Streaming

 My grandsons found a show they enjoy. It's called, "How It's Made", and is a production of a Canadian company. I haven't seen any episodes, but it seems there are at least thirty seasons. I don't know how many episodes a seasons has. My daughter says they have two seasons. I'm not sure of the format, but maybe a DVD. They have seen all the episodes so many times, they have become a little tiresome, which takes some doing for boys of that age.

My wife and I talked about getting them more seasons of the show. We looked online. There is a scattering of DVD's available with a few episodes each. Nothing in order, no big collections. It turns out it is harder than expected to get access to this show.

We did find that the show is available on Discovery+, a streaming service I have never seen. We got them a subscription for the younger one's birthday, which is next weekend. I hope they enjoy the other episodes. There should be quite a few, so this might provide entertainment for a long time. Maybe until they outgrow the whole series, if that's possible.

I read about shows I think I would like to see, and then I find that I can't find them. I love Midsomer Murders, a British mystery series about an inspector in a made-up county in England. I have read that the actor playing the inspector in the first seasons was in another series some time before, which I think was also a British cop show. It is not available anywhere in any format, according to what I read. I don't know why.

I think we are pretty spoiled in this modern age. We have access to so much, we start to think we have access to everything, or at least that we should. I find myself getting upset when I can't find what I know exists somewhere. I'm sure there are all kinds of issues over such things as ownership. Maybe there are no useable sources for some shows. I don't know what format old series would be stored in, and how they might be translated to a digital format compatible with current technology. There is also the issue of possible audience. Some obscure series that wasn't particularly popular to begin with, and has not increased an audience over time, would take up some kind of resource if it were made available. I have no idea what the capacity of Netflix or Amazon Prime is, or even how it would be measured. I also understand that neither company caters much to someone with my particular tastes. But I still react as if something is wrong when I can't get what I want right away. Definitely spoiled.

I have a cousin who complained about limits on use of the term, Super Bowl. He can't use it in advertising for his pizza franchise. Well, no, the NFL is under no obligation to allow public use of something they have trademarked. Just because the Super Bowl is well known doesn't make the name public domain. Trademark protection exists for a reason, even if that reason, which includes giving companies some control over their image. I wonder if some series are not available in streaming services because the producers or current owners think they haven't aged well, and might be considered poor quality or offensive.

I thought about this in part because I saw an article online to day that said North Carolina has decided not to allow the Confederate flag on license plates. The official statement is that the flag might be offensive to some. I saw a comment about that, railing against PC weakness. I think the statement was an overly polite way of saying the government officials have finally acknowledged that the Confederate flag has primarily been used as a symbol of white supremacy and racism, and has no cultural value beyond perpetuating hatred.

So, should I watch It's a Wonderful Life, despite the portrayal of the black character? Or should that be made unavailable, as it hasn't really aged well? I can find something else to do.