Watching T.V.

Six weeks. Six entire weeks without a drop of adventuring. Dithers sat in his apartment and for what seemed like the first time noticed the dull walls. He tapped a switch and extended the television and clicked through a few channels. The first dozen were all local Broadcasts, people with cameras shouting their drivel or broadcasting their latest film epic. Then the infochannels, which were divided up by category of product and had a constant string of hosts selling and selling. A few channels after that showed old movies and sitcoms from decades ago, but these had always seemed a bit strange to Dithers. “How could anyone possibly make a living as an actor outside of live performances?” he’d ask. Any content they recorded and tried to distribute would be mandatorily made available within minutes on the web by the free information pirates. Outside of charging tickets for the live show, most actors just gave away copies of their performances for free. And all the shows were far too long, going well over the ten minute mark. Dithers finally settled on the Epic Five channel. Each show was a series of connected clips while a tune played in the background. Sometimes violent, sometimes sad, within five minutes the mood would be complete and it would end on a finalizing scene. People walking away in the distance or the lovers finally embracing. The details of the story could sometimes be looked up online and a few directors still made entire films before just chopping them into sections. But few people could be bothered with such time consumption when all you were was a spectator. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, problems arise, these are resolved (or not, as in some Epic-Fives). And the action ones? Dithers couldn’t even imagine people wanting to know the plot to those. Being a part in the movie, like in a game, was just so much more fun.