Dedicated streaming subscriber makes recommendations

Television was a fickle form of technology on the reservation when I was a kid.
Our aluminum antenna at the back of the house was wired to the tip of a tall, spindly lodgepole pine, the kind used for teepee frames. Mom hollered instructions out a living room window as Dad stood in the snow rotating the pole a fraction of an inch at a time.
You had it for a second, go back! There it is! No, too far, go back the other way!
Our two stations came from towns in different directions 80 and 150 miles away, so changing the channel meant going through this tuning process each time.
Dad was like an ever-optimistic, long-suffering medieval monk hoping for a sign from heaven as the signal came and went, even while the incessant wind fought to turn the aerial into a weathervane.
The nearest station was in the tiny town of Thermopolis on the other side of Wind River Canyon, so it’s a miracle it came in at all. Their 5 o’clock news lasted only 15 minutes — 14 minutes too long for a 7-year-old. Their broadcasting set looked to be in somebody’s garage, with backdrops drawn in magic marker, and on-air “talent” apparently recruited from the pimply junior class at the local high school.

TV vs. the outdoors
Call me shallow, but I find lots to enjoy on TV nowadays — we’re spoiled with so many choices. There’d be more time to enjoy outdoor recreation if there were fewer entertaining things to watch indoors.
Back when there were just CBS, NBS, ABC and PBS, network programmers pretty much assumed no red-blooded American turned on our 200-pound TV consoles between Memorial Day and Labor Day. It was nothing but reruns, occasionally enlivened by short-term “specials” like “The Dean Martin Show,” headlined by the Rat Pack singer who always had a martini in one hand, a showgirl in the other, and a cigarette smoldering between his lips. (He was perhaps lucky to pass away in 1995 long before the Me Too Movement — though some of his tomfoolery was just an act.)
We neighborhood kids did revel in our endless summers outside in those days when you were expected to entertain yourselves from waking until dinnertime, followed by a couple hours more being eaten by mosquitoes in the playful dusk.

Evangelist for Acorn
With apologies to my long-departed grandparents who swooned over “The Lawrence Welk Show,” these are the best of times for TV, providing you subscribe to streaming channels and know where to look for ratings and reviews — rottentomatoes.com and metacritic.com.
I’m an evangelist for the Acorn channel, which at $8 a month or $80 a year is the best bargain on television. Whenever I encounter a friend who shares my enthusiasm for it — as happened at lunch a couple weeks ago — it’s like meeting a fellow American in the wilderness of an obscure foreign nation.
Acorn’s particular appeal is that it curates some of the best content from other English-speaking countries — the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Among my favorites: “Doc Martin,” “Detectorists,” “Heart Guy,” “800 Words,” “The Chelsea Detective,” “The Graham Norton Show,” “Foyle’s War” and “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.”
Britbox and PBS are Acorn’s main competition for British programming. Some personal favorites: “Vera” and “Death in Paradise” on Britbox; “Grantchester,” “Endeavour,” “Sherlock,” “All Creatures Great and Small” and “Professor T” on PBS.
“Fleabag” on Amazon Prime and “Derry Girls” on Netflix are two more unforgettable comedies from the British Isles.
My wife and I just finished watching “White Lotus” and “The Pitt” on Max/HBO, and look forward to catching up with the feuding comedians on “Hacks,” which just started its fourth season.
Apple TV has two of my all-time favorite bighearted shows — “Shrinking” and “Ted Lasso,” which along with the funny “Bad Monkey” share overlapping creative teams. The coming greenlit fourth season of “Lasso” is news to celebrate. We haven’t yet watched the new season of “Severance” but intend to; its native Washingtonian creator Dan Erickson is a shoestring relation of my wife’s.
“Will Trent,” “High Potential,” “The Rookie” and “Murder in a Small Town” are a few of the things we enjoy on Hulu, one of the grandfathers of TV streaming, with contributions from ABC, Fox and other sources.
I could go on with more recommendations, but won’t overwhelm you beyond what I already have. In these complicated times, it’s a relief to have so many great things to watch.
But let me leave you with just one more: “Catastrophe” on Prime is an all-time favorite comedy, described, “An American man and an Irish woman make a bloody mess as they fall in love in London. Scorching chemistry, instant pregnancy, and genuine disaster provide the foundation for this flaming hovel of a relationship.” Starring Rob Delaney, it’s hilarious, though probably not an ideal choice if you’re easily offended.