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Changing Video Habits

May 29, 2010 15:59:18.172

This report about TV/internet video use doesn't surprise me:

Nearly half (46 percent) of 18- to 25-year-olds spend as much time using online video services as they do watching TV, says RealNetworks. Research by online video software firm revealed that just under a third (32 percent) say the PC is their preferred platform for watching TV and video.

That tracks pretty well with what I see here - my daughter spends far more time with the net and video games (Xbox and Wii) than she does with TV. For that matter, so do I. I'm not entirely sure what changed, but over the last few years I've found TV to be less and less interesting. The only shows I really cared to watch on a regular basis this last few months have been Lost (now ended), Stargate: Universe, Dr. Who, and Fringe. There are other things my wife likes that I tolerate, but I don't much care about. My daughter is even further down that path; the only show I've seen her have real interest in lately is Dr. Who.

This will have a rather large impact on the standard TV/advertising model as the next decade unfolds.

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posted by James Robertson

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More TV Carnage

May 28, 2010 11:02:29.406

So much for Ghost Whisperer:

Not only did CBS cancel what was often Friday night's top-rated series last week, but ABC decided not to give it a shot either. In fact, things have gotten so bad for Jennifer Love Hewitt's veteran series that CBS has decided to can the summer reruns and move the renewed Medium and its reruns into the 8/7C p.m. slot for the summer months.

My wife likes that show, but I think it started to stray when it tried to explain the ghost world too much. Medium does a better job of just working on "if this were possible, how would it play out in the real world"?

So you take the wild premise,but then just run the world normally, but with that premise. Ghost Whisperer tried to do too much explaining. Never mind the killing of the husband, followed by the complete ignorage of his reinstatement in someone else's body, along with the "many years later" trick of having the kid grow up.

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posted by James Robertson

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A Lost Epilogue?

May 27, 2010 15:37:26.000

Michael Emerson (Lost's Benjamin Linus) says that the Lost DVD set will include an epilogue:

It turns out that when the complete Lost series is released on DVD, the set will include what Emerson calls an "epilogue" that will focus on Ben and Hurley protecting the Island in the post-Jack era.
"It's 12 or 14 minutes that opens a window onto that gap of unknown time between Hurley becoming number one and the end of the series," Emerson told host Kevin Pereira. "It's self-contained, although it's a rich period in the show's mythology that has never been explored."

So... the flash sideways was the post life before they could move on, but the island story was real. It's all very confusing :)

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posted by James Robertson

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Lost Ends

May 24, 2010 3:05:16.000

With the end of the series, it's time to figure out what the ending meant. From the final conversation between Jack and his father, one possible interpretation is that they were all dead, and this - it was like the final scene from Saint Elsewhere . So let's look at that notion.

The last scene - where Jack is stumbling in the jungle, and falls down - that was right after the crash (in 2004), where Jack has survived, but not for long. Then the camera pans over the crash scene (no remnants of a settlement). So... combine all that, and you get the following:

  • They all died in the original crash
  • Somehow, the people who were brought together in the church at the end had a "shared consciousness" thing going, where they constructed the entire reality
  • Desmond bringing them to the church at the end represented all of them finally coming to terms with their deaths
  • In that sense, the "alternate reality" was simply another escape from what had really happened to them

So... you can go all Matrix on that. There was no boat, there was no magic island, there was no man in black or Jacob. There was just a crash, followed by a collective refusal to accept death - and the series was that set of people living out a different reality than death, with the final episode bringng them to acceptance.

I'm not sure that's how I wouldve gone about ending it, but that's how it went. It was all a dream.

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posted by James Robertson

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Lost Worldwide

May 22, 2010 6:31:47.000

The "Lost" finale is going to be like a huge sports event - the Superbowl or World Cup:

Well, we know Lost's upcoming series finale is big, but this big? Countries around the world are planning to simulcast the airing of ABC's Lost 2-1/2 hour series finale, "The End," at the same time as the U.S. West Coast broadcast

That's something you don't see every day :) Still - that leaves the east coast ahead by three hours, so there's still the chance for spoilers.

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posted by James Robertson

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Overstaying Your Welcome

May 20, 2010 12:04:19.000

I thought in retrospect that "Buffy" should have ended with season 5 - Buffy defeated the god "Glory" and sacrificed herself to save the world. When season 6 (and later, 7) came along, it was all anti-climactic. Sure, there were fun bits (the "bored now" sequence with Willow, for instance) - but overall, the show was done, and just hung on.

Now, "Supernatural" seems poised to do the same thing. This season's battle was with Lucifer. I'd ask where the heck you can go after that, and sure enough, it sounds a lot like Buffy season 6:

Heaven and Hell have been left in complete disarray since the apocalyptic events of season five. And now, monsters, angels and demons roam across a lawless and chaotic landscape. And so Dean Winchester, who has retired from hunting and sworn never to return, finds himself being pulled back into his old life - pulled back by none other than Sam Winchester, who has escaped from Hell.

And it's on after "Smallville", which is still on the air for reasons no one understands. By this time, Clark should be Superman, but no - based on how far from canon they've strayed, he'd never be called that - instead, he'd be "The Blur".

These are stories - that should have a beginning, a middle, and - most importantly - an end.

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posted by James Robertson

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Good News, Bad News

May 14, 2010 13:14:01.000

I won't lament "Flash Forward" being cancelled - the book was way, way better, and didn't veer off into ridiculous conspiracies. However, it's a travesty that "Better off Ted" is being whacked - that's a great show.

Meanwhile, the eminently unwatchable "V" got renewed. Meh. SciFiWire has the story.

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posted by James Robertson

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Someone Buy Mark Cuban an XBox

May 7, 2010 11:00:04.123

Mark Cuban thinks that Video on Demand will beat things like NetFlix because it's so much simpler:

You know what is AMAZING about VOD ? It gives you thousands of choices and its already connected to your TV. It just works. You don’t have to buy another box. You don’t have to figure out how to connect it to your TV. You don’t have to stream from another device over your WIFI network and get all confused about how to pull video from the internet. It just works. That’s what you want when you unbox that great big flat screen TV. You want it to work…. like a TV. Easily. Quickly.
...
I just don’t understand why media pundits think that people are going to want to turn those BRAND SPANKING NEW HDTVs into PC monitors watching internet quality video. It’s a hassle. There is nothing that works out of the box.

Apparently, Mr. Cuban has never seen an XBox. Or a Wii. Or a PS3. You plug those in the same way you plug in a DVD player or cable box, hook up to the net (far simpler now than it was a few years ago, and something anyone can do), and bam - you have access to streaming media. No PC or laptop, no conversion cables, just a few clicks on your controller.

Cuban is arguing against a strawman that doesn't exist. I'll agree that it's a pain to hook a laptop up to a TV (for my Macbook Pro, I need a DVI to HDMI cable, plus a Y cable for audio). But... that's not the route that's winning. Wake me when Cuban tunes into 2010 instead of 2003.

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posted by James Robertson

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Another Oops on Our TV

April 20, 2010 7:08:33.491

I'm not sure why, but I find this sort of thing to be very amusing - it cropped up in an ad spot last night:

posted by James Robertson

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Why Flash Forward Moves Slowly

March 25, 2010 22:16:35.601

The same guy who ensured that all the drama was peeled out of Star Trek in favor of endless "character development" is doing Flash Forward - Brannon Braga. I think we can look forward to lots of slow movement, and a focus on soft stuff. Blah.

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