I'm a minority in that I think as long as you really are watching things you enjoy, and it's not negatively affecting any other part of your life or your health, then go forth. I don't see watching television or movies, especially quality stuff, as any different than going to the theater, except one feels more upper class. Maybe it's because I live in LA, but for so many people I know, television and especially movies are legitimately their #1 hobby, topic of discussion, and often even their job to have a deep knowledge of movies and tv. It's a legitimate art form that many, many people take very seriously, and involves serious criticism and discussions about society, history, art, etc.
If you are watching stuff I subjectively consider to be garbage (I dunno, Fox News, Girls Gone Wild, Daniel Tosh, golf), then sure, I'll gently suggest you use your time better. But your time is your time, your life is your life. As long as it isn't actually being used as an excuse to avoid your real life, or hurting anyone else, enjoy yourself. You won't hear me giving you a hard time about it.
ETA: I have a busy job so many if not most nights I watch zero. If I have a free weekend, I could easily spend 5-6 hours per day watching TV - calm down folks, I also clean my house, exercise, and do other things. On the rare weeknight I have time, I'll watch 1-3 hours.
I don't watch the news because that is mostly garbage. My interests are in drama, comedy, thriller movies or series which has to lighten me up. I really enjoy great performances in acting, story telling etc. In fact I don't have a TV subscription, just the Netflix.
I agree that watching 'tv' in and of itself isn't a bad activity, as long as you are watching quality material and doing so with some engagement. I was a huge film buff in my youth... I considered it a main hobby and watched a movie or filmed theater or concert most nights of the week, was our high school newspaper film reviewer, worked at video stores on and off through high school and college. Considered majoring in it in college, though quickly decided not to.
For the past 15 years or so, I no longer watch so many movies, but DH and I do watch movies or tv most nights while eating dinner, so that's usually 20 min-1 hour/day, most days (we rarely make it through an entire movie in one night). Sometimes we talk instead, or listen to podcasts or audio books while eating. The tv literally never is turned on except for this window of time, or occasionally to watch a weekend football game. Again, b/c this is consciously chosen time and specific material, it feels like an appropriate amount to us. We're fine with zero tv/screen time on trips, etc.
What I dislike, is that when we are very stressed or busy, we will sometimes default to 20 minutes watching a repeat South Park or Archer episode while eating dinner, just b/c it's 9 pm and we're brain-fried at the end of the day. On those occasions, it feels like a lazy 'default' activity b/c it IS. Those days, we aren't engaging, we're just occupying our eyes and ears with something for the half an hour before bed as our brains are shutting down.
I'm trying to get more in the habit of choosing to read a book while eating on those types of days. But even that seems like a lot of effort some nights (esp b/c our jobs involve reading and editing much of the work day).
I'm curious what other people do while eating dinner besides reading or watching something? Just eating and staring into space isn't a very pleasurable way to finish the day for us.
Bottom line for me is, viewing itself isn't a 'bad' activity, but when it feels too 'passive' or more than an hour per day I tend to start questioning it and looking for alternatives. YMMV
ETA...I note the OP also asked about free time/hobbies in general. That is somewhat of a different issue for me b/c I associate tv/movies ONLY with dinner-time (apart from the very occasional 'going out to the movies or theater' thing). Finding hobbies to fill free time IS a problem for DH and me, and we struggle with it, so I do relate to the OP on that general point. Our hobbies have always been outdoor oriented and most aren't do-able where we've lived for the past 18 years. It SUCKS unbelievably. But on the other hand, we haven't done a great job of trying to develop new hobbies to fill that huge gap and as a result, we just spend 80% of our lives working. Which also sucks. It's an ongoing problem. It got so bad (we were down to just a handful of 'free hours' every few weekends) that I actually started looking up lists of hobbies we could try so as to something, ANYTHING other than work. But nothing stuck for us apart from the main hobby that each of us does (him: music, me: gardening). And we only want to do those hobbies for a couple hours per week. So we developed a 'gym habit' that takes up an hour or two most days of the week. We enjoy that, to some extent. But still, I wish we could figure out how to have more of what I used to think of as 'fun' on weekends. So I sympathize with the OP on that.