Bereavement is never fun. We know this because the thought of never seeing someone you cared about again is upsetting. As mere mortals we are aware that our lives are fragile and can end at any time, so mourning is a way to get out all the feelings of hurt and sadness that come with the initial shock of departure from this life.
Our culture has developed a number of ways with coming with the loss of a loved one. There first that comes to mind is the hysterical denial routine. Sobbing for hours on end, the occasional scream, denial of events that have happened. The second is a far quieter, less attention drawing. Thoughts are left spinning around the head of the individual. Coming to terms with knowledge that whomever they knew is gone forever, having now become a solid memory, the end of chapter in the book of life. This grieving process is far more personal and not so likely to make tabloid front pages.
The third is a quickly assessing the situation and deciding that sadness should reign for a few days but then normality must resume. However this routine, if American detective dramas have taught us anything, is the method used by the perpetrator responsible for cutting short the life of the loved/loathed individual on the autopsy slab.
I start on a bleak note because I feel myself to be in the second stage of mourning for an old friend, someone who had been with me through thick and thin, long nights and early mornings. Made me laugh and sometimes made me feel like crying. My grieving is not for a relative or close friend. That wouldn’t make for entertaining literature. I find myself feeling sad for the passing of possibly the best online video streaming website in the deep binary sea of the internet, NinjaVideo.
I stumbled across NinjaVideo over a year ago. I was looking to get my high quality video fix and after a few minutes of interrogating Google to give up its best held secret, low and behold, it dished the goods. A website with an enormous collection of television shows from the USA and UK with new additions everyday with the option of watching in DVD quality or a lower quality flash. Series were immaculately complete. Every episode was available even if there was only a single choice. It was a beautiful thing. Beautiful times.
Through NinjaVideo I found myself discovering many new shows. It started with Battlestar Galactica and continued to True Blood. NinjaVideo gave me the chance to catch up with my old friends Greg House M.D and CTU Agent Jack Bauer. Doors of new shows to enjoy were opened to me and I found myself eagerly anticipating the next week’s barrage of shows like a dog who swore his master just mumbled walkies.
While fully aware that such actions are considered illegal by television studios in the US, I don’t get why. They produce so many shows every year which is fine, it needs to be done. But their arrival on UK stations is seriously delayed. It can be anything from two weeks to a year of waiting for the next exhilarating instalment of whatever show takes your fancy.
Again, fully aware that this is due to the UK’s television policy to limit the amount of imported US programming as to give home grown material a chance at becoming as popular as other names such as House and 24, it’s just not going to happen. The BBC and ITV wouldn’t consider funding a 21-25 episode series of shows. Far too expensive for companies trying to maintain a position as far away from the accounts red ink during this particularly time of financial...lacking. Plus, American accents and lifestyles are awesome compared to our meagre existences on this rock which could easily act as Texas’ shoe insole.
The US networks cry out that piracy is costing the entertainment industry millions upon millions every year. That may well be so. But do actors like Charlie Sheen REALLY need $825,000 dollars for completing one twenty one minute episode of a successful comedy.
It’s because of toddler tantrum that I write this. Last week the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Department of the US government shutdown 9 websites, including one who’s servers were abroad for intellectual property violation. NinjaVideo was one of the accused and executed.
What I really don’t get is how 100 US government agents can be used for shutting down a few websites doing a few naughty things where there are bigger problems to be caring about. Problems such as wielding illegally obtained automatic or semi automatic weapons roaming the streets for protection come to mind, Mr Highest Gun Crime in the World.
But alas, apparently people shooting each other isn’t nearly as important as keeping the TV networks from bawling their eyes out.
I don’t wish to come across as entirely supporting piracy. I don’t. Hypocritical, a little, but let me try and explain my position. America does make a fine range of television shows, shows wanting to be seen by a wide audience. An audience all the way over a tiny little puddle of water known as the Atlantic Ocean springs to mind.
The networks need people to pay for their cable subscriptions so they can fund shows. Now revisiting the case of Mr Sheen... I am a fan of Two and a Half Men. The show is well scripted, well acted and is a superb way of wasting a sunny day. But my problem is with actors demanding so much for a job that should be considered a privilege.
NinjaVideo and the eight other sites closed down by the ICE pulled in 6.7 million hits a week. That’s a lot of eyes. A lot of space for advertisements. I wish the US Networks had pulled themselves together and have seen the marketing opportunity they had before them that wouldn’t cost much but would spread to millions of people all over the world.
But what do I know, I’m simply a man with no idea of how the economics of the entertainment industry. I’m just upset that I have lost a source of great quality entertainment. A website that introduced me to a number of shows which I watched for free, but the ones I really enjoy, honestly and wholly, I splashed out the cash on buying the boxset so on the day of a power cut when the internet wasn’t an option, I still could have the company of my favourite shows on DVD.
Now I find myself back out in the wastelands of the internet. My home behind me burnt to a cinder, gone forever. Ahead I see the horizon with nothing on it. I have started my walk to find a new home, but nowhere even comes close to the feeling of community and enjoyment of television in all its forms that NinjaVideo offered me. My grieving is not over yet. My arrow has repeatedly found itself hovering over my NinjaVideo browser shortcut. It stays there, my eyes close, I pray, I click. Only to find a service provider error message. My heart sinks. I trawl on through the crud of the internet looking for something to replace the irreplaceable. Goodnight NinjaVideo. You were a good friend.
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