Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the BigAppleSchool podcast, where the goal of this show is to help you improve your English skills by listening to us. My name is Benjamin. I'm the host of the show, and today I'm joined with three other wonderful guests. So our first guest today... Well we can start with...
Today's the first guest is Katya.
Excellent. Welcome Katya. And then we have...
And last but not least...
So, yes, another freezing day here in Novosibirsk. So we all walked here. And... Well did we all walk here?
And we start almost every podcast talking about how bloody freezing it is here in Novosibirsk.
Oh but, you know what? A friend of mine texted me today from my hometown. She lives in my hometown right now, and she's like, oh, you know, it's kind of got warmer right now. It's -45 and it was -60 the other day. So let's just take a second to appreciate that we're not there.
-60. That's another... Another level altogether.
Oh, God, yeah. There's actually... A little bit off the topic, but there is a documentary with Tom Hardy where he went to Yakutia. He was afraid to die over there because of the cold. So yeah, another freezing day. But we're here in our warm studio, right? To make another episode of our podcast. Yeah.
Yeah, well, what else is going on?
I don't know. I guess everything is the same on my....
Same, yeah, not much from my side.
Yeah, that's true. Have you finished your оливье salads?
Did you try оливье salad, Ugur?
I haven't tried cooking it by myself. I, I tried, of course, and I like it.
Oh, cool. Have you had it before you came to Russia?
Yeah. We have the same thing back in Turkey.
As a Russian salad, we call it a Russian salad.
They have the same in Italy, in Spain, in Argentina.
Well, I mean, cause you have the what... The doctor sausage.
Well, in Italy, a student of mine told me they have prosciutto instead.
Well, that's much nicer, to be honest.
I think we kind of getting off the topic over here. Don't get me started, Benjamin. I can talk a lot about food.
Yeah. Well, doc, by the way, for our listeners, I wouldn't advise saying doctor's sausage to people who don't know much about Russian culture because you say докторская колбаса. So it's a very Russian thing. So I would not advising Doctor Sausage. I would just say...
Maybe bologna is the word. Yeah, I think it is the word. I don't eat too much bologna, but...
Anyway, so... Let's do some housekeeping before we get the show started. So...
To make sure that all listeners are aware of what's around us. So we have a aftershow to this wonderful podcast episode, which we definitely recommend that you check out. And if you want to improve your English skills, you can find access to a vocabulary list, which is part of the telegram chat. The BigAppleSchool, private Telegram chat. So there in that chat you can speak to us and you can practice your English skills and get access to vocabulary lists. And you can also see special footage of us behind the scenes as well.
So definitely find out more information in the normal BigAppleSchool telegram chat where yeah, where you can find all the info about how to sign up. Also, we have a few comments that we need to address here that we have on our YouTube channel. So hello guys. If you can see us on YouTube, we have someone called GF. I like that name. It's like girlfriend, but GF I guess they are initials. So GF said thank you a lot for the podcast. It helps me so much. Maybe you would wish to discuss something about new films and the bad situation about cinemas in Russia. I think that's interesting, the bad situation about cinemas in Russia. Do you think cinemas are bad in Russia? I don't think so.
I think it's more about... Not the cinematography as much, but about the situation that a lot of companies left.
Distribution of the films.
So the distribution, the cinemas kind of dying out, but it could be a fun topic to talk about, you know. So kinda fun.
Thank you for a suggestion.
Oh, yes. Thank you for the suggestion.
Yes, we can talk about that one. Yeah.
Well, also, we have two new participants this week. We have Alyona and Zlata. So welcome.
And another thing to announce, as we've mentioned before in previous podcast episodes, we have a online speaking club and Katya hosted a online speaking club this week. What did you talk about?
We talked about time management and productivity and how to deal with a burnout. If you have some. How to deal with procrastination. It was really fun. We had so much fun talking about it, and that was one of the livestreams where people actually took part so actively. I was so happy to hear them talk.
Yeah, it's good that they participate.
