Modern Times: The New Way to Watch Television Last year Netflix, the DVD rental and streaming subscription firm, created a new entertainment venue by producing its own TV series, “House of Cards”. This is the latest innovation in an industry that has undergone radical change over the past several decades. With the advent of video streaming, the game has forever changed and has given birth to not a new audience, but one that is now watching serialized TV in an un-serialized manner: consuming the entire season of a show in one or two single sittings. How (and why), some of you may ask? Well, my answer is, “Because one can”. Of course, none of this could be possible without two developments: 1. The advent of technology, allowing the ability to watch TV on home PC’s, laptops, mobile telephones and tablets. 2. Broadcast entities, like Netflix, releasing entire seasons of a show all at once. Last year, I watched the first season of “House of Cards” one show at a time, in the traditional manner. I fully admit that I enjoyed the show and became hooked, greedily anticipating each subsequent chapter and the next season. On February 2nd, I received an e-mail from Netflix, pronouncing that season two was about to be released. On Feb. 14th, Netflix e-mailed that Season Two had been released in its entirety. I almost immediately hooked up and watched five-56 minute episodes in one shot. I watched the remaining eight “chapters” in two additional sittings. I readily admit that I shocked myself by doing so. “House of Cards” is good TV (not great). I like the cast; the two stars are Kevin Spacey, playing Francis Underwood, a ruthless U.S. Congressman from South Carolina and his wife, the equally devious Claire, played by the talented and lovely Robin Wright. The writing and direction is appealing. Employing an old cinematic technique of the main character talking to the audience, Spacey comments on what has transpired, proselytizing directly to the camera. There have been other TV series where viewers can download prior airings. Case in point was the Mad Men offering that appeared on the A & E cable network. After hearing my son Keith extol its virtues, I decided to watch past seasons of Mad Men that I had missed. One hears about similar marathon viewings of other popular shows such as those offered on premium cable services (The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, Weeds, etc.) and on network TV (Scandal, ). But Netflix’s House of Cards is different as it is not aired on a TV channel, but its media outlet is uniquely cyberspace. So those of us who favor this new way of viewing serialized television and have the time to devote to it (a benefit of retirement, I must point out) have quickly realized that Netflix has hit upon something here and other streaming services (like Hulu) will follow suit, if they haven’t already.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Feb 2014 01:38:50 +0000