Culturally Deprived?

I was watching that Sky advert for the umpteenth time the other day - you know, the one where Idris Elba tells you how you can keep up with all those great TV series everyone else is talking about just by taking out a subscription to Sky and taking advantage of their 'catch-up' services - when it occurred to me that I've never seen any of these 'must see' TV events, they've all passed me by.  Far from making me rush out to get a Sky TV subscription, this realisation just made me shrug resignedly.  Maybe it has to do with getting older, but I'm afraid that these days I don't feel somehow culturally deprived because I haven't seen, say, Mad Men (even when it was available free-to-air on BBC4, I didn't bother watching it).  The reality is that most of this so-called 'must see' TV is, these days, on pay channels which severely restrict their potential audience.  Whilst I'm aware that Sky TV has become ever more prevalent in Britain's homes over the past decade. the fact is that its entertainment channels like Sky One still draw relatively small audiences.  Sky Atlantic and Sky  Arts draw even smaller audiences.  Most people, it seems, subscribe to the likes of Sky for the sports channels or movie channels.

The upshot of all this is that the people telling us that all these things that the rest of us have never seen and are never likely to see, are a very small elite, mainly working in the London-based media, who, as ever, believe that should be arbiters of cultural good taste for the entire nation.  Now, I'm not saying that the programmes they cheer lead for aren't any good, I'm sure they all have their merits, but I can't help but feel that a major reason for their liking the shows is the fact that only they have seen them.  There's nothing like a bit of exclusivity to make something seem better than it is - it reinforces the 'elite' status of those talking about them: "You really must see this TV series - oh, but you can't because you don't have Sky Porno..."  As soon as it becomes more readily available, its critical stock starts to fall.  It's like those Dr Who fans who spend all their time on Twitter telling you how shit the new series is because it's so popular.  Once everyone is a Who fan, then it's no longer a cosy exclusive club whose members can congratulate each other for being culturally superior enough to recognise its worth.  If you need further proof, just look at the way The Wire has stopped being 'must see' amongst these cognoscenti since it had an airing on the BBC a few years ago, (it was very good).  Indeed, they've spent their time ever since trying to convince us that Mad Men, Breaking Bad, True Detective or whatever are the 'new' Wire.  Anyway, to return to the original point, without wishing to seem disrespectful toward Idris Elba, the reality is that your life won't be made more complete by signing up to Sky so as to watch a whole load of TV programmes you think your friends are watching, but probably aren't.