Entertainment has changed a lot since I was growing up.

It’s changing right now, even as we speak. (Or, as you read, and perhaps hear my voice in your mind…)

Back when I was an art major at Santa Cruz University (full disclosure, I was a double major: Painting and History of Leprechauns) the world of entertainment was a whole lot simpler.

There were movies and TV shows, sure. But not GOBS of them in a hard, strong stream.

Now, everything is right there in our face all the time, in our lap, in our phone. We almost can’t escape it, which I guess is the whole point.

My mom is actress Marion Ross who played Mrs. C on Happy Days, (thank you. She loves you too, please buy her book) and every time we talk about show business these days she says the same thing: “Well, there are just too many shows.”

It’s true, there is a heck of a lot of content out there. I think just the fact that we call it “content” is telling. That sort of infers that it isn’t terribly high quality, but filling, like a Whopper.

And watching shows today is a big commitment, as a viewer, don’t you find?

You watch a show today, it’s first of all hard to find, where is it? NBC, HBO, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, Al Jazeera Kids?

Second of all, you want to be up to date on the show. You have to be on the same page as your friends, so you can’t just NOW be starting Season 2 of Game of Thrones and expect to have a conversation about it with people: no one will talk to you, because they don’t want to risk the friendship in case they accidentally drop a very stale spoiler.

Either that or they’re very proprietary about it, or act like the gatekeeper to arcane knowledge: ”Ah, you like that character, eh? Well, he seems fine to you now, but in Season 6? Yeah, you’ll be seeing a different side of him. And then he gets a big hook thru his–Oops!“

Then there’s the whole “Beyoncification” of TV, when a whole season of episodes drops on one day. BOOM- you now have 13 hours of story to catch up on. Fit that into your busy week.

And the stories are designed to hook you and keep you moving ahead to the next episode-something they must have learned from the casino industry–you know, where you just can’t find the exit?

TV viewing these days is really like a marriage.

And when the show gets stale or unpopular and fans leave, they sound like people at the end of a bad relationship. “I don’t know, when they killed off everyone from that village last season, I realized there wasn’t anything in it for me anymore. The magic is just GONE. The kids are still into it, and I hate to abandon them, but they have to make their own choice.”

That being said, and forgive me for suddenly being self-serving, but MY series, Impress Me, is now streaming on Amazon Prime. Just 13 episodes of delightful content, and if you binge it, it will only take you 4.33 hours. You can fit that in to your busy week, can’t you? Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/No-Turning-Back/dp/B079TKLCKC/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519879675&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=impress+me+on+soulpancake