They practice their English skills and yeah. Even if you're shy, even if you're scared of making mistakes, it's okay. Nobody's going to judge you in these speaking clubs. So we definitely recommend that you take part in them. You can find more information in our Telegram channel for the BigAppleSchool. Also, I've got another comment I want to mention is from Stella O. And this appears to be on Telegram. So Stella O said огромное спасибо. I've listened to the discussion in the conversation club today. So the speaking club we were talking about, and I've really liked Katerina's ability to involve participants in the conversation.
I was really impressed with speaking and grammar... And the grammar skills of the participants. It seems that I understood everything, but it turns out that I am at the lowest level in speaking in grammar. Oh, don't worry, Stella.
Well, I know that, Stella visits the livestream to listen so you can do. If you are still, you know, shy to speak, you're afraid to speak. You can always... You're always welcome to just listen. And then during the conversation, you understand that, Hey, I actually think I've got the guts to speak. Just raise your hand to do that. You're always welcome.
Yes. So participate as much as you like. And don't worry, Stella, about your level. You're here to learn. You're here to improve.
And we're here to provide a supportive environment where you don't have to worry.
Exactly. Judgment free zone. You can sound like an idiot and nobody's going to care. It's absolutely fine. But you have to make yourself sound like an idiot when you're learning languages.
Yes. You have to test the boundaries in order to know what the boundaries are. So it's extreme.
Well, one way we like to learn languages is by watching a lot of TV. I love to watch TV.
And today we're going to talk about...
Is YouTube a TV really, though?
I consider it TV because it's on my TV screen.
Yes. Oh, okay. That's how... Okay.
So we're going to talk about binge-watching. And that's something that's I believe almost all of us are guilty of.
Well, before we start, how would you define the word binge?
Doing a lot of something in a row. Because we can have..
Well, so we've recently...
Had the New Year holiday, so most of us were binge-eating. Some of us were binge-drinking. We can binge watch stuff.
Yeah. So that's b-i-n-g-e, to binge and the preposition is on. So to binge on something. And usually we think of bingeing when it comes to alcohol. So binge-drinking. So if you binge-drinking, would you classify it as someone drinking too much in a short period of time and then not normally drinking throughout the week?
I don't know. It could be someone who's been drinking for several days, you know as well.
It's usually happens in the airport. So you have a flight to catch and you had like 45 minutes or something. You binge watch and not watch... Binge drink at the airport like 7 beers.
You mentioned binge-drinking at airports. I'm someone who won't stop talking about aviation.
You should have seen this coming.
I binge-watched so many YouTube videos of people having fights at airports and being pulled off planes because they're too drunk.
How did we end up here? It doesn't matter what the topic is. We always somehow end up talking about aviation. At least one comment per podcast. You know, we can have a drinking game based by it. Like drink every time Benjamin mentions aviation.
So the binge-watching... This is the type of bingeing we are going to talk about today. So, yeah, but what is it? What is binge-watching?
Well, it's when you watch, I would say the definition is when you watch perhaps two or three episodes or more.
I would say at least two or three.
And then the sky's the limit.
So if you... Yeah. And we're all guilty of that, it's to be honest, it's not really something I'm ashamed of... Because that's the century we live in. It's the era we live. And we live in the era of TV. And not even TV anymore.
And can you call a person binge-watcher?
Yes, you can. Yeah, absolutely. Good question. Yeah. A binge-watcher.
Yes. So we add -er to the end... of everything. So let's start. What have you been bingeing on?
Cause you know my... So I keep a list of TV shows that I have watched, and currently it's at the point of 84 TV shows. Have I binge-watched most of them? I might have. I might have not. Mind you. Yeah. Lately, I think the last TV show that I bingewatched was Dahmer. I did it over the New Year holidays.
Well, I'm not familiar with Dahmer. Tell us more about it.
So it's a TV show, actually. The main actor, Evan Peters, got a Golden Globe for playing in this TV show. It tells the story... It's called Monster, The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer. And it tells the story of Jeffrey Dahmer, who's a serial killer who was operating in 1990s, 1980s. So it's it's based on a true story and it's horrifying.
