How to Talk About TV Shows in English Spoken English Lesson
Hi, I’m Kasia.
Welcome to Oxford Online English!
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk
about TV and TV shows in English.
Do you watch TV?
How and where?
What kind of shows do you like or dislike?
You’ll see how to answer these questions
and more in clear, detailed English.
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Now, let’s get back to our topic.
Here’s a question: how much TV do you watch?
Do you watch much TV?
Not really.
I used to, but now I’m too busy, and I don’t
have the time.
Sometimes I put something on in the background
while I’m doing other things, like cooking
or cleaning.
You?
I go through phases.
Sometimes I get really into a show, and I
binge-watch it over a few days, or I’ll
have weeks where I watch a lot of TV in the
evenings.
But, at some point, I get tired of it and
I take a break for a few weeks.
So you’re either watching TV all the time,
or not at all?
I guess!
I get addicted to things easily.
I’ve never really understood the whole binge-watching
thing.
I’ve never been that into a show.
I can watch one, two episodes of something,
but then I want to do something else.
That’s a better way to do it.
It’s fun to watch a really good show, but
sometimes I feel guilty, like I could be doing
something better with my time.
Yeah.
Do you watch much TV?
In the dialogue, you heard several phrases
you can use to talk about your TV-watching
habits.
Look at four sentences.
Do you know what these mean?
Are any of them true for you?
‘Go through phases’ is a general phrase.
You can use it to talk about many things.
It means that you have times where you do
something a lot, and then times when you don’t
do it much.
So, if you say ‘I go through phases’,
and you’re talking about watching TV, you
mean that there are times when you watch TV
regularly, and times you don’t.
Maybe one month you watch a lot of TV, but
the next month, you hardly watch any.
If you ‘get into’ something, then you
become really interested in it.
If you get into a TV show, you start watching
it, and then you like it and you want to watch
more.
You can use ‘get into’ for other things.
You could say ‘I got into photography when
I was a teenager’, meaning that you developed
a strong interest in photography at that time.
‘Binge-watch’ means that you watch a lot
of episodes of a TV show in a very short time.
Maybe you watch a whole season of a show in
one or two days.
A ‘binge’ has the idea of something unhealthy.
Finally, if you put something on in the background,
you aren’t really watching it.
Maybe you’re half-watching, or you’re
listening but not watching.
What about you?
Look at four questions:
Could you answer these questions?
Try it now!
Make sure you answer with a full sentence.
Try to use the language from the dialogue
and this section.
Pause the video and make your answers.
How was that?
Could you answer fluently?
If not, remember that you can always review
the dialogue and the section again.
Let’s look at our next topic.
Are you watching anything good at the moment?
I’m looking for a new show to watch.
There’s this medical drama I’ve been watching.
It’s on Wednesdays at nine o’clock.
You should check it out!
‘On Wednesdays’?
You mean on actual TV?
Yeah…
Wow!
You still watch broadcast TV?
I haven’t connected my TV aerial for years.
So, you just stream everything?
Yeah.
That’s weird.
I mean, no one I know watches broadcast TV
these days.
I guess I’m a bit old-fashioned.
I like having a choice of channels.
Mainly, I’m a big sports fan, so I get a
cable package.
That way, I can watch football and basketball
games live.
That makes sense.
Still, having to watch something at a specific
time seems so inconvenient.
I like being able to watch what I want when
I want.
I have a set-top recorder, so I can record
things and watch them later.
Plus, you can skip the ad breaks.
Ad breaks!
I had forgotten about those.
Most streaming services don’t have any ads.
So, you never stream things?
You’ve never used Hulu or Netflix or anything
like that?
No, never.
I just don’t have much interest.
Wow.
How do you generally watch TV?
In the dialogue, we talked about two different
ways to watch.
Do you remember?
You can watch broadcast TV, meaning traditional
TV where you choose a channel and watch programs
on a schedule, or you can watch TV on a streaming
service, like Netflix or Hulu.
You also heard some different advantages of
these two ways to watch TV.
Here’s a question: can you think of two
advantages of watching broadcast TV, and two
advantages of streaming?
In the dialogue, you heard these: ‘I like
having a choice of channels.’
‘I can watch football and basketball games
live.’
‘I like being able to watch what I want
when I want.’
‘Most streaming services don’t have any
ads.’
If you watch something live, you watch it
as it’s happening, in real time.
‘Ad’ is short for ‘advertisement’
or ‘advert’.
‘Ad’, ‘advert’ and ‘advertisement’
all have the same meaning.
Also, they’re all countable nouns.
Be careful not to mix these up with ‘advertising’
which is the abstract noun, and is uncountable.
Can you think of any other advantages of broadcast
TV or streaming services which weren’t mentioned
in the dialogue?
Try to think of one more advantage for each.
Pause the video if you want some thinking
time!
What did you think of?
Of course, there are many possibilities!
Here are four ideas.
Broadcast TV is usually free, because it’s
supported by advertising.
Broadcast TV has more news and current affairs
programs.
Streaming services produce their own exclusive
shows and films, which you can’t watch anywhere
else.
Many streaming services let you watch TV shows
from other countries and in other languages.
Did you get similar ideas?
Do you agree with these points, or not?
What about you?
Do you watch broadcast TV, streaming services,
or both?
Which is better for you, and why?
Pause the video and try to answer these questions
with at least three full sentences.
Take your time, and practise your answer several
times, until you can speak fluently.
Could you do it?
Great!
Let’s move on.
What kind of thing do you watch?
It depends.
Sometimes, if I’m tired at the end of the
day, I’ll just put on a sitcom, or a cookery
show or something.
If I want something more serious, I like drama
series, and some documentaries.
I like comedy a lot, too.
