TV is the New Reading

Fall season finds viewers taking in television on their own terms

A recent Associated Press story discussed viewers taking more control of their schedules and watching television on their own terms. It estimated that one in five American homes have DVRs and people are using them, watching the new “Grey’s Anatomy,” say, whenever they feel like it.

I’m not for a moment suggesting this is a bad thing. Between Netflix and Blockbuster maintaining a steady stream of new releases through American homes and fresh network programming piling up on the TiVo, however ...

... what are we doing with all of our extra time?

I know what I’m doing. I’m rehearsing a play that opens in November. But when that’s over, I’ll probably be watching television as it airs, same as I was before rehearsals started.

Or, more to the point ... I’ll be watching it an hour later. It can’t have escaped everyone’s notice that they can watch two hours of commercial television in less than 1-1/2 hours if they’re quick on the fast-forward.

So what are we doing with all that time we’re freeing up?

Are we taking relaxing walks? Curling up with good books? Spending more time with our friends and families, trucking out board games and revisiting a lemonade front-porch world that for some of us just sped up too much after Eisenhower left office?

Or are we ... watching more programming?

My DVR, for example, can record two shows at once for later viewing, which is one more than my VCR could when that’s all I had. If I wanted to see two shows that were programmed opposite one another, I had to watch the one while taping the other, and then I could pull up the tape and watch that.

Now there’s so much good programming – and this fall looks like there’s going to be so much more – that I can record two shows while watching something I recorded earlier and then watch the other two recordings and ... actually forget to feed myself.

And that doesn’t address the stream of DVDs that are available through the subscription services I mentioned. With so many home movie options – and better and better home media systems – who has time to go see them in the theaters?

People have demonstrated that they’re less willing to put up with specific airing times. "Let the DVR grab it," they say. "I’ll watch it when I feel like it." How much less patience do they have for them when they actually have to leave their homes and go someplace else and plunk down cash for a not-always-wonderful theater experience?

People seem less willing to compromise. A lot of commuters, for example, will gladly pay $1.99 for a show they can view commerical-free during their downtime. When the speakers are actually in their ears and the small screen can easily fill their field of vision, the experience can be just as good as a theater.

And then you don’t have to look at the person sitting across from you.

In all reality, the ever more accessible mediaverse might indeed be deteriorating our interpersonal connections even further. I’d explore it in greater detail, but if you’ll excuse me, I just got home from rehearsal and have five hours of accumulated programming to consume.

Features Editor Terry J. Aman compiles the Best Bets for The Minot Daily News.

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