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Amazon Prime is much the same except with far less danger of being eroded away by the insatiable demands of mankind in the 21st century.
Quite the opposite in fact.
Unlike its South American near namesake, Amazon Prime is a North American-based entity with a digital streaming flow every bit as productive as the river's output into the Atlantic Ocean.
If there is an upside to this coronavirus chaos and the universal demand to work from home, it's the opportunity to catch up on numerous sport documentaries which might have been considered too time-consuming in a world of more accountability.
Not that anybody is suggesting watching television during work time of course. No, that would be quite wrong and should not be entertained for a moment. Glad we've dispelled that rumour.
Numerous Aussies would lately have ventured beyond the familiar terrain of Netflix and Stan to the fertile grounds of Amazon Prime, lured by both the excellent eight-part chronicle of the Australian cricket team's phoenix-like post-sandpapergate resurgence called The Test, and the equally appealing offer of a free month trial.
Once there, they would have become the binge-watch equivalents of Howard Carter when first setting eyes on Tutankhamun's tomb.
What can you see? Wonderful things.
Such is the proliferation of fly-on-the-wall documentaries on the service that Jeff Bezos may need to consider some form of pest eradication. He can afford it.
In addition to cricket, almost every sport seems to be catered for from Andy Murray's heroic struggles against the limits of his own body ("witness Britain's greatest sportsman at his most vulnerable") to the All Blacks' attempts to "uphold a legacy of excellence" by maintaining New Zealand's global rugby domination.
But it is the world game which dominates the viewing demands of more than 100 million subscribers.
Ever wondered what it's like to be Thierry Henry playing for New York Red Bulls against former club Arsenal, how Toni Kroos controls a midfield or his Real Madrid teammate Sergio Ramos copes with the demands of being captain of Spain while also a father of three and an Andalusian stud farmer?
Well wonder no more.
Look no further for the definitive life story of Stoke City and Blackpool legend Sir Stanley Matthews or the tear-jerking tale of how West Ham United farewelled Upton Park after 112 years.
Who among us hasn't pondered the four-year rescue plan (somewhat assisted by several high-profile billionaires) devised by Queens Park Rangers when faced by relegation and bankruptcy in 2007?
"You have never been this close to Borussia Dortmund", accurately proclaims the blurb for the four-part behind-the-scenes docu-series about the Bundesliga club's "thrilling" 2018-19 season, featuring unrivalled insights into the training facilities, locker room drama and players' personal lives.
Obviously, the story of France's triumph at the 2018 World Cup is on offer but, a little less predictably, so are the less well-known accounts of Germany and Brazil's respective wins at the 1954 and '58 tournaments - the latter "starring" Pele, Garrincha and, er, Steve Hudson.
In the interests of research, I was prepared to sacrifice many hours of my (non-working from home) time to sample some of these offerings.
Like the Borussia Dortmund midfield, it's a mixed bag.
The eight 50-minute episodes that make up All or Nothing: Manchester City, deliver on the promise of "never-before-seen footage" behind the scenes of Pep Guardiola's record-breaking '17-18 Premier League season. From Benjamin Mendy's operating theatre to the bedroom of Sergio Aguero's son, this is an epic in every sense and therefore befitting of being narrated by Ben Kingsley of Ghandi fame.
Ditto for Make Us Dream, the revealing portrait of how Steven Gerrard dealt with the "unbearable burden" of delivering success for Liverpool.
However, when even the documentary itself describes its central character as a "dour disciplinarian" and then attempts to tell a football story with almost no football footage, it's a hard sell.
Welcome to Do You Want To Win?, the tale of Leeds United's title-winning campaign in the final season before the launch of the Premier League.
Elland Road may be level, but faced an uphill task of Underhill proportions (obscure English lower division football ground reference alert, with thanks to Barnet FC).
The dour disciplinarian in question is Howard Wilkinson whose fascinating gems stretch to: "The most important people in the dressing room were the players."
My personal favourite was Bo66y, the "deeply personal portrait of England's only World Cup-winning captain" which cleverly used the year of that triumph in place of the two 'b's in its subject's name. I was already won over.
With contributions from Bobby Moore's wives, daughter and even oncologist plus Pele, Geoff Hurst and, for some reason, Ray Davies of The Kinks, it paints a colourful picture of a footballer who became such a celebrity that he once went out and left Sean Connery to babysit his kids.
That's it, I'm going back to Amazon Prime, er, I mean working from home.
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