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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/em>. I suppose I could also watch Star Trek: Starfleet Academy<\/em>, 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<\/em>, 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<\/em> know the lore and seem to love it as hard as the biggest fanboy while also understanding exactly what makes Star Trek<\/em> tick. You can see the reverence and careful craftsmanship in every episode. I’m looking forward to watching it again, whenever that may be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading