Too Much TV!

November 13, 2015 Dennis D. McDonald

CORDKILLERS has long been one of my favorite podcasts, but lately my interest has slipped, though I still support the show through Patreon.

The reason for the slippage is reflected in show #95’s title: “Too Much TV.” More and more Tom and Brian seem to be concentrating on the steady movement of TV series to the web as it finally appears that cable is losing its stranglehold.

I don’t necessarily see this trend as entirely positive. Hopefully we won’t end up having the same giant media conglomerates controlling broadcast, cable, and internet TV.

Plus, does all this attention to series mean that less attention is being paid to the multitude of niche theatrical and independent films being distributed via disc, festivals, and online streaming services?

I’ve stopped entirely listening to Cordkillers’ “It’s Spoilerin’ Time,” too, as I’m not that interested in fantasy and comic based series like Haven, Agents of SHIELD, and Walking Dead; Tom and Brian’s conversations seem to be increasingly taken up with such series.

It’s also possible that CORDKILLERS is not exploring the real variety the new media are making possible as they once did. What brought this to mind recently was my involvement as a judge in the Alexandria Film Festival where I had the good fortune to screen a significant number of really creative independent and artistic films and documentaries such as my own personal favorites like FOREST BORN, BUILDING MAGIC, and OFFSET: SEEING BEAUTY THROUGH A BRAIN INJURY.

Where does one go to see such excellent films? Some are available on various services such as Vimeo and YouTube, but independent filmmakers responsible for such titles often lack distribution and marketing resources. It’s tough getting your stuff shown when you lack a “sugar daddy.”

To be honest I have not really explored the numerous options available for non-series-TV that even the devices I now have support. Just jumping among the different services that Roku and Apple TV offer is a daunting task especially when one is searching for “gems.” Perhaps improving cross-service search capabilities such devices are now beginning to offer will make it easier for independent film makers to “break through the programming clutter”?

Hopefully the “cord cutting revolution” is not just shifting traditional TV over to pay wall based subscription services. That’s not what I was hoping for when I started using devices like Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV.