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Across A Digital Divide
Sep. 13th, 2002 02:07 pmThis Sunday is what is without exaggeration the most eagerly anticipated season premiere of Fall 2002. The Sopranos returns. And I can't say I care. Yet in a way I do.
I have never seen The Sopranos. The few friends I have who watch it more or less love it, though a couple have said it's not worth the hype. One friend - who is ok with the language and violence and is no prude - hates the nudity. My mother watched it once and shrugged it off. I suspect that I would not care much for it, being a prude about foul language, and being the kind of person who might not like seeing a mob boss as even an anti-hero. (I liked the second Godfather film more than the first because we had no noble Vito Corleone dying an old man after playing with his gradson.)
But this not why I am here today. I am here to lament that I cannot afford to watch The Sopranos. I do not have cable. If I did, I couldn't afford the extra fee for HBO. And I suspect there are many like me.
There are many "digital divides," and compared to the one that separates those with computers or net access from those without, it's less important. You don't need Steve Irwin or Bill O'Reilly to get ahead in life. You even do better without them. But a divide has opened in our pop culture world.
I cannot discuss last week's Farscape - I'm still catching up on tapes that a good and diligent friend is making us. I have never seen the original Iron Chef or Croc Hunter. I had to read second-hand accounts of Judd Winick's appearance on Phil Donahue to discuss Winick's anti-gay bashing story in Green Lantern. Next spring, I will be able to see almost no hockey or basketball playoff games - almost all will be cable. If I were a Yankee fan, I'd be able watch only 20 games when 100 used to be on free TV. None of this is essential. But as a pop culutre maven, I know I'm missing something. And I wonder if my existence is being declared null and void by the television industry.
Now, it's true that I can't blame HBO for being HBO. The Sopranos and Stargate and Farscape and Jeremiah could just as easily have been on free TV with little changes. (No foul language from Tony Soprano, but there's tons of violence and sex already.) And I could turn to the networks and yell at them for being so repetitve. (Anyone notice how many cop shows are on CBS this fall?) But there is more.
I think that the mass media outlets have decided that everyone has cable. I think that about 100 million Americans don't. But we're a mere minority and don't matter. So we can be shut out. For some reason, this has begun to bother me. I think because we are not poor and yet cannot afford cable. I honestly don't know how many people can afford it, especially in New York, where it would cost about $55 or so get HBO and everything. (OK, in Manhattan, you need cable to get any reception at all, but I still don't get it.)
Am I being a bit sensitive? I'ts not like HBO and SciFi and ESPN sought to cut me out. But I just get the feeling that something is happening to pop culture. It used to be cheap. TV was free. Movies had matinees. Radio stations played everything. You could buy tapes instead of albums. Not anymore. You want TV, you have to pay. You want music, you spend $14 for a 10 cent piece of plastic, and you have to go online to get any kind of musical variety. (Fact: New York has no country music station anymore.) And movies? In NYC $8 is cheap.
I suspect that to some degree, this is a rant. I'm just jealous of all those who can afford cable with the frills. But I also think I'm not the only one who sees the huge bus ad with the cast of The Sopranos and knows who they are but wonders why anyone should care. I think I'm not the only sports fan who feels that we are being fleeced by the tems we love.
Sadly, I think that until broadband makes cable obsolete and makes unlimited access to selcted programming chepa and easy, we are stuck with this new divide. At which point we have to address the old one.
But, as always, I could merely be delusional.
I have never seen The Sopranos. The few friends I have who watch it more or less love it, though a couple have said it's not worth the hype. One friend - who is ok with the language and violence and is no prude - hates the nudity. My mother watched it once and shrugged it off. I suspect that I would not care much for it, being a prude about foul language, and being the kind of person who might not like seeing a mob boss as even an anti-hero. (I liked the second Godfather film more than the first because we had no noble Vito Corleone dying an old man after playing with his gradson.)
But this not why I am here today. I am here to lament that I cannot afford to watch The Sopranos. I do not have cable. If I did, I couldn't afford the extra fee for HBO. And I suspect there are many like me.
There are many "digital divides," and compared to the one that separates those with computers or net access from those without, it's less important. You don't need Steve Irwin or Bill O'Reilly to get ahead in life. You even do better without them. But a divide has opened in our pop culture world.
I cannot discuss last week's Farscape - I'm still catching up on tapes that a good and diligent friend is making us. I have never seen the original Iron Chef or Croc Hunter. I had to read second-hand accounts of Judd Winick's appearance on Phil Donahue to discuss Winick's anti-gay bashing story in Green Lantern. Next spring, I will be able to see almost no hockey or basketball playoff games - almost all will be cable. If I were a Yankee fan, I'd be able watch only 20 games when 100 used to be on free TV. None of this is essential. But as a pop culutre maven, I know I'm missing something. And I wonder if my existence is being declared null and void by the television industry.
Now, it's true that I can't blame HBO for being HBO. The Sopranos and Stargate and Farscape and Jeremiah could just as easily have been on free TV with little changes. (No foul language from Tony Soprano, but there's tons of violence and sex already.) And I could turn to the networks and yell at them for being so repetitve. (Anyone notice how many cop shows are on CBS this fall?) But there is more.
I think that the mass media outlets have decided that everyone has cable. I think that about 100 million Americans don't. But we're a mere minority and don't matter. So we can be shut out. For some reason, this has begun to bother me. I think because we are not poor and yet cannot afford cable. I honestly don't know how many people can afford it, especially in New York, where it would cost about $55 or so get HBO and everything. (OK, in Manhattan, you need cable to get any reception at all, but I still don't get it.)
Am I being a bit sensitive? I'ts not like HBO and SciFi and ESPN sought to cut me out. But I just get the feeling that something is happening to pop culture. It used to be cheap. TV was free. Movies had matinees. Radio stations played everything. You could buy tapes instead of albums. Not anymore. You want TV, you have to pay. You want music, you spend $14 for a 10 cent piece of plastic, and you have to go online to get any kind of musical variety. (Fact: New York has no country music station anymore.) And movies? In NYC $8 is cheap.
I suspect that to some degree, this is a rant. I'm just jealous of all those who can afford cable with the frills. But I also think I'm not the only one who sees the huge bus ad with the cast of The Sopranos and knows who they are but wonders why anyone should care. I think I'm not the only sports fan who feels that we are being fleeced by the tems we love.
Sadly, I think that until broadband makes cable obsolete and makes unlimited access to selcted programming chepa and easy, we are stuck with this new divide. At which point we have to address the old one.
But, as always, I could merely be delusional.
