When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth.
—Steve Jobs, Wired, Feb 1996
We have finally given in and are paying for CBS All Access. This was a difficult decision for us, and one that we resisted for a long time. The situation is that the big broadcast networks are still struggling to figure out how they compete in today’s streaming world, and CBS, alone of the original three, has decided to start its own streaming service. The problem, though, is that, at least currently, with CBS All Access you can either get a reasonable fee or you can get no commercials. On the one hand, I have a severe problem with paying people to show me commercials. If I’m paying a monthly fee, I expect it to be commercial-free. But, on the other hand, I kind of have a problem paying CBS the same monthly fee as I would a premium movie channel: CBS All Access at current monthly prices is just a dollar more than I was paying for Showtime, and more than I’m currently paying for Starz. That’s crazy talk.
But, it is true that there’s a new Star Trek out, and there’s only one place you can watch it. It’s just that that in itself is not enough. Oh, sure: there’s The Good Fight, which I suppose I’ll watch now that I’ve bitten the bullet, but it definitely wasn’t tempting enough on its own. Being able to watch regular CBS shows without commercials is no draw: I can do that with my DirecTv, a DVR, and a fast-forward button. Now, I could theoretically replace my DirecTv with a streaming solution, part of which would be CBS All Access, but last time I investigated that, it wouldn’t save me any money at all, and it’s not like I hate DirecTv or anything, so eventually I figured, why bother?
But now the second season of Star Trek: Discovery is starting, getting good reviews, and continuing to star Sonequa Martin-Green, who we loved in The Walking Dead. So we are masticating the metal projectile, for better or worse. And, since CBS All Access plus DirecTv is more expensive, it’s likely that soon we’ll be cutting the cable/satellite cord altogether. Still not sure I agree that we’re better off this way, but at least the first couple of episodes of the new Trek were pretty damned good.
While perusing the vast quantity of shows available, I was again a bit disappointed. In some cases, all the seasons are available. For instance, if I wanted to watch the reboot of MacGuyver, I could do so: all 3 seasons are right there. On the other hand, let’s say I finally wanted to give in and watch The Big Bang Theory. Nope, out of luck: only the last season is available, and why would I want to jump in at the end? (Well, assuming it ever will end, which perhaps it won’t. But you see my point.) Most of the older shows have a complete back catalog: feel like reliving the bizarre 80s phenomenon that was Beauty and the Beast? All 3 seasons are right here. And, as near as I can tell, every episode of every season of every Star Trek series is here—
But, percentage-wise, there just ain’t a lot here worth watching, if you want my honest opinion. I blasted through the first (and only, so far) season of Instinct, and I might try Salvation. And/or Scorpion. But, overall, not a lot going on, especially given the price.
I will endorse Instinct though. Essentially, it’s a retooling of Castle: There’s the tough, sexy female cop, played by an actor whose name you don’t recognize of Serbian descent raised in a former British colony still nominally ruled by Queen Elizabeth (yes, the two principal females leads really do have that much in common). There’s the charming-though-somewhat-egotistical male civilian who gets paired with the cop even though the cop really should have an actual cop partner and not this “consultant” who is constantly getting put in harm’s way and exposing the city (New York, in both cases) to levels of legal liability that would get any actual politician who approved it fired on the spot. But they go around solving crimes, having met because of a serial killer who patterned their murder spree on one of the male protagonist’s books but somehow even after that’s over they’re still “partners” for some reason, and it’s serious, because it’s a cop show, but it’s also fun, because one of the “partners” doesn’t have to follow the rules and can afford to be somewhat silly. The female cop, of course, is a compulsive rule-follower.
And, if I stopped right there, you would assume that Instinct is just a rip-off of Castle, and perhaps you would decide it wasn’t worth watching. But there are two issues with that. First off, Castle is a good enough show that even a rip-off can be fun. It’s only light entertainment, sure, but there’s certainly worse things on television. And the other thing is, instead of Nathan Fillion having a big crush on his female cop partner, Alan Cumming is a happily married man. A happily married gay man, even, which firmly puts the kibosh on the romantic angle right off the bat. Which is nice, in a change-of-pace way. It’s also nice to see Alan Cumming, who is himself a married gay man, get to play a married gay man, which is a role I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him in before. Also nice to see his character having a very normal, loving relationship with his husband on a show where the fact that he’s a gay man has nothing to do with the actual plot. Plus, Cumming’s character isn’t a useless mystery writer: he’s a former CIA agent and current professor of abnormal psychology, which makes him way more useful for actually solving the cases. It’s a bit like Castle was injected with a spot of Criminal Minds. Now, I’m not saying the show is perfect by any means—