A little history

I went about a decade without a television. Although I was accused of being one of those people who say “I don’t watch TV” when asked about shows, or specials or videos, I didn’t forego having a television set to be self satisfied, I was on tour, plugged into a computer, and slouched over a TB-303 the whole time and quite frankly there weren’t enough hours in the day to spend any of them in front of commercials which made me furious. So in the interest of a greater serenity and personal calm, I didn’t watch television at all.

The reintroduction of the box came after house sitting a few times for my parents. They had this beautifully huge TV in the family room, and I would curl up in front of it and watch it for days. I had to admit that it was a welcome escape. When they sold their house to buy a boat and sail around the world I found myself the welcome recipient of this very same device. What fun!

Immediately I hooked up a VCR and became the top renter at my local mom and pop video store. And when I’d watched all the movies they had for rent, I discovered DVD and started to build a collection. Eventually I got cable with a DVR and now my television records the shows I’m interested in (Frontline, Nova, Bill Moyers’ Journal, and a handful of network programs which I like to watch like Family Guy, The Daily Show, and the recent Ken Burns documentary on World War II.) I love having a DVR because I can watch what I want, whenever I want, and I don’t have to be on the couch at any time in particular to catch my program. The best thing is the secret code which I’ve added to my remote control which allows me to jump ahead in 30 second blocks so I don’t have to see any commercials. None. Not even the subconscious ones while you’re fast forwarding through them. I simply click, click, click, click and we’re back!

I also have Netflix. I do the $8.99 a month, one DVD at a time thing. Usually I get 2 movies a week, and if I don’t watch them right away, I take it as a sign that I don’t really want to watch it at all and just send it back. I rarely have the television on at all, and unless my son is on my lap and we’re watching it together (usually a movie, and as a special treat… a bit of cartoon network) in an average week I might watch one movie and a couple of selections off my DVR. I read mostly, and work a lot. Relaxation to me means getting out of the house, walking, going somewhere, doing something. I really don’t like the way the television makes me feel.

I find my contempt for television a bit odd. I have no problem sitting in front of my macbook pro for 10 hours a day, scouring the web, coding, designing, listening to music, writing, or producing music. The feeling I get is completely different. On a computer, I am active, reading, thinking, creating, interacting… on a television, I am sitting there. The back of my mind begins to click after about 30 minutes… less if I am not enjoying what I’m watching, and I begin to get crabby. One sight of George Bush, even on a comedy program, and I am straight up angry. And yet, my body is relaxed, stationary, and unwilling to get up off the couch. Personally this makes me very unhappy, and so I avoid it.

Another approach

Recently in attempting to consolidate my bills, I thought it might be a prudent decision to disconnect my comcast service, and end my dribbling relationship with Netflix. I got the idea while I was catching up with LOST. I rented Season One from Netflix, and was so enthralled that I couldn’t wait for Netflix to send me the next DVD, so I removed them from my queue and started buying them from the iTunes music store… I cracked out completely on LOST and caught up to the most recent episode, the season three finale, in about a month.

Again, no commercials. Yes, it’s $1.99 per episode, slightly cheaper if you buy the whole season, but did I say that there were no commercials? and it’s immediate, and the programs are mine now. The ownership aspect of iTunes is less significant with television programs. I am far less likely to watch a tv show a second time, whereas I will listen to music over and over, and revisit beloved films annually. Somehow with a TV show, even one I adore, I just get bored as soon as I realize I’ve seen it before.

So doing the math, I determined that if I buy Apple TV ($299 for the 40 Gig model, $399 for the 160 Gig model) and connect it to my television, turn off comcast and return the DVR (-$49 a month) and cancel my subscription to Netflix (-$8.99 a month) after absorbing the initial $300 investment in apple tv, I’ll save like $60 a month. That sounds great, but what will it cost to buy the shows I watch? What do I watch? Really?

I love Battlestar Galactica. I watched one on Sci-Fi a couple years ago and laughed at it. I thought it was stupid, and overrated. It seems like office in space to me. But that was because I jumped into part two of an episode about establishing legal rights, and the negotiation of sovereignty between a Presidency of colonies which no longer technically existed, and the Admiralty of a combat fleet in a war which was quite real. I had no idea what was going on, so I saw Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell whispering to one another in not-very-sci-fi looking outfits and didn’t like it. I’m not sure if they were wearing chrome bio-suits I would have liked it any better… possibly less.

After listening to my sister’s partner go off about the program not long ago in mexico, I decided to give it another try. I began, sensibly, at the beginning. I watched the miniseries, and was immediately hooked. Now, as of last night, I am officially up to date and waiting for the season 4 premier like everyone else.

I love Lost. I’ve written about it here, and elsewhere. This is amazing television. If you haven’t seen it, I suggest you go back to the pilot (watch it on an airplane like I did if you can) and come up to the present with me. Wow, what a show. I like Lost so much that I am reticent to summarize the program. Essential television, far better than most films, or books I’ve read or seen in the last 10 years.

Mad Men, an AMC original series written and produced by Matthew Weiner, is a superb television program. Barely into the first season, I am hooked and I adore this show. The premise is that it’s the end of the 1950’s, Nixon is about to run against Kennedy for president, and Cigarettes are about to get warning labels on them, men and women have very different roles and relationships than they do today, and hindsight being what it is… the program not only honors the innocence, but I find myself salivating at the glimpses of the huge fish under dark waters of the issues which would eventually blow up in the faces of the establishment. Meanwhile, I’m a sucker for thoughtful period pieces, and anything which examines culture and values with intelligence, love, and a little sarcasm.

The honorable mentions are Family Guy, a cartoon that makes me laugh out loud, The Daily Show which rarely has me laughing, but has sadly become the place I get my news, and enjoy being entertained by people who at least appear to share my world view of the absurd and criminal politics of our unique times. Then I will watch Frontline, or Bill Moyers’ Journal occasionally, but in truth I find myself deleting these recordings more often than actually watching them.

Now what?

So what would it really cost me to watch apple tv instead of having Netflix, and Comcast? I’m not sure. If Battlestar and Lost come back next year as a new season, then I’ll buy the seasons at the outset and be charged $20 or whatever for the season, and iTunes will automatically download them as they are released. Then if I want to watch the daily show, or new episodes of family guy I can buy them one at a time. This sounds a lot more affordable, and strikes the crappy advertisements and temptation to find myself cranky on the couch entirely out of my life. Seems like a good deal to me.

So why aren’t I doing it?