Dumbass Sayings: “Catch The First Episode Online!”

When a new TV series comes out the commercial will usually say “Catch the first episode online now or on Hulu on demand!” Let’s be clear about something, you can’t “catch” a show online. You can catch it on live television because it’s playing with or without you and in order to see it you have to tune in to “catch it.” When you go to watch a show on the internet, that involves going to a website and actively seeking the show out. It’s basically like watching a DVD instead of seeing a movie on TV. You would never say “I caught a movie on Blu Ray today” because people would think you were an idiot. You didn’t catch it, you decided to watch it and activated that specific movie. These television networks want to sound cool and hip by saying “Hey man, catch the new episode,” but that word just doesn’t apply to this new age of television online. In today’s age of DVRs, Netflix, and Hulu people aren’t catching shows anymore, they’re hunting them. That’s an important distinction to make. Catching a show that's airing on TV is more of a natural event. It's like observing an animal in a field. Watching it online is more like hunting it down and putting it in a box to watch it when you want. People need to be aware of these things because it may not seem like a big deal now, but in ten or twenty years we’re going to be speaking a completely different language wondering why nothing we’re saying actually makes sense and it’s a slow cumulative process.

Remember when TV used to be a communal family experience? Me neither.