Is It Worth It?

I've been an HBO subscriber off and on over the last five or six years. I had it for a couple of years back when I was in college, back when shows like The Sopranos, Deadwood, and The Wire were still airing new episodes. But then, for one reason or another, I dropped it. I went back to being a subscriber last September, when Boardwalk Empire, HBO's first attempt in a while to be the top cable network began its first season. I'd been pondering becoming a subscriber again, and had to ask myself the question I first remember asking when I began my Netflix subscription: is it worth it?

I began my Netflix subscription in the fall of 2005 for one DVD set and one alone: the first season of Veronica Mars. I'd heard good things about the show from various critics and figured I ought to catch up and see if I was missing a genuinely good TV show, even if it was on UPN. (Remember UPN? It was a real TV network with shows and everything!) So, I went to Blockbuster and found, typically, no DVDs for the show. I say "typically" because even back when Netflix wasn't the dominant force in rentals, it became obvious that Blockbuster was giving up vital ground in TV show rentals. Blockbuster had some TV shows, but only the most popular. 24, Lost, and a few others would show up, but even though Veronica Mars is far from the most obscure TV show on DVD, it wasn't there. And it wasn't at Hollywood Video, either. I'd heard a bit about Netflix and figured I ought to do some research. I don't even remember what the plan I signed up for cost back then, because I've not only jumped from plan to plan, but the costs have jumped as well. Even still, the price is appropriate based on the alternative.

I thought about it with regards to HBO in the same way. Obviously, the counterargument against subscribing to HBO is simple: I have Netflix, so why not just wait for the DVDs on Netflix? My response to that is equally simple: I've been subscribing to Netflix since October of 2005, and there are still movies on my Netflix Queue--movies that have and haven't transferred to Instant--that I haven't watched. Six years, and I haven't watched Roger Dodger or Russian Ark or even the latter seasons of The Wire. Who's to say I'll get to watch seasons of newer shows on Netflix any quicker? Even more, HBO has introduced something called HBO Go, which is basically Netflix Instant for HBO. Since the actual Netflix Instant is probably never going to get HBO shows (unless the two merge, or something along those lines), the incentive is strong.

The incentive grew stronger last fall, as I became more and more entranced and hooked by Boardwalk Empire, a show with lots of hype, a show that some people were let down by. Lucky for me (well, probably not lucky, but you get my meaning), I've only seen the pilot episode of The Sopranos, so I didn't go into the series assuming that it would be that show, but set in the 1920s. Though the show isn't as great as programs like Mad Men or Breaking Bad, I'm confident that it will remain one of the most entertaining, epic dramas of its time.

But subscribing to HBO last September wasn't just for Boardwalk Empire. I know that I wouldn't have been able to avoid the hype surrounding HBO's newest drama, based on the series of novels by George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones. I've read the first novel in the series and am a quarter of the way through the second, so while I know where the show's going (or, rather, I assume I know) during this season, the hype and positive reviews are too much to ignore. I'm also working my way through some other HBO shows, like Curb Your Enthusiasm (I've seen, now, the first five seasons and want to be fully caught up by the season eight premiere in July), thanks to HBO Go. It's funny to me that most--OK, all of the pull for me to subscribe to HBO is less about the movies that initially gave the channel its definition ("Look, folks, watch all of the movies we have with no editing or commercials!") than its original programming. But with shows like Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, The Ricky Gervais Show, Bored to Death, Curb, and more, there's no question to me that, yeah, it's worth it.