Minisode Network Condenses TV Shows to Under Six Minutes

CNN is reporting on a (relatively) new website called the Minisode Network that allows users to watch popular television shows that have been strategically condensed down to somewhere between four and six minutes. "Don't think of the Minisode Network as a brand-new Web site. Think of it as a long-overdue public service. That is, who among us hasn't felt the double-edged sword of our media age: So much video from TV, DVDs, the Internet and even cell phones ... but too little time to watch it all? The Minisode Network has a solution. Launched in June as a broadband channel on the MySpace site, it offers, for our streaming pleasure, episodes of vintage Sony Pictures Television series like 'Silver Spoons,' 'Starsky & Hutch,' 'Diff'rent Strokes' and even Ricki Lake's talk show."

Comments

hmm

[Winckle]

Is this a rather sad reflection of today's culture?

Or am I just being outmoded and stubborn?

Re:hmm

[ChrisMounce]

tl;dr

Re:hmm

[g0dsp33d]

2 minutes previews and 4 minutes credits? What is going to be in the previews? The credits?

Re:hmm

[g0dsp33d]

Back in my day we used to have to pay attention for 30 minutes...

That's it. I'm investing all my money in ADD medicines.

Re:hmm

[Bullfish]

Yeah, you're outmoded and stubborn. I bet you read books printed on paper too

Re:hmm

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"Is this a rather sad reflection of today's culture?"

Maybe. Or maybe it's a reflection of how hard (or easy) it is to squeeze a story into exactly 22 minutes.

Re:hmm

[kebes]

One interpretation is that it's sad that people don't have the attention span to watch a 30-minute show, and would rather watch a 5-minute compressed version of it.

Another interpretation is that it's sad that the content in question is so bad, so filled with fluff and useless scenes, that it can be comfortably compressed by a factor of 6 with little loss in intelligent commentary or entertainment value.

Frankly I don't think many people are going to want to watch compressed versions of Schindler's List. But many shows truly are needlessly long and slow-moving (the intention, I suppose, it to increase the ratio of commercials to production dollars). I think a crappy hour-long show could conceivably be compressed into an entertaining 5-minute show by a talented editor. In fact, many movie trailers (which are only a few minutes long) are quite a bit more compelling, funny, and entertaining than the full-length movies they advertise. Some things are really not worth an hour of my time. But 5 minutes? Maybe.

Re:hmm

[Yvan256]

That's a great idea! I'll also invest all my money into SUB... erm.

MOV... no...

SHR... that's not it either...

ah, now I remember! NOP medicines.

huh

[aquabat]

This reminds me of those old half hour versions of Knight Rider they used to show on Saturday mornings. They would edit out all the drama dialogue, so that all that was left were the Hoff talking to his Firebird and Lots of Turbo boosts. Basically only scenes with action music under them.

They're doing the same thing with Holmes on Homes, on HGTV. Personally, I can't stand it, but I'm one of those guys who always waits for the extended edition of a film to be released before buying it.

I guess I like my entertainment for the nutrition, rather than the taste.

Re:huh

[dangitman]

Being older and wiser you can see plain as day that the plot structure was basically the same on every show... almost down to the very second the plotline would unfold the same way.

Michael: Faster, Knight Boat! We gotta catch those starfish poachers.
Knight Boat: You don't have to yell, Michael, I'm all around you.
Michael: Oh, no! They're headed for land.
Michael: We'll never catch them now.
Knight Boat: Incorrect--look! A canal.
Homer: Go, Knight Boat, go!
Bart: Oh, every week there's a canal.
Lisa: Or an inlet.
Bart: Or a fjord.
Homer: Quiet! I will not hear another word against the boat.
Marge: OK, TV off. It's family time.
Homer: Oh, but Marge! Knight Boat, the crime-solving boat!
Marge: Homer, you promised. One night of family time a week. Besides, that back-talking boat sets a bad example.
Bart: Says you, woman.

Today on Maury...

[KillerCow]

Who's the father of Kisha's baby? Tyrone.

Tune in next week!

Blipverts!

[geoff lane]

I'm more and more convinced that TV companies think that Max Headroom is a model to copy rather than a warning.

You don't have to watch everything

[Anonymous Coward]

"...a long-overdue public service... So much video from TV, DVDs, the Internet and even cell phones ... but too little time to watch it all?"

I don't think it's a service to the public. Nobody needs to watch everything. Sometimes it's better if you don't - if you don't have the time or don't want to put in an effort. Just because you have read the 40-pages condensed version, don't think that you have actually read the novel or play. You have not. The creation of half-informed population does not help to face the ever increasing complexity of issues that the society needs to address.

Finally!

[captainboogerhead]

A non-infuriating way to watch Lost.

Contentless programmes?

[jareth-0205]

I think by far the scariest thing about this site is how the episodes don't seem to have lost anything in the edit.

Re:Speed Watching

[kebes]

For awhile I used to watch the evening news using this method. I had my MythTV set to record the 6-o'clock news, so that when I got home I would watch it at high-speed. By skipping commercials and segments I wasn't interested in (especially the numerous fluff pieces), and by setting the playback speed to ~150%, I could watch an hour of news in 8-12 minutes.

It worked fine, and taught me that TV has a very high ratio of filler to content.