I have always been anti-TV. I love reading, so having a TV on in the room interferes with that. Whenever I watch a lot of TV, (more than an hour), I’m left with an empty, “what a waste of time” , feeling. I have never been able to put my finger on why I felt like this, until now.

The psychologist Oliver James has written a book called “Affluenza“, which is an analysis of the causes of depression in a materially affluent world. On page 284 he looks at the effect of TV;

“Studies show that the mental state we enter whilst watching TV is a passive, floating, vicarious consciousness. The emotional and sometimes visible animation of a person attending live theatre or ballet or opera, or when watching a deeply moving film, or when reading a great novel, are very rarely present…………

……….for the vast majority of the time, watching TV is a form of dead, second-hand living”.

Thank you Oliver James, for articulating what I have always felt. I like watching films, but NOT on TV! That’s the reason I called my blog film category ‘Cinema’, because that’s where all films are made to be seen. Not on a little (or even a very large) box, in somebodies front room.

When you go to the cinema to watch a film, there are no interruptions to your enjoyment of the story. There are no telephones going off, no breaks to make a cup of tea, no knocks on your front door, no adverts, no-one talking to you.

It’s just you and the story enfolding in front of you. The wide screen means that even your peripheral vision is immersed in the film. The outside world is cut off, and you can completely lose yourself in the film.  

You can get all this for 50% off, if you go on Wednesday!

John McNally