Comment by geoelectric | Hacker News Reader

Comment by geoelectric | Hacker News Reader

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I think this is actually a pretty real concern. I've noticed my appreciation for specific instances of all sorts of media has tanked with wide availability.

I actually used to buy a lot of media so I hit this problem before streaming. As soon as I had a backlog big enough with each type of media that it wasn't straightforward to burn through it, it became a cloud of equally possible stuff with the result I wasn't particularly invested in any of it. Most people were smarter than me re: dumping money into bits on a disc, but now that streaming and/or free-feed libraries have hit most media types, I think the experience is becoming more common.

I think it's a different version of Paradox of Choice: all individualization between the various choices is lost when there's too many. With PoC, the problem is that then you have nothing left by which you can prioritize. In this case, the issue is the loss of all joy you'd have found in the differences.

What's helped a little for me is going on "kicks," like finding all the bands I liked that did EDM-metal hybrid, or all the found footage movies I liked, etc. Constraining the pool you're selecting from first makes it easier, and having a mission of some kind makes it easier still.

Child of the 90s here and my parents wouldn’t get cable TV.

This meant my access to movies was basically whatever was on broadcast TV that night or if I was really lucky whatever was available at our local video rental store.

I remember not always loving whatever movie we chose (or whatever was on TV) but I watched it because it’s what I had.

Now, like many others, I stare at the home screen of a few different services each night, start and stop a few different things, then give up.

Personally I think that has more to do with what movie offerings there are today vs 20 years ago. I could absolutely care less about the latest comic book movie but that seems to be where movie studios have put all their effort.

On the other hand, TV series have never been better - we seem to be in some kind of golden age where you can find tons of high quality well acted series on every streaming service. There was a bit of a lull (for me) during Covid, but my backlog is completely full through the next year.

The consolidation of movie studios (mostly into Disney lately...) hasn't been helping either. There used to be plenty of small studios that would do "weird" stuff - it wasn't going to be a huge commercial success, but it would probably make back the modest budget it had.

There's always older films to watch. I'm at a point where I'd far rather put the time into something older, with solid actors, than watch the latest and greatest mostly-CG special effects laden [whatever]. That most of those movies are unwatchable unless you're "deep into the fandom" doesn't encourage me to invest in them either. And if it's not those, it's the "How can we prequel all the popular things," even when it makes no sense at all. To yell at a cloud briefly, Han Solo doesn't need a prequel. He's a standard drifter archetype, and to nail his past down doesn't do the character any service at all.

> He's a standard drifter archetype, and to nail his past down doesn't do the character any service at all.

old man makes great point

> greatest mostly-CG special effects laden [whatever]

There was some threshold that was crossed probably close to a decade ago for me where CG effects stopped being interesting in any way, but watching older movies with their incredible special effects and stuntmen really does look impressive to me. There is no CG in the world that compares to the immersion in Apocalypse Now, for example.

I do think there are many ways to use CG to subtly support the impact of a scene driven by characters, but when the scene itself is driven by the CG (in ways that are unrealistic for actors or stuntmen to perform) it just feels like a lazy way to progress a storyline.

Mad Max Fury Road stands out for their general lack of CG - and it shows in the movie. The thing is filled with practical effects, and it just looks right as a result. They don't have to simulate the physics of someone swinging around attached to the end of a fiberglass pole when they... just attached someone to the end of a fiberglass pole. The dirtbike trajectories look right, because... they filmed dirtbikes jumping the convoy. The flamethrowing guitar on top of the truck filled with speakers is exactly that. Etc.

Yes, there's some CG for the flame effects and such, but the bulk of it is just practical effects - and when you watch it, the movie stands out because of them. Everything they're doing can be done - as proven by the fact that they did it. Is it insane madness in the desert? Yes, but they filmed insane madness in the desert.

I started getting annoyed at CG heavily around the Star Wars Prequel days - when you've got movies in which the plot serves the tech demo, not the other way around. That's not a style of storytelling I enjoy, and more and more it seems to be the style used.

Well put. Mad Max Fury road was fantastic.

There's a great video on how to use CG correctly by Rocket Jump https://youtu.be/bL6hp8BKB24

There are actually around 2,000 VFX shots in the film, but I think they really nailed the mix between practical and VFX in a way that makes the sum of the parts greater.

I do think this is why anytime the A24 logo comes up before a trailer it piques my interest.

(side note: the one they just released, Everything Everywhere All The Time, might be one of the best movies I've seen in the last decade)

You mean you absolutely could not care less. (And neither could I.)