Do you ever watch stand-up?
No, mostly just sitcoms, and a few cartoons
like Bojack Horseman and things like that.
Bojack Horseman?
What’s that?
It’s a really dark animated comedy.
What’s it about?
It’s about a horse who used to be a famous
TV star, and it’s set in a world where animals
live together with people, and…
You know what?
It’s a little hard to explain.
But, it’s really good.
You should check it out.
Who’s in it?
Lots of people.
Will Arnett, who was in Arrested Development,
and Alison Brie.
A lot of other big-name actors, too.
Is it funny?
Yeah, it is, but it’s dark.
It’s quite sad sometimes.
Hmm…
Maybe I’ll take a look.
Where’s it on?
It’s a Netflix production, so I think you
can only watch it there.
In the dialogue, you heard several questions
you could use to ask someone about TV shows
they watch.
Look at the questions.
Can you complete the missing words?
Can you remember the answers, or can you work
them out?
Let’s look together.
Could you answer these questions for yourself?
We’ll look at how to answer in a minute;
first, let’s check the meaning of the questions.
What does ‘who’s in it?’ mean?
And what about ‘where’s it on?’
‘Who’s in it’ is asking about the actors.
You’re probably asking whether the show
has famous actors.
You can use the preposition ‘in’ to talk
about acting in a show or film.
For example, you can say: ‘He was in Arrested
Development,’ or ‘Robert de Niro was in
Heat.’
‘Where’s it on’ is asking about where
you can see something.
You can use the preposition ‘on’ to talk
about where or when a show is happening.
You can use it for other things, too, like
films at the cinema, plays at the theatre,
or concerts.
Now, think about the first question: what
kind of thing do you watch?
You could answer this by saying: ‘I mostly
watch crime series.’
‘I watch a mix of documentaries and medical
drama.’
‘I watch a bit of everything.’
What about you?
How would you answer this question?
Next, think of a show you really like.
Look at the questions from the dialogue.
We added some adjectives to the third question,
because you’ll need different ideas depending
on the show.
Can you make four sentences, answering these
questions, to talk about a show which you
like?
Let’s see a sample answer: ‘I’m watching
a sci-fi show called The Expanse.
It’s about human society in the future,
when people live all over the solar system,
and the tensions between different factions.
The main story is about the discovery of alien
life on one of Saturn’s moons.
It doesn’t have any big-name actors in it;
I haven’t seen most of the cast anywhere
else.
I think it’s quite original, although the
story takes some time to get really interesting.
I watched it on Netflix, but I think now it’s
only on Amazon video.’
What about you?
Try to make an answer like this, talking about
a TV show you like.
Use the questions to give your answer structure.
Either write your answer down, or say it out
loud.
Or, do both!
Could you do it?
Try as many times as you like.
For now, let’s look at our last section.
Are you watching the new Game of Thrones season?
No, actually.
I gave up on it a while ago.
Why, is it good?
Yeah, I think so.
Where did you stop?
About two seasons ago.
I liked it at the beginning, but I felt like
it went downhill in later seasons.
Some storylines just made no sense, and there
was a lot of padding.
Really?
I think it’s just got better with time.
The season they’re making now is the last
one, and I think it’s the best yet.
The plot has so many great twists.
Normally, I can guess where a story is going,
but with this, it’s full of surprises.
Personally, I thought it was quite predictable.
One problem was that it got too melodramatic.
Every episode finished with a huge cliffhanger,
like a bad soap opera.
Well, they had a lot of plot threads to resolve
from earlier.
I think they’re doing a good job with it.
I hate it when shows leave storylines hanging
and don’t explain things properly.
I am a little curious to see what happens
with some things, but probably not enough
to watch it again.
I can tell you if you…
No—no spoilers.
I might change my mind.
You should!
If you don’t like a TV show, what reasons
could you give?
You heard several points in the dialogue.
Do you remember them?
Look at some phrases you heard:
Could you explain the meaning of these?
‘Go downhill’ is a conversational phrase
meaning ‘get worse’.
If you say ‘I liked it at the start, but
it went downhill later’, you’re saying
that the quality of the show got worse with
time.
If something makes no sense, it isn’t clear
or understandable.
If you say ‘some storylines made no sense’,
maybe you mean that the characters made unrealistic
decisions, or problems were solved in a very
unrealistic, fantastical way.
‘Padding’ means something which is added
just to fill time.
If a TV show has a lot of padding, there’s
a lot of empty content, which doesn’t add
to the story or the characters.
Of course, you could use these sentences in
different ways.
For example: ‘It went downhill after the
end of season one.’
‘Some storylines didn’t go anywhere.’
‘There was a lot of boring dialogue.’
Finally, let’s look at three more useful
words you saw in the dialogue.
Look at three sentences.
Can you explain the highlighted words?
A ‘cliffhanger’ is a dramatic ending to
an episode, where you really want to know
what happens next.
Often, a cliffhanger means that the episode
ends right in the middle of a key story moment.
‘Plot threads’ are like storylines.
Many TV shows have many characters and plot
threads, which go in parallel to each other.
Generally, you want a show to resolve all
its plot threads, meaning that every storyline
has an ending.
Otherwise, a bad show might leave storylines
hanging, meaning you never find out what happened.
Finally, a ‘spoiler’ is when someone tells
you about the story of a film or TV show before
you watch it.
Sometimes, TV reviews or articles will include
the words ‘spoiler alert’ at the beginning.
This is warning you that you shouldn’t read
it if you don’t want to find out the story
for yourself!
Here’s a final task for you.
Can you describe a TV show you really like?
Say what kind of show it is, what it’s about,
and why you like it.
Put your answer in the comments, and you can
get some feedback and corrections!
Thanks for watching!
See you next time!