As most of my dedicated readers know, I'm a big Lost fan. It's one of my favorite shows. Although I'm a big follower of the show, I missed most of Season 5. Being that I live in the 21st Century, I figured that I could watch all the Season 5 episodes on either Hulu.com or ABC.com...I was wrong.
Apparently ABC is witholding from officially putting all the episodes online for a few reasons. I suspect that the top reason is that they fear that DVD sales would be somehow hurt if all the Season 5 episodes were easily available on the Web.
This small example clearly illustrates the remaining friction between a short-term, profit-oriented perspective and the inevitable future of a purely digital medium. These last gasps by the likes of the old guard, e.g. ABC, are both annoying and harmful. Once this reality fully seeps into the mainstream media moguls there will be no more DVDs or CDs. Only once this reality is fully accepted will the likes of ABC be able to innovate adequately profitable business models that make Web TV infinitely more powerful than physical formats such as DVDs.
Showing posts with label Lost. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lost. Show all posts
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Lost and Found In Pop Culture
Lost is one of my favorite television shows. It's just an extremely well made television extravaganza that allows complete and utter immersion into fantasy. The premise is far-fetched - depicting the adventures of a group of airplane-crash survivors on a mystical and tropical island. The acting is usually solid but occasionally borders on melodrama. The plotlines are often extreme but always engrossing.
What makes Lost relevant is how it conquered television. The show represents a prime example of counterculture creating fresh ideas, producing a high-quality product, and quickly gaining such popularity that the program itself morphed into popular culture. During the early 2000s, when game shows and reality television ruled the airwaves, Lost was a breath of fresh air, an ensemble science-fiction drama. It was a real production with real cameras and real investment.
As we all know, history repeats itself and Lost is just one example of many counterculture-to-popular culture uprisings. From Nirvana, to Punk Rock, to the Internet, we've seen it many times before and we'll see it many times again. What will offer such a threat to the kings of current entertainment, to digital social media like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.? Will it be a National Park movement, some sort of museum revolution, or maybe some unimaginable new platform that will connect us in completely new ways?
What makes Lost relevant is how it conquered television. The show represents a prime example of counterculture creating fresh ideas, producing a high-quality product, and quickly gaining such popularity that the program itself morphed into popular culture. During the early 2000s, when game shows and reality television ruled the airwaves, Lost was a breath of fresh air, an ensemble science-fiction drama. It was a real production with real cameras and real investment.
As we all know, history repeats itself and Lost is just one example of many counterculture-to-popular culture uprisings. From Nirvana, to Punk Rock, to the Internet, we've seen it many times before and we'll see it many times again. What will offer such a threat to the kings of current entertainment, to digital social media like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.? Will it be a National Park movement, some sort of museum revolution, or maybe some unimaginable new platform that will connect us in completely new ways?
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