Another little Reflection on Watching Television On-line

Way back, before the opportunity to watch online, even before the introduction of Cable, persons tended to watch two, three, even four hours of television a day.

One would come home from work, relax, switch on the news at seven.   At eight came the first drama, at nine the second and at ten, the third programme of the evening.

Some people watched more, some less, but one would not be considered aberrant if they did become a couch potato for four hours after a hard working day, or to relax on the weekend.

In America, television programmes are disrupted by advertisements, called commercials.  An ‘Hour’ of television in America is usually between 43 and 47 minutes.   The remainder are advertisements.

In England the programmes can go to any length, whether sixty five minutes or ninety three,  and it is all drama.

To watch a ‘marathon’ of one programme, or a number, spanning two, three even four hours, on-line, is nothing strange, considering our television ‘past’.

The benefits of on-line watching so overwhelm television viewing as to be a different genre.

Firstly, one chooses to watch exactly what one desires, when one desires, and how many or how few episodes one desires.

Unlike having to rush home to catch the latest episode of a favoured production, one selects the time and one can start a series a few years after it was aired so as to be able to watch more than one.

Secondly, one gets a deeper insight into the programme when watching without commercial interruption, the intercession of other programmes and distractions.

Many ‘highly rated’ programmes can only exist in small bytes.  To watch more than one episode a week, surrounded by other productions, allows it to have a certain cache.   Being able to watch more than one, without break, often displays the weakness of it.

Some programmes, like House or Quantico are ridiculous.  They are more fantasy than a show created to be a fantasy.   The characters, their behaviour, the plots, even the writing is idiotic.   Seeing one episode off set by others once a week is how they survive(d).    Watching two or three back to back displays how silly they are, for, in the former, no one like House would get out of medical school, and the plots of Quantico appear to be written by a twelve year old.

Thirdly, the better shows shine, and one continues to watch.   The ‘highly rated’ but poor shows don’t waste your time, for exposing them within the first few episodes allows the viewing of something more valuable.

As there are so many free sites to watch programmes, why anyone would pay to watch on line is a mystery.