gemma short writings

I spent more time than I care to admit last week debating what to watch and whether I was even in the mood for any film. A lot of time was spent scrolling through the streaming services, hoping that something will jump out to me that I want to dedicate two hours of my undivided attention to. There were a few almosts. But alas, each time I clicked on a film to watch I would immediately exit in favour of doing anything else with my time.

This happens to me fairly often, not just with film but with streaming services in general. I cycle between the same few shows constantly, only occasionally breaking out of it to try something new (this month the exception has been Cheers). I made a big deal last year out of deleting Spotify after a decade because I was getting so picky while my storage had gotten clogged up by an abundance of music that I would never remove from my downloads. I even go back and forth about whether or not I want to have an audiobook subscription and about which tier of the BookBeat subscriptions I should get. There are too many options for anything nowadays, and I am too indecisive for it!

With there being so many films I can choose from, it also makes it harder to commit to watching a film in its entirety. As much as I don’t want to, I have a wandering eye! I’m constantly thinking about if I’ve made the right choice on how to occupy my time, meaning that I’m therefore wasting my time. Last night, I decided that enough was enough. I made the decision to go to the cinema today, meaning that not only did I have a nice evening out to myself but that there were significantly less options to choose from. What’s more is that I went for Disclosure Day. I’m not one for sci-fi thrillers and so it felt refreshing to see even if it wasn’t a wholly satisfying film.

While I was at it, I thought I would finally set myself the task of tending to my watchlist. This list on my phone must be nearing forty entries now, meaning that I have absolutely no right to be restless when trying to decide on a film. The majority of them are on streaming services that I have easy access to, so there is no excuse. Over the next two months, I’ve set myself the challenge of prioritising films that are either on the watchlist or on at the cinema. And no rewatches until I’ve made a good dent into the list!

Knowing what I’m like, it’s highly possible that I will give in at least a few times and watch something completely different, but at least that would still mean being out of the little film slump that I sometimes find myself in. Still, I’ll try my best to push myself out of my comfort zone, and I’ll try to report back here. Imposing a couple of caveats may help to keep things fresh but I’ll still try to limit those. These may include only watching a different film or adding a new film to the list if I then watch two that were already on the list, or making sure I’m constantly changing genres so that I’m not having dozens to choose from each night.

This ought to be interesting. I can’t even recall a lot of what is on my watchlist, nor can I recall why most films are on there.