TV Therapy

Well, it's Children in Need again, when the BBC generously tries to boost the pub trade by displacing its regular Friday night schedule with its annual telethon.  The other channels all graciously decline to complete, (because its for charity, so we all should be forced to watch it), putting on repeats and stuff they would never normally schedule in prime time. Thereby depriving me of my usual dose of Friday night trash TV therapy.  Which is how I come to find myself watching Goldeneye again, which is currently showing on ITV 4.  The fact that it is now old enough to be shown on ITV's fourth channel, rather than the main channel or ITV 2, is an indication that Pierce Brosnan has now joined the ranks of Connery, Lazenby, Moore and Dalton as a 'classic' Bond, too far in the past to appeal to younger viewers.  It's still a reasonably entertaining film, although it is scary to realise that it is now twenty years since I saw it at the cinema during its original release.  Luckily, I have other entertainment in reserve for this cold Friday evening.  Amongst these is an episode of Cash Cowboys I recorded earlier today.

If you aren't aware of what Cash Cowboys is, amongst other things it is the current preferred daytime TV viewing of my best friend - she started texting me about it earlier this week, (yes, she probably is insane, but I am, nonetheless, very fond of her) - which is why I've been recording it while I've been at work and watching it in the evenings.  Basically, it is like American Pickers, which shows on Dave, except that it is in Canada and involves more beards, cowboy boots and stetsons.  Obviously, if you've never seen American Pickers, then that previous explanation is meaningless.  Put simply, both series involve a couple of dudes driving around in a van, rummaging through the barns, sheds and collections of people they encounter along the road and trying to find stuff they can bid for, in the hope they can sell it on for a profit.  The main difference between Cash Cowboys (which, I've learned, is actually called Canadian Pickers in its native Canada) and American Pickers is that the Canadian guys are just so much more laid back.  Moreover, everyone in Canada seems just so polite. Which makes for very relaxed viewing.  It is far less frenetic than another of my daytime TV guilty pleasures, Storage Hunters, for instance.  Which makes a nice change.  Consequently, though, Cash Cowboys lacks the underlying sense of threat implicit in American Pickers:  you can't help but fear that at any moment the guys in the latter show are going to have a potentially fatal encounter with a family of murderous hillbillies.  Whilst Cash Cowboys hasn't quite displaced Travel Channel's Shed and Buried as my go to laid back TV show to unwind to, it does have the advantage that I haven't yet seen every episode at least five times.  Anyway, I'm off to watch that episode I've got recorded...