Time Commitments

Every year, there’s a couple of TV programmes I end up committing way too much time to. I do watch/record a number of things, but they’re not what I mean.

In both cases, the series are on every day, which takes time away from doing other stuff. Most of the other things I watch are an hour a week, but when they’re an hour a day it takes away from everything else. And of course it would be a shedload easier if it weren’t the case that both series tend to be on at the same time of year.

This year it’s been two Masterchef programmes – the Australian version, and the one for UK Professionals.

I love the Aussie one – someone else I know described it as “If you want to know everything about Australia in one programme, watch that“, and it’s absolutely true. Totally different to the UK version, much more fun, and a far, far nicer programme. But dear God, it’s a commitment – this most recent series has had no less than 62 programmes. Five days a week, for nearly three months. That’s a long haul.

The UK Professionals one is also interesting, for different reasons. It’s also less of a bind, as it’s only five or six weeks, but still three days a week. I find the different levels of professional cooking etc. to be fascinating, as well as the restaurants, chefs and challenges.

Both programmes have come to a close this week, and while I’m sad that they’ve finished, I can’t help but also think “Yay, I get more time!”