Everyone knows that our favourite show round these parts, the reason for this site and in fact our dependence on the internet in general – namely, Supernatural – is an American show. We understand that. We don’t mind. We can even decipher the quaint foreign accents (or read subtitles, or listen to the local dubbing) and, due to having been exposed to US TV and movies for years, understand most of the pop culture references made on the show. As Ben Browder has said at conventions and then actually got to state in Stargate SG-1’s 200th episode: ‘Never underestimate your audience. They’re generally sensitive, intelligent people who respond positively to quality entertainment.’
Oh yes – as fans, we’re really quite smart. Which is why it pains me to deduce that The Powers That Be – be they Warner Brothers or a channel in your own lovely country – really have no respect or in fact a single thought for the show’s fans.
Why am I led to this conclusion? Hmm, let me see.
First, for overseas fans of the British persuasion, there was the Great Season Four DVD Debacle of 2009. In short, season four in its complete boxed set went on sale in the UK shortly after it did in the USA. It proudly boasted of its gorgeous extras and shiny, shiny special features. Imagine the fans’ dismay when, instead of six discs in order, they in fact opened the case to find two disparate sets of discs, each labelled ‘1-3’, each one bereft of any special features whatsoever. It drove many fans to question if it were in fact the correct boxed set, or if Warner Brothers UK had simply emptied out all the unsold sets of volumes one and two and stuffed the two sets into one case. And they would have got away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling fans. They wrote, they called, they complained, they argued. Eventually Warner Brothers UK agreed to let the purchasers post their DVD sets to them, whereupon they would replace them with the proper anglicised version of the original USA region 1 boxed set – containing all the extras.
The lying region 2 UK DVD case.
This was done, this was settled, and life returned to normal. (And by the way, you can still get your boxed set changed here if you need to: Warner Home Entertainment, Freepost -RSAR-ZTSK-ZTBT, Rabans Lane, Aylesbury, HP19 8TS. England.)
Then the viewers in poor old Blighty were dealt another blow – the airing of (or non-existence thereof) season five. First, ITV2, who ran endless promos and adverts (commercials) for pretty much all of their other dead-beat shows, said they had the rights. Then they said they didn’t. Things looked bleak in Mudville as it transpired that there would be no airing of the fifth season of the show in the UK, be it on free or paid channels. War was about to ensue.
Then those lovely chaps at Virgin 1’s Living channel bought the rights to show the series and everything was fine again. Viewers were spared the awfulness and general crappiness of ITV2 in general, and still got their show. Bargain.
Over several ponds, it was Australia’s turn to get the finger from The Man. They waited and waited to get their favourite show on their screens, and Channel Ten did not disappoint. Until they did: they showed the first ten episodes of season five on Monday nights, and then they opted to drop it. If anyone can find a good reason for their motivation, seeing as the show’s ratings were actually increasing from season to season, I’m sure a prize would be in order. Those bloody ace Aussies are taking it upon themselves to make sure their disgust is heard both on the official site and in their own ways, but, for now, it seems there is no happy ending in sight. Again, if anyone can fathom why this was done by TV executives, I’m sure there would be a reward before plans to burn down said TV executives’ offices are finalised.
LATE EDIT: Aussies! Send your polite but firm letters showing why the show should be brought back to the channel’s snail mail address (Channel 10, GPO Box 10, Sydney NSW 2001) or in a similarly swearword-free but demonstrative way, jam up their goddamn message boards with good reasons why the show is sorely needed.
And doesn’t striking the programme from the schedule make you want to reluctantly go to the computer and get hold of the new episodes by other means? Why do channels and networks piss and moan about people downloading and stealing their programmes when it gets snatched away from viewers in the first place? If it were available to watch and DVR from home, how many people would bother to try downloading it? Not many, I’m willing to bet – on the grounds of poorer quality, wasted time and internet and bandwidth concerns. Then of course there’s the entire annoyance of paying for a channel (or, in the case of the UK, the criminally exorbitant license fee) and then having nothing to watch on said channel – and no way to cancel it lest you incur charges.
However, back in its own home of the USA, things appear to be going from strength to strength. On the one hand, episode eleven of the show gets aired 21st January 2010 and it looks like it’s going to be a real doozy. On the other hand, it’s also now in syndication, a boon for any purr wee tiny show. The hoopy froods over at TNT are going through season one as you read this, and are even planning marathons later in the schedule. Good times.
So it seems only viewers overseas miss out – for now. I live on a different continent to all the places mentioned above. This means that on the downside, seeing as they’re showing season four right now on TVB, there is no recourse but to obtain each week’s new episode by other means. (Ahem.) The upside? I don’t have to wait, and because I live in Hong Kong, I can stroll into my local HMV store and simply buy the region one USA copy off the shelf, no problem. Right now I have seasons one to four nestled quite happily on the top shelf of my DVD cabinet, and I know the complete season five boxed set will join it just as soon as it’s released (which, by the way, is the same as the US date).
So what say you, readers? This pulling of the show from other countries’ TV networks and channels, mixing up (some would say ‘deliberately’) merchandise until you’re caught out, being torn from your favourite show because it just is not on any channel where you live: should we take a snapshot and send it to Oxford with a note about adding it into next year’s dictionary under ‘taking the piss’?
You decide.
Pictures kindly supplied by @acquiesceh20.
