Sunday, February 19, 2012

Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief...


This post is a response to this post by Hank Green


There is definitely a certain amount of prestige which surrounds downloading.

I chose to watch Sherlock illegally. That wasn’t a decision I chose lightly and it isn’t something I think I’ll ever do routinely. I will champion the legal watching of television with my dying breath. Sherlock was the exception. I’ll still wait to watch Doctor Who, hiding resolute in my spoiler proof bunker. I watched Sherlock that way because I honestly felt like it was my only choice.

One of my main reasons for watching TV the legal way wherever I can is that one day I want to work in TV. It seems ridiculous to buy into a culture that many believe is killing the industry. I don’t think this is necessarily the case, the popularity of television is far from failing, but I do think that the internet has the potential to change to way we watch TV. And that could be very scary indeed.

Despite the various people screaming in defiance, I think I agree with Hank. There is a prestige to downloading. A certain allure. It is so easy to feel excluded when all the people around you (both actually and virtually) are championing one way of viewing (oh the joys of watching a download bar!) while you remain firm to another (sitting in front of a TV at an allocated time). I agree that it isn’t JUST the quality of the programming that leads people to download. If everyone is tormenting something it must be good right? It must be worth the effort?

I think this has produced a culture where local shows are looked down on. More and more people will tell you they “don’t watch TV”. What they mean by that, of course, is that they don’t watch TV on TV.

Right now the ABC is going through a pretty amazing stage. The shows which are being produced in Australia have suddenly soared in quality. The production values, script writing, acting, everything, is at an international standard. For the first time I can remember, I am more excited about what my own country is producing than what’s going on anywhere else in the world.
I’ll admit that Australia has never made Sherlock or Doctor Who. But I loved Laid and I’m quickly falling in love with Outland. I watched The Slap with the rest of the nation (you can tell a show is really popular when, instead of live tweeting it, your Twitter feed goes totally dead the minute it starts). I plan to make myself free when Dance Academy comes back on and every Wednesday night (seriously- Woodley, Gordon St Tonight, Outland. That is a line-up I'd become a social recluse for).

What makes me sad is that people don’t torrent local content. I know you CAN (I’m reliably informed you can torrent anything) but without the kind of hype big international releases get, how are people going to know what to look for? There’s a kind of stigma around local shows- ‘But that was made here. Why would that be any good?’

Is there anyone, anywhere is the world who torrents our shows? And if the answer is ‘no, not really’ does that make them less legitimate?

3 comments:

  1. I love both this post and Hank's, but I'm a bit conflicted about what I actually think on the topic. Yes, there is an excitement involved in downloading content, but I can't decide if that's just because I'm excited to watch the content or because I'm downloading it. I'm inclined to think the former.

    I like watching stuff on my laptop, because there's no ads and I can stop it if I need to make more tea/ go to the bathroom because I've drunk 3 cups of tea. Also watching it on TV does, I suppose, in a way, make me feel like i'm not part of an exclusive club. However, if I could watch it before it airs in Australia, on my laptop, *legally*, for a fee... you bet your ass I would. It's what I did with Game of Thrones. I paid itunes an amount for a subscription and a high quality, fast downloading copy of each episode landed in my library once a week. It was the most exciting thing ever.

    Stealing gives people a rush, but only the kind of people who are inclined to steal, i.e. criminals. Sure, downloading is stealing, but most people don't see it that way, so any rush they get in my opinion is because they are about to watch Sherlock, and they are about to do so before the rest of their country.

    Maybe it's naive of me, but I think most people would be happy to pay for this feeling.

    Rant ends.

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  2. I realise I haven't addressed your point about Australian TV... it's too early for me to form multiple opinions, I may get there later. x

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  3. To some extent, Hank Green is right, downloading is thrilling (I also love watching a download bar). But I download because I have no other alternative. Where I live, I can't legally buy movies or TV shows and only our own country's movies are in cinemas. Plus, my internet connection is a little slow so I can't watch anything online. BBC Persian is showing/used to show Doctor Who and series one of Sherlock (they were unfortunately dubbed), but it's been months since they've showed anything new or further than series 4 of DW and 1 of Sherlock, and no special episodes like the End of Time. If I could I'd watch TV on TV and movies in cinemas, but I can't therefore I have to download stuff so I don't miss out on all the great things out there. (Sadly, it's the same case for english books too, I can't legally buy them so I download ebooks).

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