Online Media Cultist

Web producer, writer, online media cultist. That's how I roll.

Thinking Outside of “Boxed In”

Before I get into what will likely be a somewhat negative diatribe about ”Boxed In,” by Grady Hendrix, I’d like to start out by saying how much I love online magazine Slate. I’ve read it daily for years and greatly enjoy its intelligent and savvy coverage of politics, pop culture, technology, and television (its TV Club series are some of the most fun you’ll have on the Interwebs). A typical online day for me, in fact, starts out with e-mail, Google Reader, Techmeme, Memeorandum, Drudge Report, The New York Times, Salon, and Slate.

Ah, television. That brings us to “Boxed In,” which is Hendrix’ exploration of why “giving someone a TV series on DVD is like giving them a life sentence.” So, first of all, I get that the premise is not to be taken terribly seriously. Seasons of television series packed into DVDs, often including lots of extra features and commentaries, are… well, they’re long.

They are long. Well, yes. That’s the point. They are there for fans to enjoy at their leisure or in great sweeping all night marathons over coffee or martinis or Cheetos or whatever. (I’m not saying I’ve done any of those… but don’t make me take a lie detector test, okay?).

But that’s not how Hendrix sees it:

The DVD box set is the newest and most terrifying form of ritualistic abuse we inflict on one another. In the past, a sick person received unwanted hardback books, but these days when someone is laid up with an illness, they are buried beneath an avalanche of DVD box sets containing hundreds of hours of television series.

This statement makes a number of assumptions that don’t sit right with me. It assumes that sitting through seasons of our favorite DVDs is a painful experience that the world populace is being forced to endure. It assumes that most people can afford to pay for “an avalanche of DVD box sets” at all. And it assumes that humankind possesses not the freewill to turn off the television when we are no longer engaged with the products we have purchased.

sopranos-box-setBut even so, I can hang with the thread of the argument for a bit. The marketplace for DVDs is surely oversaturated with crap – Hendrix mentions Jake and the Fatman and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (which wasn’t that terrible, truth be told) as examples of shows that need not be foisted onto the innocent consumer.

It’s when Hendrix reveals that he doesn’t really respect the medium of television that I feel rubbed the wrong way. “Television should be a glorious time waster,” Hendrix writes. Really? Who made up that Law?

Tell that to the creators of The Sopranos or The Wire or Mad Men or The Shield or Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Six Feet Under, incredible and layered shows that play out like visual novels over a number of years.

Perhaps, Mr. Hendrix, some of us enjoy revisiting these masterpieces to get even more out of the experience.

For five years running, I’ve received a season of The Sopranos from my wife’s family during the holidays. If I’ve been a good son-in-law this year, I’ll receive Season Six later this month and will block out a weekend during mid-winter when I can reconnect with Uncle Junior shooting Tony, Tony’s bizarre internal journey (to Purgatory? I’ve long wondered what’s going on in that house that Steve Buscemi / Tony Blundetto is standing in front of), and the delicious end run that leads up to the already infamous and controversial series finale.

And over Thanksgiving I introduced my mother to Mad Men Season One and was delighted that she was immediately enthralled with it. She entered the workforce in 1960s New York so it was wonderful to discuss the period detail and cultural mores portrayed on Mathew Weiner’s exquisite creation.

So that’s to say that television is as worthy of preservation and reexamination as any other artistic medium. Of course there’s lots of garbage on the air, and plenty of it would be a huge waste of time/money to spend on the DVD version, but isn’t that true of music and books and movies as well?

Hendrix intones that “Boxed sets have transformed television from light entertainment into homework.”

It’s okay, Mr. Hendrix. You can put down your homework and go outside and play. You’re allowed.

Post Metadata

Date
December 3rd, 2009

Author
Eric Berlin

Category

  • anunigam
    Great article on DVD Box Sets. I am a big fan. Worse then the Box Set is the Comcast on Demand of a season that runs out in 3 days. I've spent a Wednesday night watching all the season before it runs out.

    I actually found your article searching for TechMeme. I'm trying to find fans of the site to see what they like and don't like. The reason is that I BuzzBox.com which is more of a personalized Techmeme. You get the top stories from sources you trust. If you are available to talk, please contact me at anu@buzzbox.com. Thanks.
  • Yes, I've played that race-against-the wire game with On Demand as well, actually worked out very well while I was sick last month. Caught up on shows like Nurse Betty and Weeds.

    buzzbox looks interesting, will check it out, thanks !
  • Loved this. By the way, the links back to Slate don't work correctly for me.
  • Thanks so much Mark! And thanks twice over, will fix the link straight away
  • Nice. I saw the same thing and also found it rather foolish and poorly reasoned. Apparently the bar has been lowered at Slate.
  • Thanks El B! And I certainly hope that that's not the case. Just saw an amazing photo essay this morning over there of a busy street corner in Harlem, pretty cool stuff
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