I have a confession to make: I’ve never seen a single episode of The Sopranos. Or Girls. Or The Last Of Us. I’ve never even attempted House Of Cards or Dexter. I stopped watching Breaking Bad halfway through the first season, despite my partner pleading that I “give it more of a chance”. The Good Place bored me after the first two episodes, and I knew I’d never be into Mad Men from the first few minutes.

Because despite being someone who loves wild plot predictions, fan theories and the intensive discourse around the pop culture we’re all consuming this week, I absolutely refuse to push through a TV show I know I’m going to hate. The same goes for books and films: if it hasn’t captured or intrigued me in the first third, I know it’s unlikely to satisfy in the long run.

Call me premature, call me a quitter, but it’s simply not in my nature to force myself to like something. In 2022, the average UK adult spent on average five hours and 16 minutes watching audiovisual content across all devices. That’s more than a third of our waking hours glued to the TV or a phone screen; valuable time that I’m not willing to waste on a show that doesn’t grab my attention almost immediately. 

Take Sex And The City revival And Just Like That for example, which returns to our screens today. While season one of the show proved divisive, there will be plenty of people trudging through a second season of a show they don’t particularly like, just because they feel like they should. 

I’ve admitted before that I struggle to keep up with the constant slew of new and critically acclaimed content we’re presented with. Across my Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Sky subscriptions, I’m confident I could fill the next few years of my life with the shows people have insisted I watch. Some of my friends have stopped sharing their recommendations with me altogether, knowing it’ll be a good six months to a year until I’ll be ready to start it.

Perhaps it doesn’t help that I’m also a chronic rewatcher. Easy, comforting shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, New Girl, Modern Family and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia are on constant rotation, meaning that if something new is going to usurp them, then it better be worth it.

Of course, I understand that some shows are slow burners. The likes of Game Of Thrones and Stranger Things (both of which I’ve failed to complete) take time and require emotional investment. But others, with clunky dialogue, unlikable characters and OTT plotlines, take no time at all for me to turn off. Even if I want to like something, as was the case recently with Parks And Recreation, I just can’t. Sitting down to a show at the end of a long day is such a treat; why spoil it by making it a chore? 

While I have quite varied taste, from comedies to more existential stuff like Black Mirror, I know what I like. So even if I get a little bit of FOMO when my Twitter timeline is filled with chatter about a show I’m not plugged into, it brings me comfort to know that I haven’t wasted my own time trying to flog a dead drama.

I had always assumed I was alone in my stance, but a quick straw poll around the Stylist office revealed otherwise. One colleague admitted that while everyone went wild for The White Lotus, she just couldn’t get into it. Another said she found Bridgerton “boring, cheesy and weird”, much to most of our horror. But the point still stands: what use is forcing yourself to consume something you’re not enjoying?

On rare occasions, though, I do broaden my horizons and take a risk that ends up paying off. On paper, The Umbrella Academy would be a bit too fantastical for my tastes, but I really enjoyed the complex relationships between the family, like if the Roy children from Succession had superpowers. 

Ultimately, it’s about setting a boundary with myself and acknowledging that I cannot do and see everything. That may sound like a deep way of looking at something so trivial, but the exhaustion of trying to keep on top of every cultural trend and TV talking point is very real. So I’m protecting my peace and hovering over the ‘end show’ button as freely as I please. 

And if that makes me miss out on a rare gem of a show that I’d probably really love, I think I’m OK with that. 

Images: Getty; Sky/HBO