Despite missing the boat early on, after watching the first season of Arrested Development on DVD (God bless NetFlix), I'm a massive fan of this show. Most everyone I know will love it, if they don't already.
It's on Tuesdays at 7PM on (sigh) Fox.
NetFlix Brought Me Back to TV
I don't have cable, and I don't watch that much TV. Now, as JP would be quick to point out, I'm usually up on all the kooky commercials and reality shows. I certainly don't like watching TV, but I allow myself to get sucked into it. It's like cheap whiskey: I'd rather not, but don't mind if I do.
In the case of Arrested Development, if it weren't for DVDs and NetFlix, I would never be watching it on TV. That is, paradoxically to what you'd expect about putting TV shows on DVD -- that it'd cause me to watch less TV -- in this case, it's actually caused me to watch more TV.
This is the classic Doctrow/Lessig lesson about the (to Hollywood/RIAA) seemingly counterintuitive business benefits of providing more ways to consume entertainment: in a long tail world, you'll suck in more people and make more money (or, at the very least, protect your current revenue), if you provide more ways to get TV shows, music, movies, etc.
The fact that I'm eagerly awaiting turning on my TV and watching Arrested Development (full of commercials, I have no TiVo) is testament to this. Now, if Hollywood and the RIAA could just figure out how to make that effect work in the mass market, they'd be once again minting gold coins out there in L.A.
Well, gotta run, it's t-minus 5 minutes 'till one of the best shows ever. You fools need to go and watch so's we can keep it on the air...and our friends in Hollywood need to damn the torpedos and get moving on The New Entertainment Model.
Update: and, of course, my arch-nemisis -- Sports on TV -- strikes again. Baseball has displaced your regularly scheduled program.
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