It was like six episodes, I guess.
That was... That was a good one.
By the way, just a note for our listeners. We say series in English, not serial. So, yeah, we've talked about this perhaps before, I can't remember.
So you can call them like TV series or TV shows?
Cause very often I see that when I say TV show, people like, Oh, you mean... Oh, I don't watch that. It's the reality show. Like, no, no, no, no, no. TV show means TV series.
TV series. Cereal is something different. It's something we eat, yeah.
Exactly. It's a breakfast food usually, or some people eat cereal at night.
Well recently, I've been binge-watching the... It's an older TV series. It's called Мажор. You know, it's a Russian TV show.
Oh, yeah, I've heard of that one.
Yes. So I watched the first two seasons before I came here to Russia over two years ago, so a while ago. But I forgot about it and I decided, let's pick it up again because I watched it with English subtitles back then, and I wanted to see if I could understand it without any English subtitles. And my wife is definitely helping me very much with regards to this. I'm finding it quite difficult at times, especially when... Because мажор and just to give you background, for those of you who are not familiar with it, it means silver spoon in English. That's the rough translation. And мажор is someone...
Yeah, well, it means that it's usually the son of an oligarch or a son of a very wealthy person. And in this TV series, Павел Прилучный, he... I believe that's his name. Yeah. He is the main character. And he is... yeah. He's a spoiled мажор, a silver spoon. Well, I don't think we can call him a silver spoon. He's just a son of an oligarch.
A spoiled brat. Right, exactly. But his father makes it... Forces him to join the police force. And he actually turns out to be quite a talented police officer. And why I have trouble understanding it is when they're using police slang jail.
I really want to learn how to understand these words. I don't necessarily want to use these words in Russian myself, but I really want to be able to understand it.
It's like have a bit of passive vocabulary.
Exactly. So I'm just focusing in on this show in order to. Yeah, it's improved my language skills and I'm annoying my wife so much because every 5 seconds I have to ask her, please pause.
I kind of feel like we have to make a reference that we actually have a podcast episode about TV shows and learning the language. So if you want to hear more about how to learn a language while watching TV shows, check that out. I think it was several months ago, so. Yeah.
Yeah. You can definitely find that on our website where we have a huge selection of podcast episode.
Database of the podcasts.
But мажор great, great TV show. A lot of people who visit... GF, he said cinema was bad in Russia. Мажор that was a bloody, it's a bloody good show. I'm really impressed that it was made back in 2014 and had a few other seasons a bit later. But I can easily watch...
Don't look at me. I don't know.
I can easily watch three episodes in a night without a problem. So yeah. So that... I don't normally binge watch too many TV on.. Too many TV shows. I binge watched Ozark. Have you seen Ozark?
The lead role was also in Arrested Development, I guess, right?
I'm not sure, to be honest with you.
I don't know his name. I don't remember his name, but the actor was also in Arrested Development. And that's... That was a kind of nice series, too. But yeah.
Cool. Yeah. No, I definitely recommend Ozark, but it might be a little bit difficult for our listeners because there's a lot of contexts that you have to understand about the States ...
Back stories and everything.
If you can overcome that...
Wait, Ozark, where does the action take place? Because Ozark... I know Ozark Mountains.
Oh, Missouri, but Ozark Mountains are also in Arkansas.
Oh right. Well, Missouri.
They're kind of named after each other.
Okay. Okay. Not that we show off any sort of geography knowledge.
I love, I love geography. It's a great topic.
We love to be informed, yeah.
Well, Missouri is a bit of a I mean, there's not much going on there in Saint Louis.
I love how you are finding words, you know, like, how do I put it? Missouri.
Miserable Missouri. Sorry. I don't mean to criticize Missourians, but come on. It's not too much going on there except for beautiful nature and a little violence and...
It's on my to be watched list.
Yes. But I saw the... Not poster. But I saw the... I guess you could call it the poster on Netflix. And it didn't look too appealing to me. I thought maybe this is kind of like some...