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You will respect our cult status!
Everyone knows that our favourite show round these parts, the reason for this site and in fact our dependence on the internet in general – namely, Supernatural – is an American show. We understand that. We don’t mind. We can even decipher the quaint foreign accents (or read subtitles, or listen to the local dubbing) and, due to having been exposed to US TV and movies for years, understand most of the pop culture references made on the show. As Ben Browder has said at conventions and then actually got to state in Stargate SG-1’s 200th episode: ‘Never underestimate your audience. They’re generally sensitive, intelligent people who respond positively to quality entertainment.’
Oh yes – as fans, we’re really quite smart. Which is why it pains me to deduce that The Powers That Be – be they Warner Brothers or a channel in your own lovely country – really have no respect or in fact a single thought for the show’s fans.
Why am I led to this conclusion? Hmm, let me see.
First, for overseas fans of the British persuasion, there was the Great Season Four DVD Debacle of 2009. In short, season four in its complete boxed set went on sale in the UK shortly after it did in the USA. It proudly boasted of its gorgeous extras and shiny, shiny special features. Imagine the fans’ dismay when, instead of six discs in order, they in fact opened the case to find two disparate sets of discs, each labelled ‘1-3’, each one bereft of any special features whatsoever. It drove many fans to question if it were in fact the correct boxed set, or if Warner Brothers UK had simply emptied out all the unsold sets of volumes one and two and stuffed the two sets into one case. And they would have got away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling fans. They wrote, they called, they complained, they argued. Eventually Warner Brothers UK agreed to let the purchasers post their DVD sets to them, whereupon they would replace them with the proper anglicised version of the original USA region 1 boxed set – containing all the extras.
The lying region 2 UK DVD case.
This was done, this was settled, and life returned to normal. (And by the way, you can still get your boxed set changed here if you need to: Warner Home Entertainment, Freepost -RSAR-ZTSK-ZTBT, Rabans Lane, Aylesbury, HP19 8TS. England.)
Then the viewers in poor old Blighty were dealt another blow – the airing of (or non-existence thereof) season five. First, ITV2, who ran endless promos and adverts (commercials) for pretty much all of their other dead-beat shows, said they had the rights. Then they said they didn’t. Things looked bleak in Mudville as it transpired that there would be no airing of the fifth season of the show in the UK, be it on free or paid channels. War was about to ensue.
Then those lovely chaps at Virgin 1’s Living channel bought the rights to show the series and everything was fine again. Viewers were spared the awfulness and general crappiness of ITV2 in general, and still got their show. Bargain.
Over several ponds, it was Australia’s turn to get the finger from The Man. They waited and waited to get their favourite show on their screens, and Channel Ten did not disappoint. Until they did: they showed the first ten episodes of season five on Monday nights, and then they opted to drop it. If anyone can find a good reason for their motivation, seeing as the show’s ratings were actually increasing from season to season, I’m sure a prize would be in order. Those bloody ace Aussies are taking it upon themselves to make sure their disgust is heard both on the official site and in their own ways, but, for now, it seems there is no happy ending in sight. Again, if anyone can fathom why this was done by TV executives, I’m sure there would be a reward before plans to burn down said TV executives’ offices are finalised.
LATE EDIT: Aussies! Send your polite but firm letters showing why the show should be brought back to the channel’s snail mail address (Channel 10, GPO Box 10, Sydney NSW 2001) or in a similarly swearword-free but demonstrative way, jam up their goddamn message boards with good reasons why the show is sorely needed.
And doesn’t striking the programme from the schedule make you want to reluctantly go to the computer and get hold of the new episodes by other means? Why do channels and networks piss and moan about people downloading and stealing their programmes when it gets snatched away from viewers in the first place? If it were available to watch and DVR from home, how many people would bother to try downloading it? Not many, I’m willing to bet – on the grounds of poorer quality, wasted time and internet and bandwidth concerns. Then of course there’s the entire annoyance of paying for a channel (or, in the case of the UK, the criminally exorbitant license fee) and then having nothing to watch on said channel – and no way to cancel it lest you incur charges.
However, back in its own home of the USA, things appear to be going from strength to strength. On the one hand, episode eleven of the show gets aired 21st January 2010 and it looks like it’s going to be a real doozy. On the other hand, it’s also now in syndication, a boon for any purr wee tiny show. The hoopy froods over at TNT are going through season one as you read this, and are even planning marathons later in the schedule. Good times.
So it seems only viewers overseas miss out – for now. I live on a different continent to all the places mentioned above. This means that on the downside, seeing as they’re showing season four right now on TVB, there is no recourse but to obtain each week’s new episode by other means. (Ahem.) The upside? I don’t have to wait, and because I live in Hong Kong, I can stroll into my local HMV store and simply buy the region one USA copy off the shelf, no problem. Right now I have seasons one to four nestled quite happily on the top shelf of my DVD cabinet, and I know the complete season five boxed set will join it just as soon as it’s released (which, by the way, is the same as the US date).
So what say you, readers? This pulling of the show from other countries’ TV networks and channels, mixing up (some would say ‘deliberately’) merchandise until you’re caught out, being torn from your favourite show because it just is not on any channel where you live: should we take a snapshot and send it to Oxford with a note about adding it into next year’s dictionary under ‘taking the piss’?
You decide.
Pictures kindly supplied by @acquiesceh20.
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