Complex Numbers

Ad-verse Reaction

I hate ads.

Now, I don't mean that the way most people do. Most people will say they hate ads, and then continue to watch TV. They put up with the ads anyway. A necessary - or at least convenient - evil.

Other people deliberately watch the Big Trademarked Football Game in February just so they can see the really expensive ads when they come out. I can no more understand these humans than I can the ones who love camping in the cold. Mind you, I'm not ragging on them. To each their own and all that. I just don't understand.

So I've never had cable TV. What few shows I used to watch, long ago before the internet, I could pick up with antennae and grumble my way through the ads. Star Trek: The Next Generation, for example. As for cable, I never could wrap my head around paying an assload of money every month for something I would rarely use, and, despite paying for it, still have to put up with commercials.

But eventually even on-air commercials became too much for me to deal with, and I swore off TV entirely. Not that I didn't have a picture box; it's just that its sole purpose was to play VCRs and, later, DVDs. I filled my leisure time mostly with computer games - so don't think this is some screed against popular entertainment in general.

Streaming has brought me back to TV. There's Netflix, of course, with a reasonable monthly fee - and the only ads I get are for other videos, which is fine; it's like previews before a movie. And Amazon offers shows that you can pay for, also without commercials. I'm still paying less than I would for cable. If they have a show, they usually release the episode the day after it airs on commercial TV, which is fine with me.

But now, streaming services have been popping up all over, and usually, you can only get a show on one of them. This is getting to be a problem, as pretty soon it'll be too much like cable - too many choices, few of them worth it. So I have Netflix, and Amazon Prime (for which I get enough free shipping by itself to justify the annual fee), and CBS All Access.

That last one is problematic. I got it for one reason and one reason only: Star Trek: Discovery. But there's another show I like called Salvation, which is also offered on CBS. Good writing, science fiction, and they have an actual scientist consulting on the science (astronomer Phil Plait, whose work I've been following for years). Anyway, the problem is this: In the middle of the show - not at the beginning or end, as some other streaming services do - they interrupt with an ad for another show, even though I'm paying the higher "ad-free" price.

Even that wouldn't be so bad if the ad were for other science fiction shows. I mean, they know exactly what I watch on their site, and it's almost exclusively SF, so they could target their market. But no - the ads are for, if you've seen the movie Idiocracy, the equivalent of Ow! My Balls! - shows like Survivor and Big Brother.

Shows, in short, that I have never, and will never, purposely watch.

So - do I cancel my subscription, and miss out on Disco? Or put up with the Ow! My Balls! ads?

I feel like they'll keep doing it if they can get away with it, and I don't want to encourage that sort of thing. But I really like Star Trek...

Well, I'll tell you what - first time I see an ad for a home appliance, or cat food, or tampons, or anything like that, I'm out of there. Until then, I'll put up with it.