Occasionally, over the years since I cancelled our satellite television service, I wonder if we miss much in not having a cable or satellite TV provider. The answer, after nearly a decade without it, is still no.
Nonetheless, we still enjoy watching movies and television series. And last weekend I was still able to take in the National Football League wild card playoff series, including the vicious and disturbingly wonderful Pittsburgh-Cincinnati game. But whatever we watch, some sports games aside, is commercial-free. Most of our home entertainment is provided by streaming sites, which we watch with our flat screen television connected to my laptop computer.
Netflix is the only service we pay for, and even that is enhanced with a subscription to a program that allows my computer to pretend we are in different countries, giving us access to more than just the Canadian Netflix library. The other movies, series and sports we enjoy are provided courtesy of others who share what they are watching.
Streaming is not without its challenges. The picture, particularly for games, is variable and occasionally I have to change streaming providers to get a feed that doesn’t break up regularly. But the frustration level is not comparable to that of watching 10 minutes of commercials for every half hour of viewing.
Much of what we watch on Netflix can be found on free sites, but I happily continue to pay the monthly subscription because I think it is the best entertainment value available. And when I instruct my computer to pretend we live in Britain, Netflix offers a much better selection of British and European television series, many of which we thoroughly enjoy.
It seemed strange recently to read newspaper sites commenting on the new and final season of Downton Abbey. We watched those shows a few months ago, as soon as they had been aired in the United Kingdom. (I will resist spoiling the viewing experience for others by revealing the ending!)
Most movies can be watched on Internet sites shortly after, or sometimes even before, they have been released to theatres. Of course, nothing beats the experience of watching a movie on the big screen, but viewing in the comfort of our living room has its appeal. In recent weeks we have watched many of the movies likely to be nominated for Academy Awards and there are a number that I simply would not have gone to a theatre to watch. It’s easier to turn off a stinker than it is to walk out of a theatre.
Streaming video fans have come to enjoy binging, or watching entire TV series in a short period of time. It’s much easier to get caught up in a story when one doesn’t have to wait a week or more for each episode. For the second series of the excellent British series Broadchurch, for example, we took in all eight episodes in about three evenings, the time equivalent of viewing a two-hour movie each night. Likewise with Downton Abbey, Fargo, Hell on Wheels, True Detective and our other favourites. It now seems like a hardship to wait a week for the next episode of The Good Wife or Madam Secretary. The same fate will result when we finally get up-to-date with Suits.
Streaming availability also lets us keep programs on the backburner until just the right time. We opted out of Breaking Bad after one episode because it just wasn’t what we were looking for at the time. But the time will come when we want to watch it and we can view a few shows a night to take in the entire series when it suits us.
Streaming does have its downsides. Water cooler chat about current television series is less common now as more and more people abandon traditional cable and satellite services. We watch on our own schedules now, and are rarely in sync with others’ viewing habits. It creates addictive habits, too. I recently became hooked on Salvage Dawgs, about a small company in the eastern U.S. that salvages building materials before demolition destroys old structures, and watched all half-dozen series in a few weeks. Call it a winter luxury.
Of course, streaming viewers lose out on the water cooler chat about the latest commercials too, which still seem to thrill a segment of the public. It’s a conversation I am happy to stay out of, though.
Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.