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| Photo by Eli Francis on Unsplash |
"Freedom of choice is what you got,
Freedom from choice is what you want"
- Freedom of Choice, Devo
As a youngling I could never have imagined a situation where the phrase "too much of a good thing" would actually turn out to be true.
Growing up a geek in the '70s and '80s, I always wanted to consume more, more films, more TV, more comics, more RPGs etc and I like to think I had a pretty decent - if often superficial - knowledge of all the major happenings in my fields of interest.
Not so in the 2020's though. For example, with the explosion of streaming and multiple satellite channels in the UK, my pledge to myself - when I started HeroPress in earnest - that I would keep abreast of, and even report on, all the superhero-themed live-action media I could find is now naively quixotic.
And this surfeit of potential pleasure inevitably leads to choice paralysis. When offered so many options the human brain (well, mine at least) just overloads and shuts down (I picture my brain replaced by the spinning "buffering" disc).
I then end up wasting so much time trying to pick something to watch that I often run out of time to actually watch a movie in its entirety.
Or I opt to rewatch a comfortable old favourite instead.
If you'd told the younger me that in 40 years' time there would so much live-action superhero material available to watch at the touch of a button, from around the globe, I either wouldn't have believed you or my head would have exploded from the excitement of this impending 'golden age'.
And, don't get me wrong, it is a golden age for consuming my favourite genre, but the trouble is there simply isn't enough hours in the day to take it all in.
So, something has to give, has to be skipped, but what? How do you choose? What if you choose wrong and miss something amazing? What if it's removed from your platform of choice before you get to see it?
And if you don't watch something new when it drops, there's always the danger that you'll forget about it anyway in the constant flow of fresh offerings (I was recently reminded - by the appearance of a licensed boardgame in an unrelated Amazon search - of a film that Rachel and I had wanted to watch when it was released on Netflix months ago... but had then totally forgotten about!)
With the emphasis on streaming these days, a lot of great shows and films don't even get physical releases. Which is okay as long as these productions remain on the streaming services... but, as we know from the recent highly-publicised Disney purge of over 100 original titles, that's not always the case.
I've long held the belief that you can't rely on ephemeral media, digital downloads etc because not only are you paying for something that essentially doesn't exist - and has no resale value on the secondary market - but, ultimately, you have no control over how long it's going to stay on your devices.
As I found out last year when numerous, legitimately purchased, tracks vanished from my iTunes account.
It's like I have films and TV shows I've purchased in digital form via Sky and Prime Video, but they're only accessible for as long as we keep paying our Sky TV and Prime Video subscriptions.
Whereas DVDs and Blu-Rays just require a player and a TV... and I'll be holding onto those until the apocalypse.
And this rambling rant has just been, primarily, about the consumption of superhero media on film and television, whereas, of course, this scenario applies to multiple media (such as books, music and comics) that are embracing these vulnerable, digital formats.
I know 'solid' media takes up room, but at least it exists, you can hold it in your hand, show it off to fellow geeks, sell it on when you're done with it or donate it to charity.
You decide how long it remains in your possession and when, if at all, you dispose of it.
Ultimately, stuff (be it books, DVDs, action figures, art etc) sparks joy in me (to borrow from Marie Kondo) and I can never imagine a world without a stack of comics still to be read or DVDs of films still to be watched.
But I also have to accept that this Sisyphean task will never be completed.
I know I will never read all the books or watch all the films... but that's not going to stop me trying my damndest.
I've long held the belief that you can't rely on ephemeral media, digital downloads etc because not only are you paying for something that essentially doesn't exist - and has no resale value on the secondary market - but, ultimately, you have no control over how long it's going to stay on your devices.
As I found out last year when numerous, legitimately purchased, tracks vanished from my iTunes account.
It's like I have films and TV shows I've purchased in digital form via Sky and Prime Video, but they're only accessible for as long as we keep paying our Sky TV and Prime Video subscriptions.
Whereas DVDs and Blu-Rays just require a player and a TV... and I'll be holding onto those until the apocalypse.
And this rambling rant has just been, primarily, about the consumption of superhero media on film and television, whereas, of course, this scenario applies to multiple media (such as books, music and comics) that are embracing these vulnerable, digital formats.
I know 'solid' media takes up room, but at least it exists, you can hold it in your hand, show it off to fellow geeks, sell it on when you're done with it or donate it to charity.
You decide how long it remains in your possession and when, if at all, you dispose of it.
Ultimately, stuff (be it books, DVDs, action figures, art etc) sparks joy in me (to borrow from Marie Kondo) and I can never imagine a world without a stack of comics still to be read or DVDs of films still to be watched.
But I also have to accept that this Sisyphean task will never be completed.
I know I will never read all the books or watch all the films... but that's not going to stop me trying my damndest.
After a decade off, I started buying DVDs again this past month - fed up that 99% of my fav horror films aren't streaming - and I'm really enjoying the experience: actually going to a shop and taking home something physical. I've nowhere to put them, mind. Might have to build something called a shelf...
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to a series of amusing "shelf building" anecdotes in the near future.
DeleteBTW, our recent conversation on the subject of "streaming vs DVDs" was partially responsible for inspiring this rambling article.