I've loved TV and movies forever.

It’s why I wanted to be an actor, why I wanted to write. To be involved in storytelling. And growing up, I loved all the hard movies. Schindler’s List, there’s an important film that’s hard to watch, but you have to. I would record and catalogue films on VHS (if you know this, you’re as old and tired as me, or at least as old) so I could have repeated viewings, which there were a lot of – I’d spend whole school holidays re-watching my favourite movies using this groundbreaking technology.

Now we have online streaming. Every film, just about, is on a streaming platform somewhere, and we have access to everything at our fingertips – and I watch none of it.

So what happened?

Life. I suppose. I’m busy with work, with my boy, and it gives me less free time. But surely there is free time to enjoy a hit show or film? Yes, there is, and what I’ve found?

It stresses me out.

For instance watching The Bear. I was late to the game, and tuned in only once the second season was off the ground; I started watching the first season and was immediately taken in. It’s fire, chef. The acting. The writing. The way it makes you feel like you’re watching a reality show set in a restaurant kitchen – and that’s also why I stopped watching it. I got to the end of season one and forget the cliffhangers, I was like, man, that was stressful, it reminds me of work. I didn’t tune in for the second season.

There is a similar thing with movies like Marriage Story and shows like Scenes From A Marriage. Great performances from great actors, but watching a fictional couple rip out each other’s emotional guts ... can art imitate life a little less please?

I guess I’m at an age when I don’t want to escape into a real world or work stress or marital strife, I mean, hey, welcome to my regular life.

Suddenly I understand all those people who would tell me: “Ugh, I don’t have the emotional bandwidth for that show.” Apparently I don’t have the emotional bandwidth for anything but the easiest of things to watch.

Have I become a comfort viewer? The type of person that wants gentle, low-stakes shows where everyone lives, people are happy, and nothing bad happens?

I don’t think so. I still find myself entertained watching the new season of Black Mirror, and there are some bleak, bleak episodes in that.

I think I prefer my dramas not to emulate real life. Have a movie where the sun is going to explode and destroy the world, I’m there. A show that follows coal miners on Mars? Sure, why not. People playing kids’ games but the kids’ games kill them? Yep, sign me up three times for that.

I prefer my drama less realistic. 

And it’s really changed my view on prestige film and TV, which tends to be intense and, for me anyway, emotionally exhausting. I’ve become that older guy who hears about the new important movie making the rounds that everyone should watch just to be aware of whatever problem is being highlighted, and I shrug it off saying I don’t need to watch horror films, I need to figure out how to pay my mortgage.

Have I become one of the mindless masses that just want to be entertained and forget about their day for a couple of hours?

Yes. Yes, I have.

Is that a good thing?

Shrug emoji.

Who knows.

But watching less stressful TV is apparently a trend with older viewers, and I’m pushing 50, so, hey, that’s me. Another stat about older viewers is that though they watch three times as much TV as younger people, they derive less satisfaction from it. Suggesting that TV doesn’t make them happier, less stressed, or more fulfilled, and this is obviously why many turn to gentler, feel-good content that soothes.

The general trend is as we age, or perhaps burn out, we favour soft, low-drama viewing. And I concur.

Now I’m going to try to find something I can watch while laying on my back on a bed with my eyes shut.

Big Smile, No Teeth columnist Jason Godfrey – a model who once was told to give the camera a ‘big smile, no teeth’ – has worked internationally for two decades in fashion and continues to work in dramas, documentaries, and lifestyle programming. Write to him at lifestyle@thestar.com.my and follow him on Instagram @bigsmilenoteeth and facebook.com/bigsmilenoteeth. The views expressed here are entirely the writer's own.