It's like a symbol, right?
Well, I'm just more of a fan of non-fiction, not total non-fiction. So, I like Мажор and James Bond but...
That is another reason why almost every podcast we hear from Benjamin. Oh, there was a documentary I recently watched, right?
Exactly. I binge watch on documentaries, for sure. But Ozark was particularly gripping, and I would call it, I guess I would classify as a thriller.
Yeah. There's a lot.... Yes. A crime related story. So I would definitely recommend that. Ugur, tell me, what have you binged on?
I binged on the last two seasons of Family Guy on the Christmas/ New Year vacation, plus the last episode of Trailer Boys. Have you ever heard of Trailer Boys?
No, I haven't. Tell us a little bit about it.
Trailer Boys is one of the best things came out of Canada. I don't know any other thing, but yeah, it's a Canadian series.
And they had like an eight seasons or something and they had one movie and I didn't have the chance to watch the last season.
I wonder if they speak with a Canadian accent. I don't know. Cause it's really hard to tell the difference between American and Canadian accents.
In a way. In a way. So but it is kind of cool to differentiate between what you hear and what you know or learned in a way. So it's basically about three hillbillies or rednecks. They are living in a trailer park and they're trying to earn their lives just doing some stupid things, just selling drugs or and selling like all illegal substances.
The Canadian Breaking Bad.
Kind of. And they have one supervisor and who is also a drunk guy and it's basically rotating around their kind of sick...
It's a comedy, but it's a black comedy, in a way, so...
So I definitely recommend our listeners to watch that. So they will like it.
And would you recommend that our listeners watch Family Guy? Do you think it's too fast to understand?
It's too offensive maybe.
So we have Stevie and we have Peter, so you can expect anything at any time. So I don't know. But if they like, they will definitely give it a go.
Family Guy is really funny. I just find it so intense that so much happens in such a small space of time.
Also it has some moments where you're laughing and you're like, I'm not supposed to be laughing at that.
I'm gonna be in hell, but yeah.
I'm going to be hell for that.
No, it is... So they are very clever.
It's quite peculiar, let's put it this way.
But it is fun. And so yeah, so it took me like four days to finish two entire seasons, like an 18 and 19. It was fun. Yeah.
How many episodes are in a season of Family Guy?
It depends. In some seasons, like, um, 14. Some seasons are 15. In some seasons, like the first couple of episodes were like on 18-19. So it depends, it depends on the writing process, I guess.
It's been going on for a while... Family Guy, hasn't it? Since the early 2000s.
2000s. Like 2001 or 2002. It was it was created as an anti-hero against The Simpsons.
The Simpsons have been going on forever.
They're still there, they're still doing great.
They're telling me Doctor Who is a long TV show.
That hopefully we'll touch upon.
Well The Simpsons is a real childhood favorites of.. I think everyone... In Russia did you have The Simpsons?
I really wonder what Homer Simpson sounds like in Russian.
The thing is that when I was a kid, for example, we only had like five channels and for some reason MTV was one of them. So and that's where they showed The Simpsons. But the thing is that the timing was so inconvenient, so I only watched it like briefly, 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there. So I didn't really understood what was going on.
Yeah. And also I would find it really tricky to translate a lot of the jokes.
There is so many cultural references, you know, and you sometimes feel like you lack the sort of background.
Information and background.
I would say The Simpsons is probably responsible for Americanizing British culture.
Which is why it's probably better to concentrate more on American English, because in England.
Exactly. In England, everyone understands most American words, whereas in America, not everyone understands.
Not everyone is a little bit of understatement here.
British people. Yes. But The Simpsons definitely played a huge role in that. As a child in the UK, I watched The Simpsons, I think almost every day at... What was it... Was like 7:00, 6:00. Did you have like a routine for The Simpsons?
No, no. For me, it was the Charmed.
For me it was like Rocko's Modern Life on Nickelodeon. Have you ever heard of it?
