DVD boxsets
Interesting article! Are you sitting comfortably? Mark Lawson discusses the rise of TV series DVD boxsets. I found that a lot of what he said was backed up by my personal experience, like my attitudes towards schedulers,which is scorn based on frustation; the different reaction to the material in response to watching episodes en bloc; the prevalance of American culty shows on our shelves - if that label actually means anything - and how I priotirise my viewing. I have Smallville season 1 and Angel season 4 waiting for my attention, but I'm fairly sure that there's no chance of my watching either before my pre-ordered copy of Alias season 5 arrives. Its partly because I want to watch them in one go, and concentrate all my attention on them, instead of watching them in a manner that'd reflect how I watch shows on their first run on TV.
This links in somewhat to another TV-related issue I wanted to talk about, which is how the hype of new TV shows devalues established investment in long-running shows. This hype is mostly in the media. Here in the UK, the fortunes of Studio 60 and Heroes, particularly Studio 60, are getting a lot of attention as are other new US shows. Now, this must be because of the awareness that there's a prepped audience for the shows when they air (SciFi's purchase of Heroes seems cannier than Channel 4's of Studio 60. Don't know what to say about Four and Lost and Desperate Houswives, becasuse I, ahem, stopped watching both) or when they transfer to DVD :) It may even be an acknowleedgement that a segment of the audience is downloading, as some people on the other side of the Atlantic are doing for Spooks or Torchwood.
The TV year is different in the UK - our drama shows are short, concentrated bursts in varied formats/lengths compared with the set pattern of the US. There are loose seasons, and shows are launched at their start. The homegrown TV year is complemented in the schedules by the 22-week mammoth US imports, which usually do not start showing 'in the fall', but more likely from the New Year on, so they can be aired more or less weekly (depending on the slot, and the business of holding back an episode for sports is less and less prevalent, though playing swop the slot, sadly, isn't) and we'll end up getting the finale about two weeks after the States.
From there, then, knowing that we may well get to see the hit new shows on one of our channels, our media pays attention to the US's new slate, among the coverage of new episodes of our popular shows. And yet, this concentrated neophilia sits a bit oddly with the nature of television drama. The length of the season probably strikes me more, because it's so unBritish, but must surely hit DVD viewers when they rip open their boxset and see six discs to devour. In the printed copy of the Guardian, an amusing accompnaying feature by Lucy Mangan covers this time-suck element of watching a show on DVD. So we have 22 hours of a show (well, less in reality, but I can't be bothered to do my approximate sums) that we the viewers are called to invest time and energy into.
Now there are some stories that I don't think are best told over multiple 22-episode seasons. (Hello the jumping the shark phenomenon, hello whining about 'padding' episodes. Goodbye Lost from my roster.) But there are others - with an interesting and open enough premise or setting or cast that can run and run like E.R. - which has soap elements, granted. Or thye have enough in them, networks willing, to run for a few years; the recieved opinion is that shows come into their own in the second or third year when everyone's settled in and knows what direction they're headed. And as a viewer, I lend my loyalty to these characters and their journeys. If a new show is competing directly agains a trusted show, technoglogy can get rid of the either/or nature of the choice, but all this talk about the new - the sales of series 1 of The Most Amazing New Show disregards that loyalty to a programme that's already hooked its audience. A programme that people are big enough fans of to buy on DVD. The next big thing hasnt got the potency of the resolution of a slow-burning relationship we've been watching develop for a couple of years, or the gap of death of a character who has been part of the TV landscape.
Some DVD boxset purcheases are of the catching up variety - the show that people with taste you trust are raving about but you completely missed, or that show you quite liked but only saw a bit of. Others are nostalgia buys (hello Press Gang) or a sign of loyalty. Of fannishness. It definitely fits into the long-tail theory. Now, while tonight I'll be watching The State Within (look how similar that title is to The State of Play), because I'm as distracted by the new and shiny as anyone, I'm really excited about the VMArs s2 finale. Also known as episode 44 in a quality run. And I'd love for a region 2 DVD boxset release date.
I don't know if that makes sense and Ineed my supper, so I don't think I can work it up further.
This links in somewhat to another TV-related issue I wanted to talk about, which is how the hype of new TV shows devalues established investment in long-running shows. This hype is mostly in the media. Here in the UK, the fortunes of Studio 60 and Heroes, particularly Studio 60, are getting a lot of attention as are other new US shows. Now, this must be because of the awareness that there's a prepped audience for the shows when they air (SciFi's purchase of Heroes seems cannier than Channel 4's of Studio 60. Don't know what to say about Four and Lost and Desperate Houswives, becasuse I, ahem, stopped watching both) or when they transfer to DVD :) It may even be an acknowleedgement that a segment of the audience is downloading, as some people on the other side of the Atlantic are doing for Spooks or Torchwood.
The TV year is different in the UK - our drama shows are short, concentrated bursts in varied formats/lengths compared with the set pattern of the US. There are loose seasons, and shows are launched at their start. The homegrown TV year is complemented in the schedules by the 22-week mammoth US imports, which usually do not start showing 'in the fall', but more likely from the New Year on, so they can be aired more or less weekly (depending on the slot, and the business of holding back an episode for sports is less and less prevalent, though playing swop the slot, sadly, isn't) and we'll end up getting the finale about two weeks after the States.
From there, then, knowing that we may well get to see the hit new shows on one of our channels, our media pays attention to the US's new slate, among the coverage of new episodes of our popular shows. And yet, this concentrated neophilia sits a bit oddly with the nature of television drama. The length of the season probably strikes me more, because it's so unBritish, but must surely hit DVD viewers when they rip open their boxset and see six discs to devour. In the printed copy of the Guardian, an amusing accompnaying feature by Lucy Mangan covers this time-suck element of watching a show on DVD. So we have 22 hours of a show (well, less in reality, but I can't be bothered to do my approximate sums) that we the viewers are called to invest time and energy into.
Now there are some stories that I don't think are best told over multiple 22-episode seasons. (Hello the jumping the shark phenomenon, hello whining about 'padding' episodes. Goodbye Lost from my roster.) But there are others - with an interesting and open enough premise or setting or cast that can run and run like E.R. - which has soap elements, granted. Or thye have enough in them, networks willing, to run for a few years; the recieved opinion is that shows come into their own in the second or third year when everyone's settled in and knows what direction they're headed. And as a viewer, I lend my loyalty to these characters and their journeys. If a new show is competing directly agains a trusted show, technoglogy can get rid of the either/or nature of the choice, but all this talk about the new - the sales of series 1 of The Most Amazing New Show disregards that loyalty to a programme that's already hooked its audience. A programme that people are big enough fans of to buy on DVD. The next big thing hasnt got the potency of the resolution of a slow-burning relationship we've been watching develop for a couple of years, or the gap of death of a character who has been part of the TV landscape.
Some DVD boxset purcheases are of the catching up variety - the show that people with taste you trust are raving about but you completely missed, or that show you quite liked but only saw a bit of. Others are nostalgia buys (hello Press Gang) or a sign of loyalty. Of fannishness. It definitely fits into the long-tail theory. Now, while tonight I'll be watching The State Within (look how similar that title is to The State of Play), because I'm as distracted by the new and shiny as anyone, I'm really excited about the VMArs s2 finale. Also known as episode 44 in a quality run. And I'd love for a region 2 DVD boxset release date.
I don't know if that makes sense and Ineed my supper, so I don't think I can work it up further.