Generation Impatience

If you’re a UK based reader then you’ve pretty much definitely heard of Only Fools and Horses. It was one of the biggest comedies ever, a BBC treasure and the TV highlight of many Christmas Days. The first series though had ratings that were considered mediocre but the BBC stuck with it, deciding to nurture it. They were right obviously. The X-men comic book initially wasn’t doing too well with the adventures of Cyclops and co failing to match the success of Spider-Man or The Avengers. Marvel stuck with it and handed the reigns to the legendary Chris Claremont. He introduced the world to Wolverine, Storm etc and now it’s bejassive and one of my true loves...

If they had started today would they have been given the same time to get good, find their feet?

Would they flip… We’re a bunch of impatient, fussy folk who decide within five minutes if somethings worth our time. And why wouldn’t we be?! There’s so blooming much to read/watch/play. Back in Only Fools days you had four channels. No catch-up, no Netflix, no scrolling through pages and pages of options whilst getting annoyed at your wife because you can’t agree on what to watch. Then you do pick and you don't even like it...We’ve turned films off after ten minutes because thats all the time it takes to decide its not worth you're time and there’s way too many other things to watch. Although to be fair if we were in the 90s and only had four channels we still couldn’t have sat through Dumb and Dumber To. Another flawed argument. 

My mates love Gotham. I watched two episodes and declared it was a steaming turd of a show. “But the second series is really, really good!” So I’m supposed to sit through 22 episodes of series one before I enjoy myself? Nope. Game of Thrones!! That show about nakedness and bloody stuff… I watched like three episodes of that, couldn’t get into it and said “nope.”

Woah there!! Calm down fellow geeks.. I went back to it, started from scratch and now I patiently wait for Arya Stark and Tyrion Lannister to high five each on the throne in my dream finale. I was wrong GoT, and I’m sorry but I’m glad you took me back. Have you ever gone back and given something a second chance? Ever wonder what the fudge you were thinking the first time?

This week I’ve been playing a game called Stealth Inc 2. It is fantastic, a really clever and witty puzzle platformer. About three months ago I deleted it off my PS4 after 10 minutes of play and said “nope.” There’s a pattern here… On the first Tuesday of every month I get two or three new games to try out as part of a subscription. On top of those I still buy games and I’ve got four boxed games on my shelves I haven’t even started yet. Then there’s all those games that I keep meaning to go back to and play again and… aaargh I’ve too many games! I get impatient, I think about what I could be playing and I don’t always give a fair chance to what’s in front of me there and then. 

I scroll through Netflix and the Sky box and I see so many choices that when something hasn’t clicked straight away I’m turning it off and on to the next one. I look at trailers for films and decide in that two minute ad that I’d be better off going out for a burger instead.  The other side of the coin though.. I won’t walk out of a terrible film in the cinema because well, I’ve paid to watch it. I’m going to suffer on through it. If I was watching a crap film on Netflix I’d turn it off, if I was watching a crap DVD someone bought me then I’m going to watch it. Hell buy me a boxset of Gotham for Christmas and I might end up liking it. The difference here is that anything on Netfix is disposable, it has no value to me. I know a DVD or book or game disc costs money and I’ll appreciate that, I’ll try to get the worth from it. 

Digital media is the future and I love it in a way. Everything you want to watch or listen to is just a button click away. No more shelves filled with discs or books! You can fill them with candle holders and pictures of your wife’s bffs instead. Hmm.. But when you don’t really own something you maybe kind of forget its’ value. Next time you put on a show or game try and pretend that if you don’t sit through it you’ll have to get off the sofa to change it over. There’s nothing worse than that thought. And after a little bit of patience then who knows, you might up with a new favourite thing.