I get obsessed with things. Films, music, actors. If something shakes me up, I tend to cling to it. This time, it is BBC series Sherlock and the brilliant leading actor, Benedict Cumberbatch. Yes, I am that obsessed--I can actually spell and pronounce that name correctly.

The first time I heard that BBC plans to adapt Sherlock Holmes to be set in a modern-time London, I got worried; I thought they would ruin the beloved classic. But these series are so well-written, witty, classy, and the 2^nd season was…oh…

In the middle of my Sherlock frenzy, I understood that I am a liar. I kept telling everyone that I don’t watch TV: my hubby and I stopped paying for Ayety, since we seldom turned it on. Like a snob, I walked around declaring that I am above TV, that I am way too smart to spend my time on something so tasteless. But all this Holmes talk made me realize that I actually watch a lot of TV. Just because I don’t watch TV series on TV—I download them on the Internet—does not mean I am not wasting my time on something so tasteless.

I watch the following series: AMC’s Breaking Bad, BBC’s Sherlock, CBS’s Big Bang Theory, AMC’s Walking Dead, NBC’s Community…I suffer immensely because my favorite, AMC‘s Mad Men will appear only in March.

Additionally, I watch reality TV about fashion, design, and cooking. I am always: watching something, downloading it, or discussing it with others on FB or my hubby in person. Last weekend, he declared that we don’t have anything short to watch over lunch and I almost collapsed; so we inhaled the first 15 minutes of Sherlock instead.

There’s also a list of pilots we rejected.  We are taking these things seriously.

The other day I watched Martin freeman’s BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards acceptance speech: he received an award for the best supporting actor in Sherlock. I discovered that this guy also played Tim in the British The Office (that’s why Dr, Watson looked so familiar!). Last year, I rooted for Mad Men Jon Hamm to get an Emmy. He never did, and neither did my sexy Holmes, Cumberbatch, get a BAFTA.

 And thus, I actually watch way too much TV, contrary to what I thought.  So, why did it feel like an accomplishment when I declined AYETY services? Because I stopped watching Georgian TV.

I haven’t turned on a Georgian channel for more than a year. The only time when I do watch something Georgian is when my friends post some abysmal videos on their FB, for example Eka Khoperia’s Auditoria or Nanuka’s Show.  We discuss, we complain, we critique.  That is the only reason to watch those shows.

Sometimes, outside my house, I’m stuck in a room with a TV. Then, I am tortured into watching news. All of them are the same. The scenario usually goes like this: some high (or very high)-ranking officials open new hotel/resort/restaurant/ park/street/tree; someone dies, drowns, gets into a car crash, is poisoned by leaky gas; testimonials of neighbors, friends, family of the dead person; something important happening abroad; unlikely guesswork of tomorrow’s weather; rambling about sports; culture news--whatever that means. Alternatively, you can watch very angry opposition and equally angry talk show hosts and a low-quality TV broadcasting.

Most of the TV time is cluttered with South American soap operas, which, like news, are all alike. Sometimes, you can stumble across successful or not so successful attempts of Georgian sitcoms. Oh, and we are also treated to endless dance and song competitions, and  once more, I  realize that being Georgian with no musical ability  is more of a handicap for me, than mere lack of talent.

The truth is that Georgian TV is boring, it is boring to death and I remember with nostalgia the days when I was younger, so much younger than today…when new shows were introduced to us and we could not wait to watch Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, People Versus and such. And nothing on my TV can replace those Saturday nights, when I, a teenager, chose to stay home and watch Gogi Gvaharia’s Psycho, rather than go party. This guy is my idol; he screened interesting films and held even more interesting discussions after the films were over.

And how could we even have something like BAFTA or EMMY awards? No original shows or series, no low-quality or high-quality films, productions, sitcoms, no Dr. Watsons, no Mad Men, no Sheldon Coopers and no Zombie apocalypses…no Heidi Klums with fashion shows, no Top Chefs reinventing modern Georgian cuisine, no new interests for people to follow…could you imagine a Georgian TV awards show? Darn it, we can’t even have a talk show New Year party without “celebrities” stabbing each other with eating utensils.

I was Youtubing Cumberbatch the other day and stumbled across a Russian news broadcast; in the end of the news, the host announced that today their channel would screen Sherlock, just a day after it premiered in Britain. Please don’t read this as praise to Russian news, but their TV seems more entertaining.

 Do Georgian TV viewers even get the privilege of knowing what is produced out there, at least given an opportunity to watch something good created abroad, if we can’t come up with anything decent here? Don’t we deserve to watch what the whole world is buzzing about and keep updated, in this era of globalization? If we travel abroad, shouldn’t we at least have something to talk about with strangers on a plane?

But does it really matter? Is it worth writing about? No! Because in the age of almost unlimited information exchange, I can watch Sherlock just the day after it premiers, in English, no dubbing, thank you; because I can download BAFTA awards and marvel at the superb British actors and directors; because I can spot talented actors and rejoice when I see them in big, important films—like Cumberbacth in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I can be part of something current, something new and I can watch TV, good, decent TV, when I come back tired from work. So, I could care less about Georgian TV. It does not exist, as far as I’m concerned, cause since August, every time I turn on my TV—before I plug a flash drive with some series on it, it is blank. It does not exist. And I am happy.

But then again…I am a privileged minority with high-speed internet and knowledge of English.  Many people in Georgia do not have access to the Internet, and those who do, don’t always have the know-how of operating it to get favorite TV shows; furthermore, they can’t and are really not required to understand Sherlock Holmes’s native language. So they are stuck with Nanukas and Maias.

And thus, we grow apart and have nothing in common at all.