Some airlines provide passengers with seatback entertainment screens. Others expect you to use your own devices. But when you’re in close proximity to other passengers, how you entertain yourself to pass the time on the flight isn’t only your personal business.
There’s a tension between individual freedom and shared space etiquette onboard – since so much entertainment contains violence, nudity, and crass language (whether it’s something you bring on your own device, or even that you stream from the airline’s content library).
- R-rated films, especially provided by the airline, surely are acceptable? If the airline provides it then it must be ok, even if children are nearby?
- Plus, everyone gets their own screen. Growing up near New York City I learned that you create your own zone of privacy amidst the crowds just by ignoring everyone else.
- But it’s hard to keep graphic content away from kids at most seats, since the screens aren’t really shielded. Maybe watch the stuff, but at least skip past the awkward scenes? Does the rule here change if you’re in coach with much less screen privacy versus a business class suite with doors?
I think there are some things that we can probably all agree cross a line in terms of what to watch on a plane. But sometimes it isn’t so clear.
- A flight attendant once shared on their Facebook feed a story about a passenger taking such a long time in the lavatory that another passenger expressed concern and eventually the crew started to suspect a medical emergency. After much knocking he came out, iPad in hand. He went in there to watch a movie. At least he hadn’t watched it at his seat.
- I’m never watching that kind of movie. But what about an HBO or Showtime drama? What movies are ok and which ones aren’t? If it’s on the inflight entertainment does that make it ok? (I’ve scrolled past What about inflight entertainment Mark Wahlberg’s Boogie Nights as an option.)
- In a premium cabin you usually have a bit more space, and maybe high walls. Does the seat you’re in dictate what kind of movie you can watch?
United Airlines Polaris Business Class
When you report an incident like this you have to hope, that your flight attendant isn’t watching porn themselves. Air Canada once warned pilots to stop leaving porn in the cockpit. And Etihad pilots once wrote up their inflight wifi for being too slow to download porn.
Do you bring your own shows to watch inflight? If so, what shows do you rely on to keep your interest on a long flight? I’m always looking for recommendations and wonder how you handle a more explicit scene?
I’m looking for well-written, well-acted shows that are really engaging — and often that hide crucial details, dropping hints at the end of an episode. That way I don’t get bored and want to keep watching as each one ends, pulling me into the next one. That means as much as I might enjoy Silicon Valley, Ballers or Brooklyn 99, I’m looking less for comedies than for drama.
(HT: Paul H)
This is what the left wants to show your children in public schools.
@Walter Barry — If you’re again resorting to whataboutisms, please recall all the right-wingers that are convicted pedophiles. Ironic, how you/they point the finger at the ‘left’ and ‘drag queens,’ when it’s usually those Bible-thumpers projecting their own sins…
@Walter… can you point me to some info on where this happened? I’d like to learn more about that.
Thanks
@Walter Barry – They’re eating the dogs and eating the cats!
@1990. “ it’s usually those Bible-thumpers projecting their own sins…”. Really, and pray tell, how do you know this?
@One Trippe — Many news stories of actual arrests, prosecutions, and convictions of politicians and clergy over the years. It’s publicly available. Are you denying it?
@Walter Barry
Allowing people to watch what they want even if it offends people around them is a libertarian ideal. You know… right wing
Start with the Catholic Church, see ‘Spotlight.’ Then continue onto Reddit, ‘not a drag queen,’ is a common ‘tag’ for these types of stories, where, a Republican official who often publicly decries about ‘baby-eating Democrats’ ends up being arrested for sexual assault, molestation, sometimes of minors, etc. Disgusting stuff. Horrible hypocrisy. Might as well also say ‘not an immigrant’ (because they too are scapegoated, even though most are not criminals.)
@YoYoPedro
They were, that was proven correct despite all the hair splitting from the lefties.
@patrick
Showing lgbt propaganda.
@bhcompy — Good point, yet, most libertarians are really just fascists, pretending to want ‘small’ or ‘no’ government or taxes, but, then, when their ‘team’ is in-power, they become authoritarians.
@Walter Barry — Correct me if I am wrong, but your team’s plan is basically to re-classify anything they don’t like (LGBTQ, liberals, Democrats, etc.) as a ‘mental health disorder’ (like ‘TDS’), then have us all ‘involuntarily committed,’ lose our Constitutional rights and protections, and either be exiled or left to die in the elements (a la Alligator Alcatraz/Auschwitz, no, folks, it’s not ‘over-reacting’ and it doesn’t literally have to be the Holocaust to be a valid comparison). Would that work for you?
As right-wing extremist Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation (overseer of Project 2025) said, “The revolution will be bloodless if the left allows it to be.” Please do continue to underestimate your ‘perceived enemies’ also known as ‘your fellow countrymen.’ Fake-triots.