I’ll never understand the obsession with things that aren’t real. Mathematics is real, science is real, grocery shopping…well, that’s all too real. But people shooting laser beams at each other and yelling their attacks in a foreign language? So terribly strange.

It’s the entire reason we have two televisions now. The kids can go and watch Lizard Orb Extra in the spare room, and I can keep up my tradition of watching Sail Away in the main sitting room, a show that does not involve any explosions or laser beams. It’s a terribly down to Earth depiction of people who do anchor winch repairs in Melbourne at the turn of the 19th century, and I honestly think it’s one of the best pieces of period television out there. I mean, it’s basically a sitcom, before sitcoms were invented, but there’s one thing I really like about it.

I used to work at the docks myself, and before I had to switch careers because of my leg, I quite enjoyed it. The thing about Sail Away that I really like is a) how accurately it depicts your typical outboard motor repair experience and b) it often has stories based around people doing their jobs, rather than the jobs just being a backdrop for their personal lives. True, a lot of them are comedic, because that’s television. Hunter might trip over a ley-line and accidentally dump a client’s new fishing deck into the sea, causing the lads to have to contact the deep sea excavation guys over on dock five (and everyone hates dock five).

So long as this stuff isn’t happening in real life, I’m happy to watch it on TV! Ah, it reminds me of the good old days, when Melbourne’s best outboard motor professionals got to work and just had a good time doing it. Which I suppose they still do, just without me. Hence why I need my weekly dose of realism whenever it’s on.

-J