Rocko's Modern Life. It was kind of adult kind of cartoon characters. So...
But of course, you grew up in Turkey. So in Turkey, do they dub all the cartoons?
You can choose. You can choose on the remote. But when I was a little kid, they were kind of dubbed in Turkish.
But after that, you can choose like an original or subtitles or whatever.
Everything is dubbed in Russia.
Because when I grew up in Brazil. I was a little kid. I remember knowing The Simpsons in Portuguese. And then finally, because I am a native English speaker, but like, I grew up watching The Simpsons in Portuguese, I didn't really understand that they actually spoke English. And and it was it's kind of like a blind man seeing for the first time.
It was quite an experience. So, Olya tell us about your binging experiences.
So I've been binge-watching on American Dad lately.
I really love it. I'm on season 16, so...
And that has a similar kind of tempo to Family Guy, doesn't it?
I guess so, yeah. Like South Park as well. So..
My favorite. One of my favorites.
Yeah. I stopped watching that for like, um, a couple of years back. Yeah.
I haven't, yeah, I haven't watched it for a while, but...
But they are a new series, I guess.
I haven't even followed them for a while.
They're also Canadian. Yeah. Yeah. That's the second thing.
They're from Colorado. I'm pretty sure.
Yeah, yeah. They had a concert. Like an anniversary concert in Colorado, so, yeah.
So and another thing is, you wouldn't believe it. America's Next Top model. I just love it. It's my childhood. And, you know, the first seasons took place at the beginning of the 21st century. And due to pandemic, lots of people, you know, have been rewatching it and finding out that actually, no, it's kind of problematic show. Cause, you know, lots of things that were okay back then, they're not okay now. And you just watch and you start thinking like, okay, the society was...
You mean the political correctness or something?
Like everything. Oh, definitely. And you just watch and you're like, okay, the society was different. So yeah, it's interesting to see. I'm not there for, you know, like fashion, but for the...
I mean, it's kind of this is what is appealing about some of the reality shows. You know, it's kind of a guilty pleasure to sometimes watch. I sometimes watch one reality show as well.
Jerry Springer kind of things.
I love reality TV, as I've mentioned before, It's like...
It's amazing. And it's... Well, if you're watching it in your native language it is trash. But if you're watching it...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel it. Absolutely.
And I definitely spoke about this. I have spoken about this before for sure, but I really, really recommend that our listeners watch, um, English language reality TV and you may think, Oh God, reality TV, that's terrible. I'm so above that. I'm so intellectual. I want to read Charles Dickens and...
If you want to have a modern, um, vocabulary base and if you want to understand how people really speak and if you can't understand movies, well, you need to watch reality TV.
So that's why I'm watching.
And you're gonna have fun, yeah.
And yeah, well, which parts do you find easier to understand? Which parts you find more difficult to understand with reality TV? Because I find, like I said, with мажор. Well, there's different types of registers.
And I find the more informal registers really difficult to understand.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It doesn't matter. Like, you can study a lot, but still, there are new words, new phrases, and you're like, Okay, will I ever learn this?
But I mean, have you talked to teenagers in Russian? And you also sometimes it's like...
Do we speak the same language? And I thought I was you know, I thought Russian was my native tongue, like native language that you talk to teenagers, it's like...
I don't know that word in a way.
Right. Like, oh, my God. So, yeah, it's impossible to know everything in any language.
But, you know, if you talk about America's Next Top model, which is again, amazing. So what I love about that as well is that, you know, the girls from different parts of the U.S., even, you know, different parts of the world. And the accents are absolutely different. So, you know, you understand some people better. And, you know, sometimes you are like, oh, okay.
So you have someone from like Tennessee and someone from Minnesota.
That's actually a really good point. Good to acclimatize yourself to the different accents. What's your favorite American accent? Do you have a favorite?
A favorite to listen to...
You know, it's like favorite to listen to or favorite to make fun of?
Let's do favorite to make fun of.
Oh, definitely. Definitely southern.
