As Seen On TV
Jul. 26th, 2007 07:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thessalianI hadn't realised exactly how migraine-free I've been the last few months until I was absolutely floored by one last night. It still hasn't gone away, which is pretty standard, all things considered, but I'm hoping to at least get through the workday. I'm still on probation at work for three months and I don't get sick pay until that's up, you see. I suppose if push comes to shove and I can't hack it, I leave early. We can but see.
Anyway, I sucked it up long enough to watch Heroes on BBC2, mostly because it's only rerunning late Sunday night and I didn't want to miss the start. It looks, on the whole, like a really clever show, which is why I have my serious doubts about it lasting as one more than a few seasons. I can see why some people predict it'll go the way of Lost or The X-Files, actually; it's a good show, and a bunch of TV execs are going to want to beat it 'til it's dead, and then beat it some more. So story will suffer as the thing stretches to beyond the story's life, more than likely.
I look at it this way - Buffy went on two seasons longer than it really needed to. Angel ended on the high but weird note it did because the show was cancelled so abruptly. Firefly is legendary at least in part because it didn't even last a full season and didn't have a chance to jump the shark. Invasion at least got its full season run but same basic principle as Firefly - it ended too soon so all anyone has now is speculation on how it might have been, which is always better than the actual thing itself. And then there's stuff like Ultraviolet, a really fab miniseries that could have gone on for longer than it did but didn't - just went to story's end and left it there. Also case in point: anime. Serial Experiments: Lain and Haibane Renmei and others of their ilk kick so much arse mainly because they tell their story and then just stop without dragging it along for season after season. (I have a hard time counting Neon Genesis: Evangelion in that because I can't count the two movies as 'stopping'.)
So I think to myself, why on earth can't we have a situation where there's more stuff like that? Things that only last a season or so before stepping back and making room for something else? Conclusive ending, questions answered, on to the next thing of its ilk? I suppose a lot of it's underestimating the audience. Despite the apparent belief that people have the attention span of a doped kitten, they're also convinced that no one out there could identify with a new set of characters every year, which makes having new shows out all the time rather fruitless. Or something, I dunno. Mostly, I suppose, it's having something bright and shining on TV, that lots of people watch and enjoy, and just not being able to resist milking it for absolutely everything it's worth. Because gods forbid you end something on a high note when you can force it to limp along, senile and crippled and dying, just to get more money out of it. Oh no. Can't possibly have less money. *sigh* I know it's a business and all, but surely the amount of money made in the TV industry is sufficient without the dead horse flogging?
I want to write a miniseries. Or several. Of course, it'd only go as far as YouTube, but fuck it. Someone ought to be in it for the actual entertaining of people rather than the money. All I need after I've written is a video camera, video editing software and a YouTube account. I miss DeMontfort's editing suites...
Anyway, I sucked it up long enough to watch Heroes on BBC2, mostly because it's only rerunning late Sunday night and I didn't want to miss the start. It looks, on the whole, like a really clever show, which is why I have my serious doubts about it lasting as one more than a few seasons. I can see why some people predict it'll go the way of Lost or The X-Files, actually; it's a good show, and a bunch of TV execs are going to want to beat it 'til it's dead, and then beat it some more. So story will suffer as the thing stretches to beyond the story's life, more than likely.
I look at it this way - Buffy went on two seasons longer than it really needed to. Angel ended on the high but weird note it did because the show was cancelled so abruptly. Firefly is legendary at least in part because it didn't even last a full season and didn't have a chance to jump the shark. Invasion at least got its full season run but same basic principle as Firefly - it ended too soon so all anyone has now is speculation on how it might have been, which is always better than the actual thing itself. And then there's stuff like Ultraviolet, a really fab miniseries that could have gone on for longer than it did but didn't - just went to story's end and left it there. Also case in point: anime. Serial Experiments: Lain and Haibane Renmei and others of their ilk kick so much arse mainly because they tell their story and then just stop without dragging it along for season after season. (I have a hard time counting Neon Genesis: Evangelion in that because I can't count the two movies as 'stopping'.)
So I think to myself, why on earth can't we have a situation where there's more stuff like that? Things that only last a season or so before stepping back and making room for something else? Conclusive ending, questions answered, on to the next thing of its ilk? I suppose a lot of it's underestimating the audience. Despite the apparent belief that people have the attention span of a doped kitten, they're also convinced that no one out there could identify with a new set of characters every year, which makes having new shows out all the time rather fruitless. Or something, I dunno. Mostly, I suppose, it's having something bright and shining on TV, that lots of people watch and enjoy, and just not being able to resist milking it for absolutely everything it's worth. Because gods forbid you end something on a high note when you can force it to limp along, senile and crippled and dying, just to get more money out of it. Oh no. Can't possibly have less money. *sigh* I know it's a business and all, but surely the amount of money made in the TV industry is sufficient without the dead horse flogging?
I want to write a miniseries. Or several. Of course, it'd only go as far as YouTube, but fuck it. Someone ought to be in it for the actual entertaining of people rather than the money. All I need after I've written is a video camera, video editing software and a YouTube account. I miss DeMontfort's editing suites...
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-26 06:51 am (UTC)on the minus side, they're rebooting it.
in re: the rest of it... as long as it keeps making a profit, they'll keep producing it, blind to artistic integrity.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-26 07:32 am (UTC)Sadly, as you've stated too many cools shows don't make it. Drive, for instance, only aired four of the 6 that had been made by the time it was cancelled. And that show, too, was looking to be really great.
Too bad.