Part of our evening routine is watching a TV show that John or I choose. If it’s a busy time on the farm, the kids and I proceed with this routine without John. It helps us to ride out the waves of the seasonal instability of farming to continue with some stable stuff in our daily routine when we are able.

We let the kids weigh in on the choice of the show, but it’s not free choice screen time. Generally, I gravitate toward something on the National Geographic section of Disney+ on my password protected parent account. Lately, John has shared a few neat farming YouTube channels with the kids.

Since it’s not exclusively kid-content, there’s cursing in this show that’s sometimes “bleeped” out and sometimes not. This is why we have to use my account to find the really good (in my opinion) adventure shows.

Sometimes the fact that we are searching for a show for everyone in the family means that one of us hates the show (but not enough to leave the room). Other times, we strike TV gold and everyone has some amazing forced family fun and all our varied interests are satiated.

Recently, we found a nature show on Disney+ about giant fish. It was a hit for all of us.

Disney describes the show this way: “Cyril and his team of adventure filmmakers embark on punishing and dangerous missions to find, study, and protect the last giant fish on the planet.”

I am not a fisherwoman. I would rather read a book in a lawn chair by a lake than fish, but I do have kids and a partner who are starting to enjoy fishing. Yet, I still loved the show. I did not even know giant fish like the ones in the show existed. To be surprised in my 30s at this level is a true delight.

(Seriously, go google for a few minutes the next time you’re bored about the ages and sizes of the sturgeon fish and tell me you’re not impressed!)

Even though I don’t get a kick out of fishing, I enjoy adventure documentaries, so there was some great crossover here for multiple interests within the family. The level of remoteness of this shows filming locations was impressive. Plus, watching them lug around and protect the camera gear in a variety of climates to make the show was intense. I dig their commitment to the craft of videography.

We pretty much binged this without watching any other nature shows in the meantime, there’s five 44-minute episodes and it went pretty quickly with some weekend watching thrown into the mix.

What special, niche shows are a hit for multiple interest in your family?