Oh no, no, I love that accent. I would love if I didn't have a British accent...
What about New Jersey? New Jersey accent.
But to be honest, if it's a really heavy one, is pretty cool, actually.
I love accents in general. In general, you know, in any language. So there's something that, you know, kind of... I don't know. I have a soft spot for that. As Benjamin has made fun of. Yes, I'll remember that until the end of times.
So Katya accidentally slipped into a Liverpudlian phase.
I didn't slip. I did it on purpose. Okay.
It's not Scouse. Oh, God. No offense to Scouse accent, but..
Sorry. Not sorry. Anywho binge-watching?
Yeah, we were talking like TV. Yeah.
Come on, Come on. Let's just keep it together.
So, American's next top model. And what kind of dialogs they have... So just drama, just bitching about each other or...
Kind of. Yeah, but still, I guess that's what real language is like, right? So when you meet a friend, you just, you know, you gossip...
Don't we all bitch about each other?
Sometimes. Sometimes, I guess. So my point is, you know, you just have, like, basic dialogues, like, I don't know, in drama dialogues as well, which I love so much.
Yeah, I agee. Drama is wonderful.
I know it's staged, but still, it's my guilty pleasure.
Sure. Yeah. Like all of the reality shows are scripted I guess.
I'm so sorry, but I guess.
Have you just spoiled my day?
Can imagine Jersey Shore being scripted?
No, I think this one is for real.
Well, I watched it... Was it Судебное дело?
It's a court show in Russian.
I used to watch it when I was young.
And I thought, well, what's the point in watching it if it's all scripted? I mean, it's great from a language perspective. It's great for me as a language learner.
It's not fun if you know it's not real.
Oh, you are not supposed to know it's not real.
You know, when we were growing up, we didn't really know that they were scripted, so.
Just something you find out, eventually.
Well, Jerrey Springer..is scripted which is really unfortunate as well.
Dr. Phil is not scripted or is it? I believe some of it is.
You do not understand what they're talking about, do you?
Dr. Phil, for our listeners, he's a real psychologist, psychiatrist, I believe. I need to double check whether he's a psychiatrist or a psychologist. But he has a...
Plus he's a public figure.
Very famous public figure, really famous American TV show where he brings problematic people.
Kids, drug addicts, you name it. And he brings it onto the show... He brings them onto the show.
I guess the people are real, but the things...
That are very happening...
Staging the things well, elevating their...
He tries to help people solve these strange issues, and it makes it amazing TV. Even if you think it's trash, it's great from a language learning perspective and to be honest, I love Dr. Phil as a person. He brings discipline.
I think both Olya and I do not know what you guys are talking about.
But Benjamin looks so happy.
You'll watch it, you'll be addicted. It's just pure drama.
Oh, maybe we should check it.
It's going to be your next guilty pleasure.
Pure delicious, juicy trash. It's amazing.
Oh, just the way I love it. Yeah.
You just don't feel guilt watching that. You just enjoy yourself. Alright something is happening over there, and you just. You are safe on your couch. All right? Do that. That's cool.
Absolutely. So I've definitely binge watched a bit of Dr. Phil and yeah. We're big bingers basically.
Well. How is TV changed over time? Because binge-watching is... Would you say it's a new phenomena?
Well, it depends on how you define new. I mean, the first time the binge watching kind of started was 2013, which was nine years, ten years ago.
So when you when you think like 2013, you're like, oh, no, not so long ago, like a couple of years. And then you're like, Damn, ten years ago. So I would say compared to the history of television, yet it is a new thing compared to how many TV shows come every year. No, it's not. So but how it's changed. We started bingeing. That's how it changed.
We were wating the new episode of the series just for a week.
Right now. Okay. We can watch it all season in one sitting. So that's the thing.
So what did you do as kids? Did you binge?
The thing is that being, you know, being a kid was so different because now we have Internet. Even if an episode comes, you know, like one episode per week, you can watch it at any moment. When you were a kid, you don't watch it, too bad. You didn't go have an opportunity to rewatch it or something like, that's it. It didn't have a chance.
