Streaming completely changed how we watch television by making network loyalty obsolete, allowing viewers to jump between platforms without caring where a show originally aired. This shift changed our relationship with media, turning casual viewing into a habit driven by obsession and the constant search for the next great story.
I’ll be the first to admit that my relationship with television changed completely once streaming took over. Back in the day, you had to respect the schedule. If you missed an episode on a Tuesday night, you crossed your fingers and hoped for a summer rerun. You knew what network aired your favorite shows, and you stuck with them through bad seasons and weird scheduling changes.
Now? Network loyalty is dead and gone.
Ever since streaming came along, nobody cares what channel a show originates on. It doesn’t matter what network has the rights as long as the player loads and you can press play. We are all content nomads now, wandering from one subscription service to another just to follow a decent sci-fi series or a serialized drama.
Take a show like Continuum. It was a genuinely great time travel story that actually respected its audience, right up until budget cuts and declining cable viewership forced the studio to wrap everything up in a rushed final season. Shows like that lived or died by the whims of traditional broadcast models. If they aired today in the streaming era, they might have found the dedicated audience they needed to survive without having to cram three seasons of plot into six episodes.
Modern television has its own issues too. Far too many contemporary shows treat every character outside the main protagonist as a walking plot device rather than a real person. You watch an ensemble drama and realize the supporting cast only exists to push the hero toward their next objective. They are human MacGuffins, moving from scene to scene just to keep the pacing afloat.
At the end of the day, all this media consumption serves one main purpose for people like us. We watch television to talk about it. We consume hours of content just to break it down, argue about the terrible cancellation decisions, and figure out what makes a story work.
So just pick shows that you actually enjoy. Ignore the internet discourse. Watch what appeals to you and leave it at that.
Based on the episode: Origins In Television with Steve Megatron!
