UK TV NOT OK

There used to be -- and maybe still are -- trucks with radar-type thingies atop the roofs prowling the streets of London looking for homes that hadn't paid for television-viewing licenses. 

This is scary?

The drivers were really comparing TV antennae on houses to the addresses of legit license-holders; the faux-radar was just a scare tactic. Nevertheless, the message was clear: Pay up or we'll put you in the dock. 

Could there possibly be a more intrusive way for the government to clamp down on TV-watching more? Sure thing! 

Netflix has threatened to preemptively remove films and TV shows from its UK library to avoid falling foul of new streamer regulations being introduced by the British government.

Ministers in the UK want media regulator Ofcom to police streaming giants in a similar way to traditional broadcasters, meaning the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video could be fined up to £250,000 ($310,000) for carrying harmful content.

OK, so the government runs the BBC. But to stretch their muscles to privately-owned streaming companies? Who gave them this idea, Ron DeSantis? 

And another thing: who decides what harmful content is? Somehow, I think the government won't take a poll of average British viewers but will listen to the Twitter scolds instead. You can bet ex-Prince Harry is already wondering how he can get a similar law passed in the U.S.

If the British government wants some examples of harmful streaming series, I'm more than ready to put my two pence in.

EMILY IN PARIS: I shudder to think how many teenage girls watching this show are thinking, When I graduate from college, I'm going to become anorexic, get a cool job in Paris, make cool friends who speak English, wear a different cool outfit every day, -- and make all the cool French boys fall in love with me! Mais non, cherie, mais non.

THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL: I shudder even more to think how many 20-something women watching this show are thinking, When I graduate from college, I'm going to move to New York, divorce my husband, dump my kinds on my parents, make cool friends like Lenny Bruce, wear a different cute colorful outfit every day -- and sacrifice all my marriages and personal relationships to tell jokes! 

FUBAR:  I'm not sure what's worse: 75 year-old men who think they can engage in fisticuffs atop speeding motor vehicles, or that their weirdly dyed hair is fooling anybody.

GRACE AND FRANKIE: Way too many grandmas are champing at the dentures to pay for enough fillers to inflate a zeppelin, and hair coloring that could overflow the Mississippi River; having snappy comebacks instead of meaningful conversation; and, like Emily in Paris and Maisel, a magic closet that provides a different outfit every six minutes.

THE GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW: I think the number one cause of divorce today is people ignoring their families in favor of spending 15 hours a day in the kitchen recreating in dessert form a David Bowie concert they attended in 1977.  Can't they get it through their frosted head that all we really want is a slice of chocolate cake and a glass of milk?

THE CROWN: OK, now I understand why the government created this law.

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