Chinese films and TV are certainly NOT interesting.

Well if you can't understand what they are on about, of course they are not interesting; or just pass by unnoticed. This is the one thing that me and Dragonised agree on; he has certainly made it clear that FT's who do not apply themselves to learning the language are wasters. How, by the way are you getting on with your Mandarin- you did mention a while ago that in order to be near a group of friends you may consider studying in China- was it Kunming?