Movies and TV Shows

It is no secret to my friends and family that I love watching movies and TV shows. I love getting attached to the characters and knowing their stories just like they were a close friend of mine. It is for me, just like many others, and escape from my daily monotonous life to live in a different world for some time. However, even though my friends and family know that I love to do this, not all of them approve.

Many people see following a TV show or a  movie series to be something a typical lazy person or "couch potato" would do. I'm here to say that is not always the case. I know that some shows out there are mind numbing in their ability to let the viewer shut off their mind and become fully absorbed in the show, while not having to think. But that is not how every show is. It seems to me that some people group all shows and movies together in to one category, not allowing them to have any difference from each other. I know from experience that that is not true.

Some programs really can make you think. Well-made ones can envelope the viewer into the storyline and have them have guessed multiple outcomes by the time the final scene comes around. The ones that make people think the most are, your typical crime scene drama where the main characters do not figure out "who did it" until the end of the show, or a show that starts out normal but then has a huge plot twist in the middle(catching us all by surprise), and then there are always the mystery shows, like Sherlock (a personal favorite of mine). These all involve the viewer to almost become part of the story, maybe one of the investigators in a crime, or even a friend to the main character.

Movies can go along the same lines, just not usually over such drawn out periods of time that are offered by TV shows. I like to think of them as mini-escapes, only allowing you be leave your world for a few hours (or more if it is a series). Movies can be a way for someone to rest after a long work day, or sometimes a way for a one to open their mind to new ideas or stimulate their thoughts in a new way. There are so many things a movie can do, it is sad that in todays society it is considered bad to like to watch a lot of movies but not considered wrong to like to watch a lot of sports. Sure, watching sports can make one want to play more sports, but movies can do that and even more. Some could argue that sports films are not the same as it being played live on the television, but either way people are getting inspired, just in a different setting.

Now, sorry about the tangent, what I want the readers to take away from this is only this; do not close you mind to movies, TV shows (or anything) just because it is sometimes considered bad by society. It could open your mind to things you would have never expected.