Media Lounge / How Matthew Broderick Turned me Against the Streaming Service Industrial Complex
Last Updated: 23/05/2024
How Matthew Broderick Turned me Against the Streaming Service Industrial Complex
This rant contains spoilers for the movie Election from 1999.
Have any of you dear readers seen the 1999 classic political satire movie Election (starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon)? Well, neither had I for about, oh, well, fifteen years or so. I only ever saw the last half hour (THANK GOD for that because holy shit this would be an inappropriate movie to watch in full with my DAD). So, I had a free afternoon and wanted to watch a movie, Election was one I finally wanted to give a proper watch as an adult since the end sequence of Matthew Broderick getting caught trying to cheat on his wife lived in my head rent-free for more than half my life. Everything was good. The stars aligned, so to speak. And then, it was nowhere to be found. Not on Netflix, not on Crave (I’m Canadian, if you couldn’t tell. It’s basically Max.), not even on Amazon Prime!! It was on goddamn Paramount+! God. I was outraged. I ended up watching it on some sketchy website, with no subtitles and at a terrible buffer to video rate. I think it took me an extra half hour to finish the movie just with all the skipping and pausing and waiting.
Here’s another story for you: In my underqualified opinion, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) is one of the movies of all time. You read that right, “one of the movies of all time;” culturally significant, highly referenceable with a large number of people, has immense rewatch value, and would reliably play on TV multiple times a year. The type of movie that, theoretically, would be on one of these streaming services for “movie lovers” to catch some nostalgia or at least see what all the hype is about before deciding it’s a little overrated. You know, when I watched cable, you know what movie regularly played? Fucking Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I could reliably catch the last half-hour of that movie (notice a trend?) every few months if I was bored but didn’t want to go to bed yet! Where is it now, in this era of digital and streaming? Is it available instantly, at my convenience? NO. Because these media conglomerates have stratified every single little IP and actor into tight little packages sprawled across the net like the fucking chaos emeralds! Apparently if I wanted to have a nice little movie afternoon with my partner, I’d have to subscribe to Paramount+! Paramount again! Or pay 4.99$ to watch it for 48 hours. Through my cable provider. Because yes, we still have cable! The only reason she’s not dead is because these streaming services are killing each other and themselves.
Now I hear you, I’ve been asked “oh Bear why are you complaining? You’re overcomplicating it, just pirate it!” and you know, that is a fair point. I think for myself personally though, I would be much less mad about it if we (as a household) weren’t already paying for multiple streaming services. I’m not going to pretend I have eclectic tastes, and that what I want to watch most of the time isn’t on streaming. That’s not the case, more often it’s that something is on streaming until I’m in the mood to watch it, and then all of a sudden the licensing agreement has changed and it’s jumped ship to somewhere else for about six months. The subscription fee is supposed to eliminate the need to add a few steps to our viewing experience and I am mad that it’s gotten to a point where this is no longer the case. I’m mad that this ever-Balkanizing realm of streaming that was sold to us as a modern solution to the cable dilemma is just re-creating the problems of cable. We were supposed to pay a low price for a higher quality experience and better selection at our convenience. But it’s no longer about us. And maybe it never was about us, but I don’t know, I’m trying to be at least a little bit optimistic so I don’t give myself any more gray hairs than being a Medic main already has. I also don’t find other alternative services any more convenient than streaming or disc. I daily drive a desktop computer, and it’s just not realistic or practical to lug my computer tower from my office to the television set (where I much prefer and get more enjoyment out of movie-watching), and hook it all up like that for one movie once a month.
I know none of this is particularly new or original thought. This conversation has been going on for a while. In fact, I’m sure as I type this out and format it to go on my site another twelve videos will be posted to YouTube about the “tragic state of streaming” alongside someone’s “top ten reasons why physical media will NEVER die!!!” with a clickbait thumbnail taken in their expensive home theatre room. At least for me, this is just a further step in the direction of trying to do something about the deep disillusionment with the state of society online and the increasingly degrading quality of the services we’re encouraged to pay for. Whether we're coming to the web for information, interaction, or escapism, the overall end-user experience is worse because the needs and guidelines set by the advertisers are valued more than that of the target end-users. Do you want to know how much I paid for my Ferris Bueller DVD on eBay? 6$. Free shipping. “25th Anniversary Edition” with the slipcover. That’s about how much I would pay to Paramount for the luxury of watching that movie whenever I want for about a month. It’s about a dollar more than I would pay to rent it from my cable provider’s on-demand service for 48 hours. I now have this movie indefinitely, in a format that is much more convenient to myself and more than that, in a format that is much more enjoyable to myself than even the paid streaming service.
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