Watching as much TV as I have lately, I’ve seen a lot of commercials. Notably, there’s an AT&T commercial starring Luke Wilson in which he says, “When you’ve been around [as long as AT&T], you can spot a hustle a mile away.” There he is talking about being able to “spot a hustle,” and it seems to me that the commercial is nothing but hustle. I particularly love the way Wilson pronounces the word “away” as “a-hway.” It sounds so artificially folksy. He has to know that it’s not the most common way to say the word, and that means he’s making a conscious choice there, deliberately attempting to appeal to “country folk.”
Are the country folk falling for it? It’s hard to imagine they are. They’re not stupid. But I sometimes get the sense that they like being pandered to, and if that’s indeed the case, then they’re getting plenty of it, not just from AT&T but also rival T-Mobile, whose commercials feature Billy Bob Thornton walking around in a similarly rural setting and saying similarly folksy things. (BTW, online I saw an article opining that these two actors with Texas connections had been chosen as spokespeople because Americans equate Texas with trustworthiness, to which I say: trustworthiness is not the first thing that comes to mind, honestly.)
The other day I mentioned that I had cancelled several streaming services. Specifically, I cancelled Amazon Prime, Apple+, and Hallmark, mostly because I thought we were spending too much on TV, but also because “Hallmark season” is over. My husband wasn’t impressed by my thriftiness until I pointed out that the total cost was approaching $40 per month. And anyway, we’ve been thinking about trying some new streaming services, and we certainly needed to dump a few before adding any new ones.
Speaking of which, my husband wants to get Paramount+. That’s fine by me, because that would allow me to watch new episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I suppose I could also watch Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, but TBH I’m not that interested. The very first episode (offered for free on Prime) was underwhelming. I think I’d rather rewatch Star Trek: Lower Decks, which is also about younger, lower-ranked Starfleet folks. It may be heresy to say so, but I think it’s possibly the best Trek, with one giant caveat: you have to have seen all the preceding Treks in order to appreciate its greatness. The people behind Lower Decks know the lore and seem to love it as hard as the biggest fanboy while also understanding exactly what makes Star Trek tick. You can see the reverence and careful craftsmanship in every episode. I’m looking forward to watching it again, whenever that may be.