I agree though, fortunately I'm someone who doesn't mind rewatching old films I like, and also there are surely many greats I've yet to see. Television is not all hits, but there seem to be many more than in film, and then once you have one that's firstly and most simply more hours of entertainment; secondly it's a virtuous circle having more time for character and plot development etc.

> I could absolutely care less

Feel petty mentioning this, but you mean you couldn't care less right? As in you care nothing about latest movie, right?

Took me a moment to work out what you were saying, hence why pointing out, although aware small, potentially peevish position on my part

Both "could care less" and "couldn't care less" mean the same thing

Only if you've been around people who say it a lot and have the cultural context.

The internet, and Hacker News, is not that place.

There are plenty of people on here who will read "could" and "couldn't" as the actual words they are rather than the phrase they're a part of.

yes, that is why i explained that

Don't you love English. The langauge where polar opposites "sucks" and "blows" can mean in the right context exactly the same thing.

Surely you're joking, right? I've never encountered those two phrases where they meant the same thing.

Couldn't care less - absolute zero care. Nothing can disappoint me whatever happen. Could care less - some degree of care is present. Thing can actually get worse

The missing ingredient, as with many teenage idioms, is sarcasm.

"Could care less" is an idiom, derived from a sarcastic acknowledgement that you haven't quite reached the theoretical minimum, absolute-0 of caring. "Well, I suppose I could care less..."

Star Wars was revolutionary for its time, but if it didn’t exist until today I’m doubtful you’d ever hear people fist bumping on may 5th.

I fondly remember my visit to the videoclub.

Never been a social guy, but I found enjoyable a short talk with the guy at the counter.

He gave me his opinion on the tape I was about to checkout and made suggestions about the new acquisitions. I guess after some weeks he knew my tastes and give a human-curated list, hehehe. They mostly tend to by nerdy, so we made a good fit, but they curated the list to old ladies, families and so...

A miss here and there, but I always found something enjoyable in all tapes. Even in the low budget, low quality ones.

Looks like ages ago...

I agree on the start-stop thing. You need to stop doing that :) I used to get DVDs through the post from LoveFilm and would nearly always watch the movies through to the end, even if they didn't seem great in the first 20 mins. Often I would be glad I stuck with it as many movies are a "slow burn". With streaming there is a constant nagging doubt that I'm missing out on something better and should jump ship if a movie/show doesn't grab me immediately. One way out of this is to force yourself to stick with your choice or do something else (like read a book!) ... that works for me.

> I remember not always loving whatever movie we chose (or whatever was on TV) but I watched it because it’s what I had.

It's quite useful experience to have, helps in adult life when you have to survive long meetings that are not particularly engaging nor interesting.

I remember the clear nights I could watch TV all the way from Louisville.

This is such a large problem that it's a cultural meme that nobody can decide what to watch on Netflix, or what music to listen to on Spotify, or what game to play from their Steam library.

There's just too much of everything. There are too many musicians, movies, and games that friends, family, and the recommendation algorithms all swear I absolutely must experience before I can call my life complete.

Another take: too many posts on HN about languages, algorithms, start-ups, fund-raising, etc, etc. I'm here because I like to read through lots of that stuff! But it has also made admire it all, maybe a little too much.

As I'm in the late stage process of potentially joining a start-up, I am doing so much what-if and what-about-that analysis and it is completely paralyzing my decision process! But it reminded me that I was once a 20-year-old sophomore in college that created a business plan with a friend for a start-up without once wondering what else might be out there. Times have changed.

Life was better when you could only choose either C, Basic or Pascal.

I clearly remember feeling this fatigue already 20 years ago when piracy became super easy and i went from the teenage paradigm of buying one album, say, a month, and learning the ins and outs of it for that month, to having more in my hard drive than i could chew on. I remember thinking oh back in the day it was easier to love music! I have since learned to stop being nostalgic about the scarcity and instead trying to be more, um, mindful of my consumption. Genre rabbit holes are great. Live music is too. I avoid the recommender algorithms as much as i can instead going for albums or curated compilations - much prefer YouTube to Spotify for this. When people let the algorithm play, I can clearly hear the lack of intentionality and it bothers me immensely.

Remember that we have unlimited access to super-hero and algorithmically scripted movies. I had more options in my VHS rental stores than in current streaming offerings. It is very hard to find classic movies of non anglo-american directors. I had access to these movies in my third world big city rental store.

I also have a wall of independent CDs that never got to the streaming services.

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