I mute all ads and just look at the timer counting down. I refuse to be forced to watch something I don’t want to watch.
It’s weirdly relaxing in a way, to watch the seconds count down.
This is YouTube btw, I have Jellyfin so I don’t watch ads during shows and movies.
We used to record this show and DS9 on VHS tapes for the express purpose of fast forwarding through the commercials.
Or the extra difficulty…press Pause when the ads start and try to unpause at the correct time
I used to watch this after school at a friend’s house while I waited for my mom to finish work. They were hooked up to a strange satellite service that (he thought) was connected to some kind of national feed. The result was that all of the local/regional commercials were missing. So, we got the show and one or two commercials; the rest was just blank.