I’ve never participated in this challenge before, because I just found out about it today (thanks, Fandango!), so even though it’s Wednesday, I’m going to join in. Truthful Tuesday is hosted by PCGuyIV.

What’s something that seemingly everyone else just can’t stop talking about that you just never got in to, and why not?
I feel as though I am woefully behind in cultural trends nowadays. Maybe that’s a part of getting old. I used to tease my mother when she didn’t know about some cultural icon, like Robert Redford. Now I am my mother!

Two TV series that never interested me at all were Game of Thrones and Seinfeld. Yet it felt like everyone else was addicted to these shows. Seinfeld, of course, is several years older than Game of Thrones and I guess people had their favorites. But certain quotes or characters got into our media culture so there are cultural references I just don’t get.

I used to watch a lot of TV and see lots of movies, but haven’t done much of either in the last several years. It started when I got too busy with work to get interested in any shows or have time to go out to a movie. Now I’m just used to it. Every once in a while, someone will mention a Netflix series that sounds interesting, and my husband and I will watch it. PBS is where I found most of the shows that I like to follow. Now that I don’t pay attention to it, I feel like I’m missing out on something.

The second question for the week is pretty much the exact opposite of the first:

What’s something that you hold near and dear, but it seems as though no-one else has heard about it, or at the very least, has no interest in it?

I can’t think of anything in particular. But I do remember that there have been products we found out about and started buying at the supermarket, only to have them discontinued a short time later. My husband’s been complaining that a lot of the turkey substitutes are disappearing, like turkey ham, turkey pastrami, etc. When I wore contact lenses, I was allergic to thimoseral, so I had to use a product that didn’t have thimoseral in it, which became increasingly harder to find. Eventually I couldn’t find it at all. There may have been other products I could have used but I didn’t know what they were, and later I gave up on wearing contact lenses altogether.

There have also been TV shows that we really thought were wonderful, but were cancelled after only one season – even though the writing was brilliant and the plots engaging. Oh well, I guess they had to make time for more reality shows and crime dramas. On Netflix, there were three seasons (amounting to about 8-9 episodes each) of Anne With an E, basically the story of Anne of Green Gables, but with original plot lines added. But there are three books in that series, yet they cancelled the series before getting to either of the other two! Same thing with Outlander (I forget which network it was on) – I think it was discontinued after 4 seasons (corresponding to 4 books in the series) but I’ve also heard rumors that it’s coming back eventually.

I don’t know how many people were interested in any of these things other than me, but it seems we have very little influence with the people in charge of deciding whether to continue something or not. One thing I like about PBS is that when one of their series is very popular, their writers are hired to write more episodes. I don’t think Downton Abbey was expected to last more than a few seasons, but it was so popular that they gave us more seasons and a movie too!

But of course, all good things eventually come to an end. (It seems like the not-so-good things, like this Covid pandemic, are never going to end….)