This has been a long time in the making...
Friday, May 28, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Stop the dreck!
Sometimes I agree when I read stories that talk about the state of the Entertainment Industry. Sometimes I do not.
FlashForward was cancelled recently. I don't completely understand why. I just watched the most recent episode ("Countdown"). The main character Mark Benford, happens to be unlikable and pathetic. I struggled to watch this show before it went off for the "holiday break". However, when it came back in March, it came back strong and running hard. the showrunners changed at least three times, so I have no clue who was in charge of those of the show at that time. During this time, the first Simon (Dominic Monaghan) focused episode was fantastic. A couple of episodes later, the Aaron (Brian F. O'Byrne) episode took the only charcter that I liked less than Mark and made him my 2nd favorite charactor. A few episodes later again, there was a Janice (Christine Woods) focused episode which became one of my favorite episodes. Along the way the show introduced the great James Callis (Dr. Gaius Balter in BSG) as Gabriel McDow.
In the last half of the season, the show became much more Lost-ian, focusing on a character per episode. The show really needed to shockingly kill off Mark Benford and reinvent itself long before the finale. Unfortunately, the fans left and never returned. It doesn't help that the show is up against a couple of good shows; I watch the show on ABC.com as my DVR records two other shows at that same time. Here is a show that became quite good as the show evolved, but the network was unwilling to give the show a second chance. The network would rather take a chance on the much more horrible (though better cast) V.
Now, this morning I was looking through the Sunday paper and in the "TV Times" pullout the front page reads "NBC's new comedy stars (I'm not naming names.) as a woman who joins an online dating site, takes a 100-question comatability test and recalls a humorous time of her life." Can you say "DRECK"? How horrible of a concept is that? Not to mention 5-years ago. People meet on Facebook and other social networking sites now, who uses a dating service? The amount of money that went into developing this horrid concept could have been put to any number of better uses.
When the people with the money put that money into these absolutely assinine premesis and then wonder why the viewers don't flock to their networks (or films) part of me thinks that they deserve their financial losses. However, part of me understands that those losses are only going to cause the same corporations to make more and more below average shows that won't take the chance at being great... or not.
This is why the Entertainment Industry is in a downward spiral. Eventually, everything that goes down must hit the bottom. What will happen then?
As a culture, we have moved from a MTV generation to a YouTube generation. Does this mean that we will start seeing 15-minute shows? Or more 1st person camera pov-based shows, like the films Cloverfield and Quarantine? I don't know. I do know that the dreck has to stop or people will give up on the networks all together and just watch shows like The Guild or The Bannen Way online.
FlashForward was cancelled recently. I don't completely understand why. I just watched the most recent episode ("Countdown"). The main character Mark Benford, happens to be unlikable and pathetic. I struggled to watch this show before it went off for the "holiday break". However, when it came back in March, it came back strong and running hard. the showrunners changed at least three times, so I have no clue who was in charge of those of the show at that time. During this time, the first Simon (Dominic Monaghan) focused episode was fantastic. A couple of episodes later, the Aaron (Brian F. O'Byrne) episode took the only charcter that I liked less than Mark and made him my 2nd favorite charactor. A few episodes later again, there was a Janice (Christine Woods) focused episode which became one of my favorite episodes. Along the way the show introduced the great James Callis (Dr. Gaius Balter in BSG) as Gabriel McDow.
In the last half of the season, the show became much more Lost-ian, focusing on a character per episode. The show really needed to shockingly kill off Mark Benford and reinvent itself long before the finale. Unfortunately, the fans left and never returned. It doesn't help that the show is up against a couple of good shows; I watch the show on ABC.com as my DVR records two other shows at that same time. Here is a show that became quite good as the show evolved, but the network was unwilling to give the show a second chance. The network would rather take a chance on the much more horrible (though better cast) V.
Now, this morning I was looking through the Sunday paper and in the "TV Times" pullout the front page reads "NBC's new comedy stars (I'm not naming names.) as a woman who joins an online dating site, takes a 100-question comatability test and recalls a humorous time of her life." Can you say "DRECK"? How horrible of a concept is that? Not to mention 5-years ago. People meet on Facebook and other social networking sites now, who uses a dating service? The amount of money that went into developing this horrid concept could have been put to any number of better uses.
When the people with the money put that money into these absolutely assinine premesis and then wonder why the viewers don't flock to their networks (or films) part of me thinks that they deserve their financial losses. However, part of me understands that those losses are only going to cause the same corporations to make more and more below average shows that won't take the chance at being great... or not.
This is why the Entertainment Industry is in a downward spiral. Eventually, everything that goes down must hit the bottom. What will happen then?
As a culture, we have moved from a MTV generation to a YouTube generation. Does this mean that we will start seeing 15-minute shows? Or more 1st person camera pov-based shows, like the films Cloverfield and Quarantine? I don't know. I do know that the dreck has to stop or people will give up on the networks all together and just watch shows like The Guild or The Bannen Way online.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Rest In Peace, Lynn Redgrave.
Lynn Redgrave, passed away on May 2nd from undisclosed circumstances.
http://www.studiobriefing.net/2010/05/lynn-redgrave-dies-at-67/
http://www.studiobriefing.net/2010/05/lynn-redgrave-dies-at-67/
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