The Golden Age of Wasting Time

With the launch of the landmark site, Hulu.com, where you can watch episodes from over 400 different shows, and southparkstudios.com, where you can watch every episode from the last 12 seasons of South Park, it's safe to say that we have officially entered the Golden Age of Wasting Time. It's amazing that anyone gets anything done, at school or at work. If George W. Bush or Isiah Thomas admitted that the reason why they're so terrible at their jobs is because they're too busy on YouTube or reading stuff on Wikipedia that may or may not be valid, I would believe them and would be willing to buy that as an excuse.

I really can't say enough about Hulu.com. There's are small commercial interruptions, but in all cases the show is sponsored by one advertiser and there's one :15-:30 second ad that plays in between each commercial break. Still, that's a small annoyance to deal with, considering you have every episode of The Office or Arrested Development at your disposal. There are also movies like The Big Lebowski or Ice Age, but I haven't tried out any of those yet.

Arrested Development is the real draw though. It was a ratings flow and a commercial disaster, and it's one of the three best shows I've ever watched. And not even The Sopranos or The Wire had the subplot depth or unending number of callbacks that AD had. It only ran for three seasons, so it ended WAY before it could've gotten stale or boring, but I can't help but wonder how good it could've been. After all, Seinfeld and The Simpsons (the only two American comedy series' that have even reached the same level) didn't hit it's stride until Season 4. It's a shame that AD didn't get released in 2006 or 2007 instead of 2003. With so many ways on the internet to reach an audience, acclaimed shows like 30 Rock or Friday Night Lights have gotten renewed despite not having monster ratings.

Southparkstudios.com works the same way as Hulu.com, but it's just South Park on the site, which is awesome on its own. There are also games and downloads, but really the only reason to go on the site is watching episodes of South Park. South Park isn't as good as The Simpsons was at its peak (Seasons 3-7), but its one of the few shows that has gotten better season by season. And it's gotten better by pushing characters like Butters and Randy Marsh to the forefront and integrating themselves with the main characters.

That's what's so great about the Golden Age of Wasting Time, that people around America can watch a short-lived classic like Arrested Development or a long-running icon like South Park, for free, right on their computer. And the potential for more is out there. More shows from NBC and FOX are being and should be added in the days and weeks ahead. Other networks like CBS and ABC could and should get into the game. And eventually maybe HBO will ditch its archaic cable subscription-based model and embrace the internet. And you'll be able to watch anything you want whenever you want. Maybe one day, we'll be able to watch TV on the computer screen implemented in the wings that give us the gift of flight.

It started with iTunes and has progressed into Hulu.com. No longer do you have to wait until you get home to just sit around and waste time watching TV. This is the future.

TV is dead, long live TV.