite.
There have been times when I couldn’t cope with difficult emotions, so I watched TV. I watched 236 episodes of Friends while I was losing my mind in New York. When my boyfriend died when I was twenty years old, I binged on TV shows, placing DVD after DVD into my laptop to watch in my dark student room.
I tried many other things to run from my grief, documented in my book, which is also a love story that starts at a British University: Totally Fine (and other lies I’ve told myself).
In July, last summer, it was always raining and I was still sad about my break-up, so I spent the month at home watching Sex and the City. Perhaps these phases of grief had to happen, but it’s not how I want to live my life.
I have many rules for life and how I watch TV is one of them. I buy one subscription to a streaming service at a time and cancel it once I’m done with the show. I bought NowTV for Succession, AppleTV for Slow Horses and now Netflix for One Day. It’s mad to me that people have lots of subscriptions running at once, but then, I also like to just watch one show at a time.
I have many rules for life and how I watch TV is one of them.
Enough people I trusted were telling me to watch One Day, so I paid my £4.99 (ads are few and fine and you don’t need HD) and I devoured the show in four, delightful sittings. I will now stay in the world of Netflix until my month is up.
My other TV rules are that I put my phone away while watching and press pause when an episode ends, even if I intend to watch the next one. Admittedly, I just scroll through my phone during these breaks between episodes, but it’s important to me to build a habit of breaking the binge cycle by always pressing pause. This is a version of mindfulness that is us doing our best in our 2024 world of tech addiction.
So here is my recommendation: watch One Day and then cancel your subscription.
Thank you for reading.
With love,
Tiff x
Inspired to cancel your subscriptions? Anything else I should watch on Netflix while I’m subscribed for another 3 weeks? Mindful TV tips? Let me know in the comments!
I must get around to watching One Day.
Reading this, I realised I don’t have rules for telly, although I guess I have certain habits. I don’t watch anything heavy before bedtime and like a little chuckle. I changed the settings on Netflix so that I have to manually choose to watch the next episode. Most of the time, I’m not on my phone while watching something. Prefer to give it my full attention. I laughed at the idea of having just one subscription as I think husband and kids would lose their minds. Although we have talked about offing Netflix if they put their price up again. If I’m chilling at home on a weekend afternoon, I tend to watch Murder She Wrote or Columbo. I don’t watch the news, especially news channels — repetitive and draining.
Friends saw me through the early months of the pandemic when I needed lightness from the end-of-days feeling. I watch it or Seinfeld if I wake up in the night and am struggling to get back to sleep. Big Little Lies and Chewing Gum, plus Ghost and Coming to America (my all-time favourite films) were what I watched in the week or so after burying dad. SATC is like getting together with old pals and maybe connecting with my twenties.
Love this! I watch TV in such a similar way as you, I'm ready to buy Netflix again entirely for One Day - and maybe Love is blind whilst I'm there but now that they phase out the episodes it gets a bit frustrating! I also cannot multitask and watch tv with a phone nearby - liking to be entirely absorbed. Hope you're well and thanks for this!