So that's why I was running home, you know, like the Charmed. The Charmed. You know, a new episode. And if I ever, like, fell asleep or something, I was like, Oh, no, how am I going to find out what happened?
You know, I rewatched this one, like, all the seasons. So...
Really? Like, I mean, now when you're an adult.
It kind of hits different and you look at it like the... Same with X-Files. I started, you know, when I was back in the U.S., I visited a friend of mine in New Haven and she was like, What about rewatching, you know, some of the X-Files. And now you see how overacting they are. And you're like, Jesus...
I'm mature, kind of, right?
That was like late 90s, right?
I remember that. The truth is out there.
The truth is... I don't remember.
So, yeah, that's how TV changed.
Well, you're an avid reader, aren't you, Katya?
I sometimes. Sometimes. It depends on the book as well. So let's say recently I started reading a book and even though it was hard emotionally, I've binge read it within like a couple days with a break on work, you know, sleep. So yeah, it depends. But sometimes.
Because before the advent of Netflix and all these streaming platforms, I remember people binge read the Harry Potter books.
I can actually see the difference because for the last eight, nine years, I've been counting how many books have, you know, I've read. So I keep track of all the books I read. I've been doing that for the last like eight, nine years. So eight, nine years ago. So basically when Netflix was not even present in Russia is just started to, you know, well, I mean it was already existed.
Selected countries in a way.
Yeah, I was reading like 50 books a year. But then... The TV shows appeared in my life and suddenly was no longer 50 books, but more about 30-25 now for different reasons is 19-20.
But still good that you get that many 19.
That's still a lot. I guess nowadays.
Yeah, I've definitely slowed down on the reading recently.
But binge-watching is much easier. Than binge-reading. You don't need to think much.
You don't choose what to watch or should I go for this one or for that one.
There are some TV shows that I think. You know, you can try binge watch and some people do. But I personally could never binge watch them like Black Mirror. You watch a couple of episodes, you're like, I need a break. I'm in deep depression right now.
I binge watched those. Those were amazing.
I mean, they are amazing, but they're just so thought-provoking. They give so much food for thought that after two, three episodes I was like, I need a break. I need my fantasy. Give me something uplifting please.
I think Black Mirror is probably one of the most groundbreaking TV shows of all time.
Rewatch it in a decade to see what's come true.
I mean there are a lot of great TV series out there but that one really like just shattered the Earth beneath me.
Genre defining kinda I'd say.
Yeah especially my favorite one was the Prime Minister and the pig.
You have a very interesting favorite.
But do you know why that was...
I would personally advice to just skip this episode completely and just start with season one, episode two.
But the reason why it was so famous because...
I don't remember...I don't remember that.
The Prime Minister. That that's why it was funny because in real life and kinda...
Please watch that episode.
That was a good one. Yeah. I agree with you,man.
I'm sorry, guys. I'm sorry. Yeah.
Yeah. Black Mirror, very black.
You can see yourself on. Yeah.
Um. Yeah. Really shakes you up.
I've got another question for y'all using my Southern accent.
Better to release episodes once per week or all in one go?
What do you guys think? I kind of feel sometimes that I'm speaking too much.
One go would be better, I guess. I don't know. I don't want to wait that long for the new material to come up.
Alight. What's going to. What's going to be next? What's going to happen next? Who's going to die in a way. So one go. Alright. All square. Oh, you don't like that idea?
You know, I see the pros and cons in both kind of things, because, for example, when some shows, let's say Netflix releases the whole season and there were some people who watched the whole season in one go, but you don't. And then, you know, there are spoilers bloody everywhere you go to any socail media and you're like for f sake, Stop it.
I think one of the biggest cons of releasing all the episodes in one go is it's, it's harder to appreciate all the hard work that goes into...
