You can never go back: An AppleWorm Rant on Movies and TV
A little context first: I love where I live. My grandfather was one of the most important people in my life and he gave each one of his sons and daughters a piece of land that he owned so that they could hopefully live there. That land is up in a mountain with really nice view, calm neighborhood and fresh air (not to be taken for granted in the smoke-world we live in). Recently, my mom and I had a small “tech-crisis” if you can call it that. A very serious rainy day with lightning and thunderstorms hit and one of the many lightning hit close by, frying the house’s AppleTV in the process… Wow, we did not know how little cable TV we consumed compared to streaming and subscription services. So I thought to tell you guys what I pondered those days I was AppleTV-less.
One week is all my mom and I lasted with no AppleTV, and here’s the worst part: the TV has a smartTV capability, and it is Horrible to use: bad quality apps and image quality. I have said in the past that the AppleTV is one of Apple’s least “exciting” products. But life with it is much simpler and straight forward, I know when I get home my favorite shows and movies are simply waiting and if I am too busy I can just postpone watching them. Now the TV adapts to my time and I don’t adapt to its schedule. Life with Apple TV means I literally consume just the TV that I truly enjoy and not the awful commercial-filled life that once was. I dream of a near future where there will be a soccer or sports subscription service because that is the one thing I still consume like the "old times": Champions League, MLB, NBA, NFL, those sports either have no subscription services or the ones that do are very limited or non-existent in Costa Rica.
The AppleTV has changed the way I consume TV altogether, the days I am full of work I know there is no set back to missing my TV series (CW superheroes, Netflix series, AppleMusic series, etc.). The days that I have more freedom to chill at home, I know I can use those days to catch up on everything. My point is that, that dynamic is something that I took for granted until that lightning ruining everything. Additionally, the alternative to the AppleTV was a horrendous SmartTV experience that I can only compare to the difference between pre-iPhone so-called-smartphones and real smartphones nowadays.
I wish my grandfather would still be alive, because one of our bonding times EVERYDAY, would be to watch Walker Texas Ranger on TV and laugh about how silly and cliché it was, with all of Chuck Norris' roundhouse kicks and all. Nowadays we could find more series to share together in our own time, because that's what the AppleTV has changed, I can now plan on when and with whom I will watch my series and enjoy commenting them in the moment live, like I did all those years back in my grandparents' house.
Finally one last part of this rant is that, even when I truly appreciate how the AppleTV has added to my life I also am not blind and can see how much room to grow it has. Sports subscriptions should be a thing around the world with events like the Super Bowl, the World Cup, the Champions League, the World Series, the NBA finals... Those are all world wide events that could gain smart TV a real advantage over cable. It is great to have seen the music industry evolve to where it is now: convenience. It is great to see the movie industry begin to move towards more production of original content and convenience. But it is time for TV to start letting go of their old ways just to earn that last cent and start to think of something new; new deals, new distribution agreements.
Me? I hope I live to see that change.
Everyone, I just wanted to let you guys know that this week there will be a podcast and it will be great! Keep your eyes open, subscribe, turn on notifications, rate and share The AppleWorm Podcast on PodOmatic and iTunes Podcast App.
