ROKU

1 April 2021

I ordered Roku because of Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter).  I have watched his family show, Crikey, It's the Irwins for awhile now and the last episode I watched was his daughter Bindi's wedding.  I know she's pregnant and when I learned that Crikey was now going to be shown on Discovery+, I decided to get it so when the baby was born, I could see more (it's a girl, born a couple of weeks ago).

It's cheap enough -- $5/month -- and once I subscribed, I found all sorts of things I was interested in seeing.  I was particularly intrigued with a promo for a show called Pig Royalty.  Loving shows about animals, I was curious to see it.

I watched a wonderful Zoom chat between Ina Garten ("The Barefoot Contessa") and Melissa McCarthy (the person I want to play me in the movie about my life).  Such a delight!

But I had to watch these shows on my computer.  I knew that there had to be a way where all of these "plus" services could be added to my computer, but didn't know why.  I should have asked Ned and Marta, but posted to Facebook and everyone told me I needed to get Roku.

Now sure how you describe Roku, but Marta told me which Roku I should order and so I did and Ned got it set up.  I now have not only Discovery+ but HBO and other services that I have not been able to get on DISH. 

So I spent yesterday playing around with my Roku to see what I had and what I wanted to watch.  I was pleased to find Pig Royalty and settled in to watch it.

Oh my what a terrible show!  I lasted through half of the first episode  Instead of learning much about pigs you find out that this show is about the kids who show them and their pushy parents.  It's almost like a Miss America for pig handlers...their hair has to be right, they have to learn how to smile right, they have to learn how to walk the pig so that the judge notices them, and families have real hatred toward each other.  Winners get belt buckles and there is a contest to see who had the most belt buckles (dozens).  Given how many awards everybody has, they must have a contest somewhere every weekend.

So I don't need Roku for Pig Royalty but it's fun to see what else I have to watch.  A Bobby Flay/Giada De Laurentis tour through Italy, for example.  I like a lot of cooking shows and some of my favorites are Kids Baking Championships, where 10-12 year olds bake so expertly they leave me in the dust.  Discovery+ has SEVENTEEN seasons of Kids Baking Championships, each of which has 10 episodes, so there are 170 kids cooking shows for me to watch.

Last night in the middle of the night I was browsing through HBO to see what shows I've been wanting to watch and I came across Allen vs. Farrow, Rowan Farrow's series discussing his father, Woody Allen's relationship with his children and his child abuse.

The show is exhaustively complete and, despite the subject matter, actually boring.  I thought it was just one movie, but it's a series.  I don't know how many episodes there are, but I was not interested in seeing it so won't watch any more.

I also wanted to see The United States vs. Billie Holiday, which is on Hulu, but for some reason it won't play, so I didn't get to see that.

But I found Hugh Grant's The Undoing, which many people are raving about so now I can watch that.  So many choices...so few hours!  I'm going to have to stop trying to sleep at night so I can get more of these things watched!

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Yesterday was Brianna's 13 birthday and we went to call her last night and discovered that she now has her own phone.  My word.  She IS getting old!  We had a great FaceTime chat with her for about half an hour.  She was able to walk around the house and mostly talk in her bedroom, which meant that she didn't have to fight Lacie for the phone and we had perhaps the best chat we have ever had with her.