Idiot Box
It's the 10th time in 3 days. I kid you not. I have grave worries that watching any part of 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' one more time will cause irreparable damage to my brain. I don't care any more about Simon Pegg's impeccable comic timing, or how incredibly hot Megan Fox is, acting skills notwithstanding. Well, maybe just for Megan Fox. However I must say, this current 'How to..' spree is a far cry better than the apparent Zoolander marathon they had going not so long ago. That could have been fatal had it gone on any longer.
In the 5 weeks i've been here, primetime has been primarily inundated with episodes of 'The Family Guy' and 'The Office'. Honestly, I'm quite fond of both shows but the sheer frequency of it can really get to you after a while. I sometimes wonder what age or IQ bracket the commercials are targeted at. They're all pretty much the same, with some guy with shiny teeth preaching about how great the product is, followed by a bunch of insipid looking people posing as 'real users', concurring with him and telling you how this particular product has changed their life. And often ending with a cheery "Call Now!!".
Choosing a movie to watch out of a bunch of quality flicks has always been a weakness of mine. On a long haul flight, one is nowadays often presented with a line-up that's fantastic and cruel at the same time, for making one have to choose out of an absolute 'must-watch' selection. Luckily for me, Air India provided a limited yet excellent choice of Hollywood films, some of which I'd intended to watch in the recent past. Over 16 hours in a middle seat, i ended up watching 'The Blind Side', The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus', 'Sherlock Holmes' and a number of episodes of House and The Big Bang Theory. Sixteen hours well spent, I'd say.
Now a rather disturbing observation that I made over the course of this flight was that about half the screens (that were visible when i stood up) at any point of time were playing 'Alvin and the Chipmunks'. And even more disturbing, the rest seemed to be playing 'All the Best' (that's D+ grade semi-sleazy slapstick Bollywood, for the uninitiated). I assure you, there were better movies on that list.
And now I shall end this rant as abruptly as it was started. Cheers!
In the 5 weeks i've been here, primetime has been primarily inundated with episodes of 'The Family Guy' and 'The Office'. Honestly, I'm quite fond of both shows but the sheer frequency of it can really get to you after a while. I sometimes wonder what age or IQ bracket the commercials are targeted at. They're all pretty much the same, with some guy with shiny teeth preaching about how great the product is, followed by a bunch of insipid looking people posing as 'real users', concurring with him and telling you how this particular product has changed their life. And often ending with a cheery "Call Now!!".
Choosing a movie to watch out of a bunch of quality flicks has always been a weakness of mine. On a long haul flight, one is nowadays often presented with a line-up that's fantastic and cruel at the same time, for making one have to choose out of an absolute 'must-watch' selection. Luckily for me, Air India provided a limited yet excellent choice of Hollywood films, some of which I'd intended to watch in the recent past. Over 16 hours in a middle seat, i ended up watching 'The Blind Side', The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus', 'Sherlock Holmes' and a number of episodes of House and The Big Bang Theory. Sixteen hours well spent, I'd say.
Now a rather disturbing observation that I made over the course of this flight was that about half the screens (that were visible when i stood up) at any point of time were playing 'Alvin and the Chipmunks'. And even more disturbing, the rest seemed to be playing 'All the Best' (that's D+ grade semi-sleazy slapstick Bollywood, for the uninitiated). I assure you, there were better movies on that list.
And now I shall end this rant as abruptly as it was started. Cheers!
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