Desperate Mobsters

Options 3 and 4 are, of course, also available to watchers of "Desperate Housewives" (though, of course, pretty much every household that has television has the option of watching ABC, which is not the case with HBO). But you can see why the concern over low ratings for this "Sopranos" première - measured against premières from years when many of these options were far less widely adopted, and some may not have even existed - doesn't mean much. Again, this isn't to say that I ever had the intention of not watching "The Sopranos." In fact, if all these options didn't exist, I'm sure I would have watched "The Sopranos." But the options do exist. And I imagine that, as time goes on, the numbers of people watching at the time appointed by the networks and the media will get even smaller, and the ratings system - if it still essentially measures the number of people who show up at a certain time to watch a certain program - will have very little connection to the popularity of any given show.

Ah, but you might say, what about the water-cooler aspect? If you watch it whenever you want, what are you going to say Monday morning when someone's talking about the latest exploits of Tony and his gang? And what if you read coverage of the season that gives away all the twists and turns, because you're waiting for the DVD? What about our shared culture of reference?

I think, paradoxically, that because there's so much culture out there, we're all playing catch-up a little bit; with important new must-see shows and movies and books and op-eds and magazine pieces and blogs and so on and so forth trumpeted three times a day, that no one has the time to keep up - and, as a result, we seem to be giving ourselves a little bit more time to learn about the newest thing. Or, to put it another way: if you haven't seen the "Sopranos" season première on March 13, that's OK; if you haven't seen a single episode of "Desperate Housewives" yet after a year and a half, that's pretty bad, in terms of pop cultural literacy. So you've got some breathing room - room to take advantage of all these other lovely technological opportunities.

And as for learning the shows' twists and turns in advance? In an age where previews are the whole movie in miniature and websites are filled with spoilers, it's not surprise that matters - it's the craft of the show that leads up to the surprise that's valuable. Did I know what was going to happen to Tony Soprano, thanks to the media, before I watched the show? Yes. Did I enjoy it less? Maybe a little, but surprise isn't everything; I still like watching action movies, even though I'm pretty sure that Tom Cruise is going to make it through OK.

So what did I, actually, do on Sunday night? With all this freedom HBO gives me, did I watch "Desperate Housewives"? Of course not; I taped it and then went to the movies. But that's another story.

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