I can live with apocalypse

So it was not too bad, if not a little too formulaic in the construction of the ensemble cast.

I was a little surprised that The Killers track “All These Things I’ve Done” (I think) was the intro tune as it is one of my favourite songs at the moment, and if the show was crap then it would be tainted.

After an adolescence that had a healthy diet of anime I am all psyched for post-rockalyptic narratives. It is a little weird that the US fantasy of 9/11 was that was an apocalypse, when it has been the only country to use nuclear weapons in war, against Japan, which produced all the anime I watched growing up… I like Lost’s post-9/11 vibe better, but I can live with apocalypse. Hello Baudrillard!

Anyway, there are two remarkable things to this show that need to be highlighted.

1) The premiere was shown in Australia at the same time (roughly) as the US premiere. Finally some peanut realised that if we can access shows at the same time they become available in the US (or anywhere in the world) then we won’t have to download them through torrents and we will actually watch them on the telly hence some other peanut (maybe the same one!) gets money through advertising revenue.

2) The other utterly amazing thing that I just read about and am still coming to terms with is that CBS is apparently going to post 90 minute versions of the episodes online (W! T! F!) directly after the broadcast of the 60 minute (or 44 minute) version on TV. I am looking now. I’ll just repeat that WTF, because this demonstrates a creative, intelligent response to the possibilities of broadband, rather than some dumb arse response expected of media mega-companies. According to CBS Digital Media president Larry Kramer said that viewers “don’t have to go on the Web to find out what really happens, but it enriches experience because there will be four, rather than two or three, plotlines.” WTF! This is some crazy shit. How many fans are not going to attempt to watch the online shows? I say attempt because if they have it as a live streaming file the servers at CBS are never going to be able to hack it. Actually, here is the link. Serve me right exceeding my bandwidth allocation for this month. So it is running one something called ‘Innertube’. They have a number of ‘brief messages’ before the actual file of the show begins… “This content is not available for viewing outside of the United States.” Good one CBS…

Back to work!