Logging TV

One of the many open tabs in the browser of my mind is to find an effective way to track the television shows I watch. Unlike tracking books read or movies watched or music listened to, for which there are several good options for products to use¹, I haven’t been able to find a good product for it.

When I was on the internet in what could be considered my first act (a.k.a. the early internet, my teenage and college years from the late 1990s to early 2000s), if I’m currently on my second act as a citizen of the internet, none of these media tracking services existed², and the way we consumed television was still mostly on… the actual television set. We’d have to wait a week between episodes of a show. It was basically the Bronze Age.

In college, I got a subscription to Netflix and watched probably hundreds of movies and TV shows on DVD, and also pirated quite a few media types of media (I didn’t really have any real life friends because I was very emo and shy). For TV that was airing contemporaneously, episodes were still released on a week by week basis. I remember watching the show Alias with my hallmates, and I also had a secret Alias recap blog with two of my internet friends, but god forbid I tell my IRL friends about my blog (I was afraid they’d make fun of me).

Anyway, what even is TV these days? Netflix (and streaming more broadly) basically obliterated the previous television production model, which is both a marvel of modern technology, a case study in how to evolve a business to achieve massive growth, and also kind of a sad state to be in in terms of media as art—I feel like shows these days are largely formulaic, and the business of entertainment is very evident in the relative absence of TRULY original content (and shows are essentially given one season to succeed or not, and if they don’t, they’re cancelled).

I’ve also noticed that episodic TV seems much less common than it used to be, in favor of more limited series, which are essentially films that are drawn out to 8-10 hours long, and they all seem to have a similar cadence where the first episode grabs your attention, and every subsequent episode thereafter ends on some kind of cliffhanger to keep you watching. As if you had a choice in the first place—autoplay makes that choice for you, and then also somehow has the audacity to ask if you are still watching.

I am aware of at least one service, Trakt, whose major value proposition seems to be the convenience of syncing across all (most) streaming services, which sounds fine but when I tried it, it was a bit buggy (this was a while ago so it might be better now) and the interface felt quite bloated.

I meant to just write a quick note here about how I’ve decided to just track my TV watching manually, but I’ve had decision paralysis around trying to come up with a smart way to display what I’m watching here. My internal monologue has been something like this:

• Does every episode deserve a post or line item? Probably not, that feels too granular and unwieldy.
• But what about all the shows I start and then abandon (which are a lot; my attention span has been shot these past few years)? I don’t want to forget that I’ve started a show, which I’m prone to. Hmm, feels like each show needs to have a status.
• It’d be nice if there was an app that tracked all the different streaming sources I use, like Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, etc. You say that, but you know you don’t really want that level of surveillance from an app. I know, I’m probably right. I am. That’s what I said. Ok.
• What about all those streaming comedy specials I watch? Or concert specials. Well, they’re not TV shows per se. But they kind of feel like they should count… if the main purpose of tracking this data is to serve as a way to not forget that I’ve watched it. What about all those comedians that turned out to be problematic in some way? Oof, there is a lot to unpack there with too much nuance for me to write about on the internet.
• What about all those food shows? Those should count.
• What about if I’m re-watching something? Hmm… maybe just list the last date watched? It would be nice to capture number of times watched, but probably not essential. Most shows I do not watch more than once.
• Should I use a ratings system? I think there are pros and cons to using something like a 5-star ratings system. Letterboxd and Literal.club both have that system (with the inclusion of ½ star ratings, which means it’s really a 10-point system). If individuals are using a 5-star system to rate stuff, I love seeing other people’s detailed explanations and interpretations of what each rating means to them, like Anh’s for her watchlist, and Wesley’s for their bookstore ratings (I also love the idea of rating bookstores in general). My approach to TV watching is similar to that of my bookreading in that to watch an entire series or read an entire book is enough of a time investment that I have a fairly low threshold to quit/abandon watching or reading if I’m not feeling it (for a show I usually give it 1-2 episodes and for a book I try to at least read the first chapter before making that decision). So the fact that I finish a particular book or series is basically an indication that I thought it was at least good enough to keep watching or reading to the end. And then of those, there are some that I particularly love and would very enthusiastically recommend

And so on and so forth.

For now, I’ve been tracking my TV watching in a Google spreadsheet which is currently temporarily-but-maybe-semi-permanently serving as the tracker until I can do something cool with it. (I kinda feel like my whole approach to this website is about sharing or documenting things that aren’t complete and are far from perfect but meant to capture slices of life, so maybe I’ll never do something cool with it but at least it exists.)

This whole note was a very long and navel-gazey way to say “here’s a spreadsheet,” eh?

Somewhat related: my note on reading, re-reading, and tracking reads