Subterranean’s back! What is next in entertainment?

“I like to watch.” — Chance the gardener (Peter Sellers), Being There

The question isn’t WHAT might you be watching, but HOW are you watching?

by Walter G. Tarrow

Several years ago, the esteemed editor of this online publication, a fellow student and roommate, of mine at Grand Valley back in the ’60s, asked me if, knowing that I have a deep appreciation of cinema, I would care to contribute a column with recommendations and/or reviews of movies.

He specified that the movies about which I would write had to have been released to theaters within the previous six months, basically “first- or second-run.” Now, coming back from a long, very long, break, I find that the times have changed profoundly.

“There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.”  Buffalo Springfield

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected us all, on a global scale, impacting not only our very health and welfare, but also to an unexpected and immense extent our ways of going about our day-to-day “business.” Many associated technologies and services have all but disappeared while others have grown explosively.

As our esteemed editor pointed out in a recent column, working from home has become the modus operandi for many workers and will probably continue as such.  Meetings are conducted over Zoom (Zoom?!? Who even heard of Zoom two years ago?)  The streets of America are filled with delivery people from Amazon to DoorDash to UPS. Even Carvana promises to deliver your new car to your doorstep. And even your first-run movies are no longer opening “only in theaters.”

The world, with social media and apps and streaming platforms, has gone online.  And movies and TV content have taken leaps in that direction.

Motion pictures have existed, and been available to the public, for the most part, since the beginning of the 20th century. For the first half of the 1900s, movies were shown only in theaters. Theaters ranging from movie palaces to holes in the wall. “Going to the movies” was a group shared experience with showings scheduled at specific times. I recall many a time rushing to the theater not to miss the beginning of the movie.

Then the 1950s, TV emerged, insidiously sneaking itself into the very fabric of our domestic lives. We could watch those movies, albeit on a tiny square foot screen, without having to leave the comfort of our home. But we still were on someone else’s schedule. Appointment TV was a thing, the only thing.

Next up, in the ’80s, was the home video recorder which gave us the freedom to “time shift” televised programming, and that along with VHS cassette tapes of movies available for purchase or rental within months after showing in theaters, gave us our own library from which we could take whenever we chose. No more having to be in our seats in time for the show. We were free from the tyranny of the, as Harlan Ellison puts it, glass teat. And Blockbuster was everywhere.

VHS were followed by DVDs and laser discs and Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D and digital discs and digital streaming, and all the while a multitude of other little technological variations popped in and out of your local electronics store.

Moments ago, I was watching a remastered 4K edition of Raiders of the Lost Ark on a 65- inch 4K UHDTV with Dolby Atmos sound. I know no one cares, but I find that exciting.

By the way, did you know that the VHS cassette tape format beat out the original Betamax because VHS tapes could record up to 8 hours vs. Betamax’s measly maximum of 2?

Well, that and the fact that Disney and porn (yep, pornography) embraced VHS. I guess the same could be said for streaming…

Around 2007, my friend who worked for Anchor Bay, once a major distributor of home video, upon the advent of Netflix as a streaming service, told me that physical media (VHS tapes, DVD and Blu-ray discs) were on their way to becoming obsolete.

Blockbuster and, with very rare exception, other video rental stores have closed. And last month, the Redbox disc rental kiosk disappeared from my local Meijer store.

So here we are.

Broadcast TV, delivered through the ether, with our standard local stations with network (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CW, etc.) affiliations remains. Basic cable stations (AMC, TBS, FX, CNN, Fox News and many more) continue over hardwired and fiber optic connections. And these two delivery methods will continue far into the future.

But freedom of access to content, on your whim, at your fingertips, when you wish, with seemingly endless choices, delivered to screens large and small, from online sources via the Internet, is the juggernaut with which we all now live.

I’ll be back with recommendations of movies and TV content.  And, again, with suggestions of how to watch.

In the meanwhile, please stay safe.

And try to stay sane.

And Raya and the Last Dragon on Disney + deserves your, and your children’s, love.