Today I watched the series finale of Superman & Lois. As a life-long Superman fan, I thought the series was decent enough and wrapped up well. I was mostly watching it because it was the last gasp of the Arrowverse, a set of TV series on the CW network that harked back to my aforementioned DC-comic fan days.
But that wasn’t the idle thought.
The thought was: This may be the last time I see a TV commercial.
While I freely acknowledge that I watch too much TV, at this point I view shows via media providers such as Netflix, Max, YouTube, and so on. I’m fortunate enough to be able to pay for the no-ads version of these services.
The CW network was the only service I used that did not provide any sort of ad-free tier to view their content. As I worked my way through the Arrowverse’s shows, finally ending with Superman & Lois, the CW shows were the only ones on which I saw ads.
I do watch network TV shows, but on services like Hulu and Peacock with ad-free options. Most of these shows, like the Arrowverse, are callbacks to my youth: Night Court, Frasier, Futurama.
To be fair, eventually all the seasons of Superman & Lois will be available on Max. If I wanted to watch the episodes ad-free, all I had to do was be patient.
Of course, like the youngster I once was, I couldn’t wait!
The media landscape, and perhaps my financial situation, will continue to evolve. It’s possible that I’ll find myself seeing TV ads again.
Until then, I’ll enjoy the blessed relief from happy pretty faces hawking happy pretty products while happy pretty music plays too loudly in the background.
In other words, I finally got those rotten kids off my lawn!