Hey everyone, it’s Fantasy Friday, and that means it’s time to Blog for a Beer. (click here for the rules — which have changed slightly!)
Fall TV is creeping up on us. Okay, not creeping, but coming full force. In a few short weeks many great shows return (Pushing Daisies, The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and new shoes premiere (Dollhouse, Fringe). But there are also some dubious returns (Heroes)–a show that many once loved that became, shall we say, problematic…
Still, there are some other things on the horizon that make me go “What the–?” Like the revamp of Knight Rider. Knight Rider?? Of all the things one could bring back from the 80′s they settled on Knight Rider? Didn’t the remake of Fantasy Island teach people anything? And there’s My Own Worst Enemy, which seems to be a Jekyll & Hyde story with a twist — except the BBC did that not too long ago and I’m certain that this show will hold no candle to that one. It stars Christian Slater, after all–enough said.
That’s not to mention what may be coming up on HBO, Showtime, Sci Fi channel, and other cable networks. We have a few good things to choose from. But does it seem to you that Fall premiere time is no longer as exciting as it once was? After all, summer is no longer the barren wasteland of reruns and movies of the week it once was. There were new shows to watch and returning summer-only series to cheer about (or refuse to watch… Eureka). January is the new September, what with many good shows starting their seasons in the beginning of 2009.
Good TV all year ’round, what a concept! Still, Fall is traditional. What shows are you excited to see return? And what new programs do you think will work out? Are there tasty treats in store? Or must we look father forward for anticipation of the good stuff?
A lot goes into my decisions of what shows to watch since I’m trying to cut down on my TV time. Most of the shows I love aren’t SF (How I Met Your Mother, Pysch) because I don’t need to spend hours thinking about the story archs and getting stressed if I miss an episode. I’m probably not going to resume watching Heroes for a number of reasons: the first season ender stunk, Peter Petrelli is really annoying, and I tend to stay up at night thinking about the episode I just watched. On the other hand, it is a show that a bunch of my friends watch, so it’s always nice to be able to talk about it. I think I’m going to replace it with Fringe, though, because it’s something my wife and I can both enjoy (Joshua Jackson for her, Denethor… I mean John Noble for me.) But we’ll see, I might hear great things about this season of Heroes and Fringe might suck.
I’m in the UK, so the schedule is somewhat different here. There are less channels to choose from for a start, unless you have Sky, cable, or that new-fangled digital malarky.
In fact, the programming is so dire that I haven’t watched any TV since June 2006. Instead I watch vast quantities of DVDs, which me and my friends swap around. We might as well, since a lot of shows make it there before they see the screens of analogue TV over here.
To give you a taste of just why I don’t watch TV, here’s a sample of the new fare on the autumn scheduling: Strictly Come Dancing (celebrities learn how to dance and the worst gets voted off each week) and CelebAir – the latter surely scraping the bottom of the barrel so hard it’s gone through, since it’s a “reality” show in which celebrities run an airline. I mean, who would honestly want to fly with (or watch) an airline run by people famous for having no skills other than being famous?
In contrast, my own autumn schedule contains The West Wing, Supernatural, Deadwood, and the joys of rediscovering my childhood favourite The Mysterious Cities of Gold. I know which I prefer.
I forgot that Mysterious Cities is out on DVD now! I shall have to buy it for myself at Christmas time. I loved that show as a kid. Maybe that will be a future blog for a beer — childhood favorites we’re glad they brought out on DVD.
My comments totally evaporated. Probably because I put in a link to YouTube. To sum up:
Yay! Mysterious Cities of Gold. Now the song is stuck in my head for another five years.
The first go around was a little more exciting.
The Mysterious Cities of Gold is out on DVD? I must have that. I wish they would bring that old Spartacus cartoon back to DVD- the one about the dying sun and all that and he has that wrist thingy that shoots out little spiked balls.
Um…anyway I digress.
I’m not all that excited about the fall line up. Give me ball shooting far future gladiators any day!
Spartacus rocked! Talk about taking Hollow Earth theory and turning it into something wickedly cool. The animation sucked, but the backstory was very well done.
Maybe there is hope for a “You Can’t Do That on Television” DVD. But I don’t know if they’ll ever do that.
*green slime falls from ceiling onto Clint’s head*
Great. I could have just said “water.”
*Water falls from ceiling*
I don’t know what possessed me to say “Water.”
*water falls from ceiling. Followed by green slime*
Anyway, I’m looking forward to the BSG finale, Caprica, Sarah Connor season 2, Heroes, Fringe, and Dollhouse (though Dollhouse sounds like a cross between Alias and Dark Angel–both shows sucked).
I missed the last four eps of LOST, but got so bored with Jack and Kate walking through the jungle, I don’t feel I’ve missed too much. Lost could only suck more if Barth was making the episodes.
Barth: Daaah!!!! I HEARD that.
