I’ve watched Band of Brothers and The Pacific, two miniseries I’ll be reviewing soon along with other content, and as a World War Two buff, I, of course, want to watch Masters of the Air. That’s especially true since I’ve studied the air war over Europe extensively. The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was the workhorse of the Army Air Force. It’s my favorite warplane, and it is still the stuff of legend. It could bring its crew back to base even with the rudder shot off.

The British had the mighty Lancaster, and we had another heavy bomber, the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. It carried more payload, but though some say it has always been underestimated, there was a critical difference between the Liberator and the Flying Fort: the Lib could take fewer bullets or flak hits, and down it went. I swear the wings broke off quicker than that sadistic kid in your class could pull the wings off a butterfly.

During the war against Nazi Germany, less than 50 percent of all US crews survived. This may be partly due to early models of both bombers having no machine guns facing directly forward. In the Flying Fortress, the navigator was seated at a table behind and to the left of the bombardier. The nose guns were really on the cheeks of the compartment and fired at angles. The Luftwaffe pilots in fighter planes caught on quickly and attacked from straight ahead. It was not until the “G” model came out that there was a remedy, which was a chin turret just below the bombardier, who controlled it. It housed twin .50 caliber Browning machine guns, which were monsters that are still in use.

If the miniseries is based on true stories, I want to see it. But of all the maddening choices, they put it on Apple TV, a streaming service I don’t have and can’t afford. I have enough subscriptions now, so that’s it.

When I was growing up, there were 3 channels we could watch. They were WJZ, an ABC affiliate, WBAL, an NBC affiliate, and WMAR, a CBS affiliate. That was it. After a time, we could tune in two UHF channels: WDCA, Channel 20 in Washington, and WBFF, Channel 45 in Baltimore. UHF stood for ultra high frequency, and those stations were independent. I loved them because they showed The Lil’ Rascals and Speed Racer and good kid’s shows in the afternoon, then loads of good movies starting at 19:00 (can you believe that I once thought The Beast of Hollow Mountain was a good movie?).

When cable became unavoidable, there was fair competition. But the smaller companies were swallowed quickly. Like a Russian nesting doll, bigger companies ate the smaller ones until all that remained were monopolies. And what we have now makes us nostalgic for monopolies.

Are you a Trekkie? That’s too bad. Paramount Plus has the shows but not the movies; they’re on Max. I used Max to watch Band of Brothers and The Pacific, but the newest miniseries is on Apple.

We “cut the cable,” so to speak. We all stream now, almost. But we’ve been had. Caught in another coyote trap because we couldn’t see the inevitable. “Don’t want to pay us for cable, eh, folks? Okay. But we’re gonna fuck you very hard on internet service. Don’t like it? Go back to the Stone Age then. See how you like that!”

They’ve got us. Want to watch sports? They’ll be glad to hook you up, but you ain’t gonna believe the price tag.

Disney Plus, without ads, will set you back $14.00 per month. And, all services are now, or soon will be adding commercial ads. Don’t want those? Pay extra. Depending on the content you want to see, you can still subscribe to several services and still come in way below what cable costs. Just remember, you should keep it minimal because those prices are not guaranteed. They’ll go up.

Some movies and even TV shows make the rounds. Like a big circle, a movie may be on Hulu now, but if you don’t have Hulu, be patient as it will come to Tubi, freevee, or Prime. Only some content stays put. You’ll find out. Until then, renting through YouTube or Prime is okay, I’ve done it and even bought a few titles. Better than subscribing just to watch one movie.

But I’m still fuming. Too many titles are exclusive, and the competition in the entertainment industry has never been this vicious, with customers getting the short end every day. We’re getting rammed, they don’t care, and it will get a lot worse very soon.

TELL ME WHEN IT’S OVER

How is Survivor still a thing?

CAVEAT EMPTOR

It is not a buyer’s market. The economy is improving, but with interest rates above 7%, nobody’s going house hunting very soon. Don’t blame President Biden: democrats usually have to pick up after republican presidents, and with Covid-19, this time, it’s been worse. Stream only what you can afford. You need to eat.

YOUTUBE AND PATREON

Maybe YouTube is free with ads, but what if you want to go premium? And what about Patreon? If you subscribe to a channel, are you really gonna pay even more to get a video a day early? And what about hucksters who keep doing this “For the complete video, check out my Patreon”?

Because I have a guilty pleasure. It’s no doubt that you all know about “reaction” or “first time watching” videos. If you’re not familiar, it’s watching someone else watch a movie, supposedly for the first time. Seems like they’re all Canadian, come to avoid an even higher cost of living, and a higher unemployment rate than we have.

I’ll get tired of it quickly. It seems really stupid when you think about it. But what really makes my blood boil is when they keep telling us to hit “like” and “subscribe” and hit Patreon to give them money. I don’t know about you, but paying extra bucks to see someone reacting to a movie is just too much for me. It’s fucking stupid and I’m not going to be falling for it. Besides, after my Discord-Patreon experience last year with Why Files, I wouldn’t go on those even for higher quality and more cerebral content combined. Neither one of which YouTube has. Of course, if you want, you can ride with some cameraman in the front carriage of the New York subway. You ain’t gonna see much, but it’s really a thing. Afterward, you’ll have the urge to shower. Go for it. Ya never know, y’dig? Better safe than sorry.