American television, or welcome to the 21 century!
'11.08.2017'
Source: Emigrantvideo.us
American Life Stories from Ksenya Konovalova
When I first flew to America, everything seemed different. Even the sky and how the drawn clouds - to this day - seem to be somehow not from this world. I remember how I left the airport in the US capital Washington, Dallas International, looked up at the bottomless bright blue sky, breathed the air and realized that life would no longer be the same.
The widespread 8 lanes of neighboring Virginia seemed so intangible that a huge number of cars on the road just drowned in them, and driving was only a pleasure. At gas stations, among those known to us, Coca-Cola and Snickers, there are a lot of snacks of unknown brands and brands, half of which I don’t know even now. Cashiers in stores that always ask you how you are doing and with whom you can discuss the weather or the latest news while you are shopping. Yes, a lot of things are different here ...
I remember that American television was a discovery for me. Once we gathered at friends' house to watch a movie. They turn on the TV - and then windows crawl out on the screen instead of channels, like on a computer monitor: Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Crackle, XFINITY and others. And instead of the usual to me in my homeland "well, what do we show on the program today?" - the question here is different: "Well, what are we going to watch?"
In America, they went much further in the matter of television. Yes, there are ordinary channels, so-called. cable TV, where you can watch news from around the world, where they play TV shows, TV shows and often well-known films. But there are no printed TV programs like ours. Instead, while you are switching TV channels, the screen is divided, and the program is shown at the bottom of the screen, and a preview of the channel from the top in the mini-screen. How convenient! There is advertising here too, it’s a lot and often shown, but usually it is short (up to 1-2 minutes), not like in our 15 minutes.
What is really different is that you can buy or rent any movie with one click on the TV screen. There are also services like Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Crackle, XFINITY, which for a small monthly fee (usually up to $ 20 / month) give you access to numerous films (including recently released ones!), TV shows, TV series, comedy shows that you can watch when and how much you want. But not all films are available in the public domain, for some of them you will be asked to pay: from $ 2,99 to $ 6,99 for a one-time rental of the film. If you want to buy a movie and watch it endlessly, it will be more expensive ($ 12 and more). When registering your account, you simply indicate your credit / debit card, and voila! You don't have to go to the cinema or suffer that nothing interesting is shown on TV on Saturday night. Any movie is at your fingertips.
Because of its popularity among the inhabitants of America, there are several dozen of such services, and sometimes it is worth going through all the services in search of the desired film, since on one resource it can be paid, and on the other - it can be freely available.
Overall, this is very cool, and for the most part it has almost replaced cable television. For example, I don’t watch it at all. News - I read online, and movies or series, when I want to pass the evening, are always on Netflix or Hulu.
Also in America, reality shows are very popular. About the real estate market, about weapons, cars, hunting and fishing, about housewives and children-cooks, about the life of Kardashian and movie stars, etc. Watch and not reconsider. A lot of unreal cool (I personally got hooked on "Breaking Bad" on Netflix! Who knows, he will understand), but the majority is the food for the unintelligible mass market.
Americans love to watch TV and TV shows. I had a culture shock on arrival, as far as everything was “in the subject line”. Any self-respecting American regards as proud the fact that if he was woken up at night and asked to talk about Star Wars, he would do it without hesitation. The theme of superheroes in America is generally a separate topic. This is something of our “Well, wait!” And “Office Romance” - whole generations have literally grown up on them! And I'm afraid that I do not distinguish Batman from ... who is his main opponent there ??!
Each release of the Star Wars or Superman vs. Batman movie is accompanied by the complete insanity of the fans who clean out all the branded stores, buying t-shirts, caps, miniature copies of heroes, etc., in bulk! Disneyland builds separate pavilions dedicated to the new film, and people on the day of the premiere dress as heroes and stroll through the streets, shouting out phrases of their favorite characters.
In general, if Americans love something, they love it in full, and all this is very entertaining! The most interesting thing is that the Americans themselves do not deny their excessive hobby of television and cinema! They have such a weakness, and you either love or leave!
PS More about Netflikse.
I heard recently about a new startup on Kickstarter.com, which will open to the world a completely different way of “getting close to your loved ones”. Two LED rings - for you and your soulmate (well, or your roommate, with whom you are watching Netflix) - if one of you is not in the room, then watch those TV shows that you initially chose to watch together, one can not. Thus, the developers seek to minimize the so-called “treason”: when the two began to watch a series together, and one of the evenings one reviewed five episodes on their own, then the second one is not interested in watching the sixth series together and he will have to from evenings to revisit those five episodes! With such an innovation, one without a second will not be able to “read”. (To cheat - change, eng.).
