Day: 21 April 2025

There’s a strange sense of joy and accomplishment that comes after mowing the lawns and thus filling the garden bin.

Knowing that you’ve cleaned the garden somewhat.

And knowing that you’re getting your money’s worth from the garden bin subscription.

Nothing worse than seeing that collection truck go past for another week and having nothing to meet them at the bottom of the drive with. Another few quid wasted (pro-rata).

But not this time. This time I’ll have an almost full bin and I won’t lie — feels pretty good.

Black Mirror: Common People

Dark as fuck. And so brilliantly doing a send-up of the modern “subscription culture”.

Both leads were great.

This is the second thing I’ve seen Chris Dowd act in after The I.T. Crowd. So it was a complete departure for me.

And he is incredible in it.

Similarly with Rashida I’ve only seen her in The Office and Parks and Recreation.

She too was great.

They missed a trick in one scene though.

When they thought that his wife’s implant was malfunctioning and they headed to the Rivermind building. They didn’t have Chris Dowd ask “Have you tried turning it off and on again”.

This is the first time in recent memory I’ve needed to watch something light-hearted after seeing an episode of something.

A bleak, subscription-based nightmare.

And I loved it.