Dear Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, etc.,
Life used to be easy before you came along.
I know you’ve set us free from the constraints of “must see TV.” When I was in college you had to be in front of a television on Thursday night to watch the Hamptons episode of Seinfeld (best episode ever) or you missed it.
It was gone. Your window was 30 minutes long and then it closed, forever leaving you hoping to catch an episode you missed on reruns. That’s why NBC could use the tag line, “Must See TV!” Because it was, oh it was.
But now, you offer episodes online. I’m no longer a slave to the television or their schedule. I can catch full episodes on Hulu, clips on YouTube or whole series online on Netflix. Freedom!
Ahh, but there’s a catch. Now, if I want to be that guy who gets rid of his television and then finds a way to work that into every conversation he has at dinner parties, do I have to break up with you too? Does the H in Hulu stand for “Hypocrite,” because I fear I’m about to become one.
Can I still smugly say, “Oh your son plays soccer, that reminds me, I don’t watch television,” or “Pass the chili, and by the way, I got rid of cable,” if I’m watching all my shows online?
If I can, then what was I railing against all those years, the actual television? The physical box that was delivering the content or the content itself? Do I hate plasma screens or the things that are on them? Surely I can’t call the TV, the “boobtube” and then act like the Internet is devoid of that issue?
We’re moving to a new house in two weeks and I caught myself recently saying to my wife, “Let’s not even get cable at the new house. Television is not important to us!” And then inside I thought, “Plus we can watch all the stuff we want online anyway!” That can’t be right. I love my friends who deliberately don’t watch any television, but my version of that is what Chris Isaak warned about all those years ago, “A wicked game.”
Oh Hulu, YouTube and Netflix, you’ve made life easier, but in some ways, you’ve made being judgmental so much more difficult.
Sincerely,
Jon Acuff
