At book club the other night, we didn't discuss the book (ha), but we did have a long discussion about TV shows! It was fun! I don't watch much TV. Mostly because channels don't really play the kind of shows I like to watch. I can't do dramas. Especially not dramas about addicts, prison, mental illness, zombies, murder, or anything like that. Maybe it has something to do with my life being very dramatic between 1997 and 2007. Ask me one day why, and I'll tell you all about it. I think I get a bit of PTSD when I watch people making bad decisions and then watch their lives fall apart because of those bad decisions. It makes me nervous and unsettled, and then I want to cry because WHY IS LIFE SO HARD? So... I don't watch dramas.
What I really like are cooking and food shows, especially British people on food-themed shows. Here are some of my favorites.
Jamie at Home
Jamie Oliver's house is my dream home. Settled in the English countryside, he's got a beautiful kitchen garden, and another garden in the rolling hills. He cooks in five or six different locations around his home - his regular kitchen, his professional kitchen, his outdoor oven, fire pit, and spit, and sometimes inside or outside on a portable gas stove. Its ridiculous and lovely at the same time. I really like his passion for the food and for cooking, but I really watch the show for the beauty of the sets.
The F Word
The best thing about The F Word isn't Gordon Ramsay. Don't get me wrong, I do like him in this show. My favorite part of The F Word is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Janet Street-Porter. Their segments are so interesting. I also like how each season Gordon and his family (his children are adorable) raise an animal for food in the backyard - turkeys, pigs, and lambs.
The next two shows never even came on TV in the states. I had to find them on YouTube.
River Cottage
I started watching this because of Hugh. You've heard of food porn? River Cottage is garden porn.
Victorian Farm
Three academics move to a small farm in the English countryside and try to get by using only mid-19th century equipment, clothes, and technology. Fascinating!
So, if you like vegetable gardening, cooking, England, or all of the above, these shows are for you!
I haven't found anything on TV that comes close to matching how great these shows are. The Little Paris Kitchen with Rachel Khoo on the Cooking channel is okay. Anyone out there have any recommendations for me?
April 24, 2024
7 hours ago
2 comments:
Hey! We don't watch much TV either - Scott watches football and golf; together we watch CSI (original -- wouldn't fit your criteria but has great characters), Project Runway (which just ended for the season) and Top Chef.
The only other thing we watch fairly regularly is American Pickers. I think you might like it. It's really about history and humanity, though not filmed in an overly serious way.
I probably would like American Pickers. I'll give it a try. There was a PBS show called History Detectives that I watched while I was on maternity leave. Loved it.
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