It must be 15 years now since we cut the cable cord, and I'm still glad we did; it cost more than Cdn$100 per month then (God only knows what it would cost now), and we rarely saw anything that we liked much. We abandoned the system just as the first "reality" show -- was it "Survivor"? -- was coming to the Canadian networks. (Note: In much of Canada, all TV comes by cable.) My husband would like regular access to sport, but since he likes rugby best getting cable again would not solve that problem. Between Netflix and YouTube, we get more TV than I can stand, and almost as much rugby as Himself wants.

I lost interest in "The Good Wife" (available on Netflix) a few episodes before the male protagonist (I have forgotten his name) got shot. I think it was all the cheating, lying, manipulating and prevaricating; the acting is uniformly excellent, but the relationships between the characters, as written, strike me as completely unsustainable. The law practice elements of the stories also seem wonky; rather too often, I would turn to Himself (a lawyer) and ask, "Wouldn't you get disbarred for that?" Also, processes that take months if not years in real life unfold in mere hours or just a few days in the not-quite-Chicago of "The Good Wife". The pleasure of watching Alan Cummings exude sleaze -- how can such a nice person play a rat so convincingly? -- does not offset my constant struggle to suspend disbelief.