Back in 2011 I wrote a post about owning a TV. This week my friend Gary Delfiner posted an article about the future of program delivery and I agree with all he observes, but that the water cooler effect is gone. It’s not it’s just different. And before ANY water cooler talk with colleagues about a TV show you do have to set some spoiler alert rules; that’s all. I actually found it very helpful to be a season behind with Scandal in a recent situation as it gave us a much needed opportunity for a bonding moment when I finally caught up to the final episode of season two (OMG!).
Like Gary I watched Netflix’ House of Cards pretty much in one sitting – that is 13 episodes over the course of a week. As with Scandal I found the experience to be more like reading a book – I could save the best parts for times when I really had time to devote. I would in a heartbeat pay $29.90 again for 22 41-minute episodes of a show like House of Cards or Scandal. HOWEVER: this will only work with series that are continuous story telling. I would imagine that a NCSI marathon would get dull very fast as the character storylines are thin.
Better even during my Scandal watching I was on the road constantly – I watched episodes on my iPad and since it wasn’t Lawrence of Arabia I loved the intimacy of the small screen in my lap – in bed, on the train, on the plane, and the sofa.
Although I still record shows on TiVo I find myself turning to Netflix, Amazon and iTunes more and more often for series.
Other than news and the occasional channel surfing session (say summer hole) I do not watch live TV anymore. How about you?
Let’s see what season two of House of Cards brings, season three of Scandal and what ever happened to Lilyhammer?