MelChi Interviews Robin Oatley
Insights from an avid TV Hubber
Robin Oatley joined HubPages 22 months ago and is passionate about watching TV shows and and writing about them. She spent the first two years of her life living in the Netherlands before her parents moved back to the United States. Her mother is Dutch and as half her family still lives in Europe, she regularly takes trips overseas to visit them. When she’s not studying or spending time with her family, she enjoys going for long walks with her dog, Boris, and baking. A much of her life has been filled with watching TV shows and writing about them. Let’s get to know more about Robin and her passion for TV shows!
You write a lot of TV show Hubs. Can you tell us when you first became fascinated with TV shows? What made you want to write about them?
I’ve always loved watching TV, but I don’t remember there being a single moment when I became fascinated with TV shows. I suppose it started with a couple of series I really liked, and it escalated from there!
One day, I searched for information about a show and came across a website where people wrote recaps of their favorite shows. I realized this was something I would also love to do. I was already watching most of the new series and discussing them with my family and friends. I searched for a good publishing platform and finally decided to create an account on HubPages, but little did I know that that decision would influence my life in such an amazing way!
After writing reviews for a while, I started to wonder what drives the TV networks to cancel some shows quickly, while others get more and more (and more) seasons. I started looking into it and after a while, I discovered that I could make some pretty accurate predictions based on the TV ratings. Of course I wanted to share those predictions too, and I ended up not only writing reviews, but also reporting TV ratings and making predictions about which shows would be renewed and which wouldn’t.
What work are you currently doing, and where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
At the moment I am attending a university. I’m majoring in Environmental and Human Health, and Health Care Innovation. To keep myself busy, I also volunteer at elementary schools giving dance and theater lessons.
Apart from that, my spare time is, of course, mainly filled with watching and writing about TV shows. For the last two years, I’ve really enjoyed doing that on HubPages, but recently also on a website I started with my two best friends, Emily and Daniel. In five years I hope the website will be successful enough to become my main priority!
Who are your biggest supporters, and what keeps you inspired and motivated?
I have always been supported by Emily and Daniel, especially when it comes to discussing and writing about TV shows, but the support of my faithful readers on HubPages is what really keeps me writing. There is absolutely no better motivation for writing than the knowledge that people are truly interested in what you have to say!
What has been one of your biggest achievements or most rewarding accomplishments so far?
My biggest achievement so far is without a doubt the realization of the website TV Watch U.S. However, the site is a collaboration with Emily and Daniel. I contemplated starting something on my own for a while, but now that we have it up and running I am so happy. My wild and seemingly-unrealizable ideas have actually been realized, and I was able to do this with my friends. I love how anything is possible, and how all the information on TV shows can now be organized in a very clear and structured way. For instance, it is now possible to divide my posts over multiple categories, i.e. News, Renewals and Cancellations, and Reviews, making it very easy to navigate through all the information.
HubPages was the perfect place to start my journey. It allows Hubbers to start publishing and earning money easily. The only thing you need to do yourself is to keep writing, but the wonderful community on HubPages is very encouraging and definitely helps in the persistence area! Without being a member of HubPages for two amazing years and experiencing what it’s like to write on a regular basis (and finding out what works and what doesn’t) I would never have had the courage to start an adventure like this. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to start.
In spite of how much it excites me, the website is actually not my most rewarding accomplishment. What’s absolutely the most rewarding aspect of writing is finding out that people enjoy reading what I write and consider it to be useful. The biggest reward I have ever gotten is the comments from readers telling me they like to read my reviews and renewal predictions, and that they are curious to know my opinion on certain shows and whether I think they will be renewed or cancelled.
If you had the opportunity to meet three TV characters in real life, who would they be and why would you want to meet them?
The first person I would want to meet is Joffrey Baratheon (played by Jack Gleeson) from HBO’s Game of Thrones. That boy needs a reality check and I would gladly be the one to deliver it to him. Even though I probably won’t get the message through, I would still love to try. And while I’m at it, I might also refer him to a good psychologist.
I would love to meet Miranda (portrayed by Miranda Hart), from the BBC sitcom Miranda, just because of her crazy personality. Who wouldn’t want to meet the person that can make you laugh so hard you almost pee yourself? I also support her views on free food (it’s the best), running (it’s not for me) and life in general (life is weird), so we could have some fun discussing how weird life is while enjoying our free meals as we sit around lazily. I really hope BBC America will start airing the sitcom one day so everyone in America can enjoy the phenomenon that is Miranda Hart.
The final character I’d really want to meet is Harold Finch (Michael Emerson) from CBS’s Person Of Interest. While at first he seems like just the nerdy billionaire from that crime procedural, he turns out to be a relatable but complicated mind who can be very funny from time to time, too. Despite all that, he’s the guy who knows how to build and program a true artificial intelligence, a computer that is able to reason at the level of humans. In fact, he’s even done more than that. I’d love to meet him so he could tell me all about it. While it might not be completely realistic, it would be awesome (and scary at the same time) if something like this existed in real life.
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