Feel The Love

Some of you may have notice that there are two subjects I never write about on this site: my love life and my work life. I don't write about work for a very obvious reason - no story which has begun, "So, I was blogging about my job the other day..." has ever ended well. I don't write about my love life for just as simple of a reason - it's none of your business. Those readers who are in my close circle know what the deal is and if I haven't told you anything about that subject it's because I don't want you to know. It is called a 'private life' for a reason. Seriously, if I ever want to become one of those people who feels compelled to use the internet to try and convince people they are only tangentially connected to that everything in their life is perfect, I'll join Facebook like everyone else. However, I am aware that today is Valentine's Day and as such I should probably write about some form of love. With that in mind, we're taking a page out of last year's notebook and writing about a thing I love. This year's object of my affection? TV shows which immediately make the latest episodes available On-Demand.

A few days ago I was offered Celtics tickets at the last minute. Now, I happen to be in a spot where things like this do not yet require checking in about other commitments before deciding whether or not I can accept these kinds of offers. I do not have to worry about helping with homework, PTA meetings or making sure I can get a babysitter. In fact, the only scheduling conflict was that I was going to miss "Justified", which is one of my favorite shows on television. (Clearly, I live a very tough life.) However, my love of the Celtics outweighs any other entertainment options, so I took the tickets and simply hoped to catch a rerun before the next week, because "Justified" is not one of those shows where you can skip a couple episodes at a time without becoming totally lost. (For those of you wondering why I simply didn't set up my DVR to record it, that would be because I don't have one anymore. DVR is one of those things which I never use when I have access to it and therefore they seem like a waste of money, but the second the service no longer available is I suddenly need one like nobody's business. But, I'll save the list of other such products for an anti-Valentine's Day post.) Then, imagine my surprise when I was checking the On-Demand menu the very next day and discovered that not only was there suddenly an option for FX, but they already had the new episode of "Justified" available for ordering. Awesome.

In this day and age of instant gratification and downloading, it amazes me that some shows hold off on putting their programs on the On-Demand menu as soon as possible. It seems like a total waste of the technology. We have this great thing, so why not use it? But not only do some shows wait for a week to put the new episodes up, others don't put their shows up at all. To me that seems like a wasted opportunity, especially when you think about the number of shows where you can't afford to miss an episode or risk losing the entire plot-line because people get killed off every week. Don't these producers realize that people have lives and things come up from time to time, meaning they might not always be home to watch a show or set some kind of recorder up? If they simply factored that in and allowed a couple of these brand new episodes to go up right away they will retain more viewers in the long run, versus the people who decide that it is simply not worth it to try and jump back in and instead wait for the DVD to come out. Not to mention, I'm sure the cable companies keep track of how many people order which episodes, so it is probably a better measure of a show's actual popularity than the outdated Nielsen ratings.

The simple reality is that if you don't make it easier for people to consume your program, they will find another source of entertainment. We have too many options for networks to act all high and mighty, so just give us the shows as soon as you can. Hell, I don't even really care if you want to include commercials in the On-Demand shows. I know this drives some people crazy, but I simply look at it as the cost of doing business. I mean, I made a decision which meant I had to rely on someone else putting the show somewhere I could see it on my own schedule, I'm not such a selfish jerk that I think I should also get it without commercial interruptions. That would be like asking someone to deliver food to your house, then demanding they stay and cut it up for you. (The only thing I ask is that you please don't disable the "pause" function, because that is super-annoying.) If you simply set it up so that I don't have to worry about the rest of the season not making sense, I am totally willing to watch a few commercials in the meantime. So, let this post serve as a piece of advice for all the producers and networks out there: the sooner you make your shows available to the public after they originally air the better it is going to be for everyone involved. Trust me, your fans will love you for it.