Screen Time Marathons and their Educational Value!

I know lots of parents freak out when their kids watch "too much" tv. A few weekends ago, my 11 year old's grandpa introduced him to a show called Solitary 3.0. He watched it on Hulu, and got hooked. We spent about 7-10 hours in a weekend watching an entire season of this show. We/ he and his siblings have also spent hours since that weekend catching episodes here and there. It has inspired he and his brother to build their own "pods" in the basement from blankets and boxes and grey tape. They plan to add meal slots as well.
We are going to "play" Solitary, and I am going to be Val, the computer overlord... :) Today the boys spent time in the basement constructing their pods, after calling the local grocery store, and finding out that they wouldn't have large boxes available right now.
We are planning our own "treatments", which are similar to "torture challenges", "how much can you take?" kind of thing. We are thinking that it may involve food.
Then, my 11 year old ds hit upon the idea of eating meal bars for food throughout the days they plan to spend in these pods, just like in the show. I said that I could purchase them, but because of their desire to have what they want "right now", they came up with the idea of searching online for recipes. :) This led my dh to reading many recipes, being introduced to wheat germ, sesame seeds, protein powder, and other ingredients probably unknown to him, as well as watching a chef's video on how to make protein bars, and the nutrition involved. I listened in the next room hearing the talk about protein and such, and smiled to myself. Self directed learning. Health class, cooking class, art/ingenuity, imagination, working together, public interaction with adults, resourcefulness.... all came out of watching "too much" TV.
I love having them home again. I am soooo thankful to be leaving that depression behind.

P.S. Travis has now made 5 additional meal bars, to play around with the composition. The first one turned out too wet, so he added less water this time. He then put them in the fridge. Some of them he repeated the too much water mistake, and some of them turned out great, the consistency of No Bake cookies. He is excited to begin he and Aaron's stay in Solitary this afternoon, with only his meal bars for substinence! :)