*Clint steps back inside his locker and slams the door*
Tempest – Fantasy Island? OMG! I had totally forgotten about that horrible reflux redux. I’m not sure whether I should thank you or curse you
What shows are successful and which get cancelled rarely seems to have much to do with logic or quality. Cases in point?
Cupid
Freaks and Geeks
Wonderfalls
Firefly
Threshold
Dresden Files
Arrested Development
I don’t watch television per se, I watch whatever’s worth watching on DVD and ignore or avoid the rest as best I can.
I once considered that perhaps that made me part of the problem. After all, if I am not watching such shows on actual cable or whatever and giving them my support, then am I not in part responsible when they get cancelled?
But then I realized that decisions about what stays on the air or not has more to do with how much commercial or sponsorship revenue the show pulls in, and/or how much a select audience of “representative” viewers watch the show, and/or whether the network exec’s wife or son or dog likes the show. And I’m sure there are probably plenty of cases of new T.V. execs coming in and wanting to prove themselves and show their stuff and so messing with a perfectly good thing in order to try and show they can do something better, etcetera.
And surely the sales and rentals of television series on DVD or iTunes, etcetera, now tells studios and networks as much about what shows and what types of shows really have devoted audiences and which do not (as well as which audiences have money to spend on products, I suppose).
And forget Fall TV — what ever happened to Saturday Morning Cartoons? I mean, yeah, it is spoiled for kids today by the fact that they have Cartoon Network and Nikelodian 24/7. But still, how did we go from Saturday Morning Cartoons to Sunday Morning Toy-Adverts-Disguised-as-Cartoons?
Just one less reason to actually drag your butt out of bed at any decent hour on the weekends, I suppose. And less temptation to break out the Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch.
And shortly following Fall we have the holiday season. Remember when those old stop-motion holiday specials like Rudolph were a special event you looked forward to as a child? Now, they can just throw in the DVD in the middle of Summer when they are bored. Sometimes, technology (and commercialism) sucks.
Okay. Just wanted to rant for a sec. All better now.
obviously this week’s BfaB should have been about childhood favorites on DVD. week after next, I promise!
I have to gloat that I have a set that’s 99% of all the You Can’t Do That On Television episodes. Obtained from Barth’s Burgery.
Cheryl, I also don’t want a lot of new/live TV. Mainly because so much of it sucks.
I wrote a short story once (that shall remain in the darkest recesses of my filing cabinet) that involved a reality tv show based on the Odyssey. If we HAVE to have reality TV, that might not suck. Recreate the challenges and travels of Ulysses, or Jason and the Argonauts.
Of course, to do that well they would probably have to spend enough money that it would defeat the real purpose of reality tv – cheap production, no need to pay real writers, etcetera.
Okay. Back on topic. Dollhouse? I have to admit, I’ve never been impressed by Dushku’s range. But Whedon rocks, so we’ll see.
On that point, while remaking shows like Knight Rider seems like a lame idea, I think everything depends on the writing (okay, yeah, I’m biased as a writer), and the vision for the show.
After all, why redo Battlestar Galactica?
What if Whedon were doing Knight Rider? Or JJ Abrams? You might end up with a smart, ensemble show that engages us in the characters. The car gimick would become (ahem) a vehicle for the actors, a way to draw in the audience, then hook them with the drama.
Unfortunately, that is rarely the way it goes.
Although Fantasy Island bombed, perhaps they should bring back Love Boat — but, wait, here’s the hook — IN SPACE! Love Boat in the future. You could have “where are they now?” celebs from the 80′s and 90′s, and could even work in some alien/ robot/ hologram love dilemmas, etcetera. OOOOHHHH YEAH! That’d ROCK!
Okay. I’m off to go camping for the weekend (thus I got all my blogging for the entire weekend out in an hour)
Cheers, all.
On a more general note…
I often feel TV is a better medium for great characters than books. There are countless television characters (the scoobies, the West Wing cast, Shawn and Gus etc.) that feel like friends (pathetic maybe, but true).
On the other hand, I think books handle big story arcs better. I don’t trust most shows to tie up loose ends (though I’m coming to distrust book authors too).
So I think that sums up how I choose what to watch.
Michael – I have to agree about the characters feeling like friends thing. I don’t know how many times I’ve shouted “Just kiss her, you stupid man!!!!” at The West Wing. And I don’t normally talk to TV programmes.
*But still, how did we go from Saturday Morning Cartoons to Sunday Morning Toy-Adverts-Disguised-as-Cartoons?*
We did? I’m a child of the eighties, and all of the cartoons back then were toy adverts: Transformers, Visionaries, He-Man…. What I miss are the slightly more clever ones, like Dangermouse (not sure if that one made it across the pond though).
Dangermouse did make it over the pond! I loved that show growing up, as did my wife. We’re exposing our kids to it as well, passing it on to the next generation.