By: Isabel DeMarco ~Guest Writer~

Slow TV finally made its way to Netflix on Aug. 5. It is a Norwegian concept that has grown in popularity over the last few years after first broadcasting the entirety of a seven-hour train ride in 2009.

The first show pulled in 1.2 million viewers, nearly 20 percent of Norway’s population. It provides television coverage of mundane, real-time events that are unedited and shown in their full length.

Netflix is introducing programs that range from one to seven hours long in 190 countries.

Netflix has added the following episodes to its roster: “Slow TV: National Firewood Evening,” “Slow TV: National Firewood Morning,” “Slow TV: National Firewood Night,” “Slow TV: National Knitting Evening,” “Slow TV: National Knitting Morning,” “Slow TV: National Knitting Night,” “Slow TV: Northern Passage,” “Slow TV: Northern Railway,” “Slow TV: Salmon Fishing,” “Slow TV: The Telemark Canal” and “Slow TV: Train Ride Bergen to Oslo.”

Slow TV generally finds an audience among people who are seeking to liven up their lives while they do household chores, such as folding laundry, paying bills and cooking, without having to pay close attention to what they are watching.

Slow TV places an emphasis on quietude and escaping from the fast-paced world that we live in.

Rune Moklebust, the producer at NRK, the Norwegian State Broadcasting Corporation, has described Slow TV as “Very different from the way everybody — including myself, to be honest — has always thought that TV should be made… TV has mostly been produced the same way everywhere with just changes in subjects and themes.”

Rather than capitalizing on cheap jokes and complicated plotlines, Slow TV aims to become a part of daily life, something that someone can watch to relax or have as background or something that does not need to be closely watched when socializing.