If you had told me ten years ago that my seventy-three-year-old grandmother would be the one explaining the nuances of the John Wick universe to me, I would have laughed. Back then, her world was Wheel of Fortune , VCR tapes of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman , and the occasional televised Mass. My world was Game of Thrones leaks, Netflix marathons, and Twitter plot threads.
And the story of how the three of us learned to watch, listen, and argue about entertainment is the most unexpected family saga of the decade. It started, as all family disputes do, over the remote. Sunday afternoons at Grandma’s house were sacred. She would settle into her floral-patterned armchair, click her tongue at the volume, and land on the Hallmark Channel like a homing pigeon. Leo, then fourteen and full of the particular arrogance of a kid who just discovered Rotten Tomatoes, would groan. My Grandma and Her Boy Toy 3 -Mature XXX-
But Leo was relentless. He introduced her to The Great British Bake Off (“It’s like your baking shows, but with less screaming and more soggy bottoms”). She rolled her eyes. Then she binged three seasons in one weekend. He showed her Only Murders in the Building because he knew she loved Steve Martin from Father of the Bride . She tolerated the podcast gimmick but stayed for the cozy murder. And when he finally sat her down for The Queen’s Gambit —a show about chess, of all things—she watched the entire finale in silence, then said, “That girl needs a hug and a better mother.” If you had told me ten years ago
The remote control war ended not with a victor, but with a truce: Sunday afternoons became “Culture Swap.” One week, Grandma’s pick (usually a 1950s musical or a Clint Eastwood western). The next, Leo’s (anything from Squid Game to Everything Everywhere All at Once ). I just brought popcorn and watched the magic happen. What Leo realized before anyone else did was that Grandma didn’t dislike new media. She disliked bad navigation . She could operate a sewing machine from 1962 blindfolded, but Netflix’s autoplay trailer feature made her throw a slipper at the TV. So Leo became her unofficial, overworked, unpaid streaming concierge. My world was Game of Thrones leaks, Netflix
We grew up with tweet threads, recaps, and Reddit fan theories. We watch with one eye on the screen and one on our phones. Grandma watches like a hawk. She notices when a character changes their coat color between scenes. She clocks the actor who played a minor cop in Law & Order: SVU in 2004 showing up as a new love interest in 2023. She has a sixth sense for which side characters are going to die.
Grandma would squint at him over her bifocals. “That’s not a twist, honey. That’s the point.”
