Disagreements over TV

[400book]

This is going to sound like an odd one but I wanted to check if I'm actually being unreasonable or not!

Boyfriend of 2 years will refuse to watch a film unless it's rated 7/10 or higher, or a TV series unless it's rated 8/10 or higher.

We will sit down to choose something but end up spending an hour looking as he checks the rating for every. Single. Thing.

Then when he can't find anything that is rated high enough he will give me the remote to have a look.

Tonight (for the first time) I refused to look as I am so tired of having to check the rating every time I find something remotely good. He got cross and had a slight go at me for the fact that I wasn't willing to look for a film.

I know this all sounds ridiculous, but he's like this with a few other things too. It has to be his 'rules' for certain things yet I'm the unreasonable one when I don't play along

Am I losing the plot or is this as frustrating as I feel it is?!

400book

What do you get out of this relationship now?.

He actually needs to be an ex boyfriend now, who died and made him King of Your Life?. How can you be helped into not having him in your life any longer?. He targeted you deliberately as well I think, he saw something in you that he can and has indeed exploited further for his own ends.

What did you learn about relationships when you were growing up?.

He's not confident in his own opinions, is he? The thing is that any film or series can get a range of ratings from different people. Look at any book reviews on Amazon - it's the same there. You can find "The best book I've ever read" and "The worst book I've ever read" right next to each other. It depends on who's reviewing, too, and whether they like the same things as you. I can understand him reading a review and wanting to watch it, but by just checking the star rating he's limiting what he watches.

And he's not even in his own home! That's really unfair - he should give you time in your home to do the things you want to do.

I hope his book was at least shortlisted for the Booker Prize (even though it may not have won).

I loathe the Simpson’s or anything else dh puts on unless it’s stuff we enjoy together the odd film or documentary I read or play on iPad at nine or earlier if it’s very special medical I go into the bedroom and watch what I want, as a teen young adult I was bored ridged with tv stuff my family watched as an adult I refuse to be bored,.

@AttilaTheMeerkat

400book

What do you get out of this relationship now?.

He actually needs to be an ex boyfriend now, who died and made him King of Your Life?. How can you be helped into not having him in your life any longer?. He targeted you deliberately as well I think, he saw something in you that he can and has indeed exploited further for his own ends.

What did you learn about relationships when you were growing up?.

This post is a joke right? You get all that from the fact he likes to watch certain things on TV? as several others on here have admitted.

Now. If OP raises it as an issue in a calm,reasoned and adult way and he behaves like a bellend then maybe consider that he is indeed a bellend. What if he says "sorry, I didn't realise it was an issue and will try not to do it again"

Hmmm. I initially assumed you lived together and I was feeling a bit defensive if his position, because I rarely want to watch TV or films - I'm very picky about wasting my time on passive activities when I could be playing a game, exercising, learning something, if warning money.

However, he's a guest in your home and he's dictating what to watch. That's rude. Either he accepts your low-brow tastes 🙄 with good grace and watches with you or reads while you watch, or he can bugger off home and watch what he wants there.

Maybe a way forward would be to ask him "what shall we do this evening? Shall we watch something? Why don't you pick something" or maybe just ask what he'd like to do - does he enjoy games? Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Crib, Poker, Rummy, console gaming?

God this new phone keyboard will be the death of me.

"if warning money" = "or earning money"

[quote 400book]@tobedtoMNandfart Yes that's pretty much exactly what he does! [/quote]
So why do you put up with it?

What are the consequences if you don't?

Am I the only person who decides what to watch from either a trailer or a write-up?

I'm quite happy to look and see if something appeals, and then make my own decision.

@DrMorbius and you do realise that a critic is a real human that has based what they like on their own experiences and does not necessarily have anything in common with you?

Utterly bizzare to solely watch what some else has basically told you to.
I prefer to choose shows and movies based on my own interests, not someone else's.

@Nanny0gg

Am I the only person who decides what to watch from either a trailer or a write-up?

I'm quite happy to look and see if something appeals, and then make my own decision.

I do watch trailers but try to switch it off before they basically show the whole movie in them.

if he is spending most evenings at your house, can I check that he is doing equals with providing food. Cos Id hate to think that he is dominating the TV, and expecting to be fed at your expense too. Seen too many like this recently on here

IMDB and rottentomatoes reviews are not written by professional critics - they're written by thousands of random people, so you get a rough idea of what the average person thinks of a film.

But out of the top ten most highly rated films on IMDB www.imdb.com/chart/top/
I would only start at no. 12 :) - the others are not my type of film at all. Looking at the choices I would guess that men and teenagers tend to review films more often than women my age tbh.

Personally I have found some really awful films that are absolute comedy gems in the “They are so bad they are good” category

One we started watching was a serial killer film and about 10 minutes in you could tell who ever was directing it thought it was really bad but f**k it, let’s play it for laughs.

It became more and more funny as the film got worse and worse.

The only ratings I take notice of is if a film has won an Oscar and then I avoid it like the plague. I have tried an Oscar winning film from time to time but it is not for me.

I don't actually have regular, scheduled TV at all at home, just Prime or Netflix, so if I want to watch a film I can't just watch whatever is on. That's why I use ratings, simply as a means of choosing from the millions of films I could potentially watch. I also listen to film reviews and note down things I might find interesting.
How else do people choose when they could watch almost anything?