But on the other hand this is what has led to us being addicted to TV shows. Because, you know, you watch, you binge watched the whole show and then inevitably you're going to ask, okay, what now? Now I need another show. Now I need another show. Netflix releases... I don't know if you are aware of this, but they release new show every single week, which makes it 53 new TV shows just by Netflix per year. And then you start watching a TV show and you like, okay, I loved it. There's only one season, which means that next year, when the second season comes, you have to rewatch the first one to kind of, you know, catch up and remember what was there happening in the first one and that's it.
It never ends. And you're glued to the screen most of the time as a result.
And you become a couch potato just sitting there watching it, eat, drink and the repeat. That's it.
Oh, yeah. I mean, that's it's inevitable with computers and TV that it's going to happen to us.
When you have one episode per week, you kind of cherish it more. I remember when the last season of Game of Thrones was coming out to the very last one in 2019 I think it was.
You were waiting for like special...
I actually got a subscription for HBO just for that reason so I don't have to wait for it to be like available on television or something. And every... It was coming out on Monday. I was, you know, like and a lot of people were gathering in different rooms. I was living in a dorm back then. So and we had, you know, some little like wine parties, snack parties. So we were watching all together. And the next morning it would be fun when you were in a dining hall, you know, talking about the Game of Thrones and be like, Have you watched? And there would be someone screaming at the other end of the dining hall, Don't you dare discuss it. No spoilers. Yeah. You really were waiting for something.
So it kind of makes you appreciate it way more.
Yeah. Well, for those of you who are watching the YouTube version of this podcast, you can see our wonderful studio and it takes a lot of effort to set this whole studio up.
I love this transition from topic to topic, but go on.
But there's a lot of effort that goes into making films and TV series and let alone this podcast. So much goes into this.
That's actually fun that usually people do not think how much effort is going towards making podcasts, so they think, Oh, you know, you just get together and speak. Like can be difficult about it?
And you leave the room. But it's not happening in that way.
And then see how much equipment there is. Like no way.
Yeah, there's a lot. And also the sound quality as well. Like here we have a whole studio dedicated to...
And post-production as well.
Lights and everything, post-production.
Yeah. So it's, it's easy to just turn on the TV, but you got to remember.
Appreciate your content, guys. Like what you're watching.
By the way, do you always like videos? Because I'm very adamant about liking videos on YouTube.
On YouTube and commenting and liking. Yeah, sometimes.
I don't always comment, but liking is... a must.
Because I know how crucial it is for vloggers, bloggers and everything. So interaction is everything. So yeah, yeah. Same with like rating TV shows. If I'm ever on some sort of platform like...
Oh, you rate the TV shows?
Sometimes. Yeah, like Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB. So you know, stuff like that.
Star Rating and everything.
Yeah, I mean, I don't write reviews because there are plenty, you know, without mine, but...
You know, just rating it. Oh, it's not that hard.
Well, that's an idea for our listeners. If you want to practice your English writing skills, perhaps you can leave a review on any website or of course, on the BigAppleSchool Telegram chat.
But yeah, you can leave reviews. It's really good practice and that way you don't feel like you have to do some homework. It's something that you genuinely want to do and, yeah.
So don't feel pressured, of course, But this is something what you genuinely want to do.
Binge watch your little English language TV shows and leave reviews, and maybe that can be a new activity for you guys. So...
And suggest something new that you have anything on your mind.
Exactly. So if you're in the aftershow chat or the excuse me, the private chat for the BigAppleSchool. Write some reviews and let us know what your favorite films are and TV series are. And we can have a look at your English skills in the chat.
Recommend sometimes what words to use and everything.
Please come see. I love chat.
Make a good review. Alright guys will stick by for the off the show, so we'll continue on with this topic.
Oh, there are so many things to discuss over there.
Absolutely, guys. So you guys check out our website as well. www.BigAppleSchool.com and you can get access to a whole bunch of interesting materials like we've mentioned before. So videos, podcasts, grammar articles, other interesting articles and of course you can learn more about the courses that we offer here at the BigAppleSchool itself. So thank you for listening right to the end and we'll see you soon.
Катерина Рудых
Ольга Рожкова
